CATS/RATS on Elective Hall

Examiner Raúl Barba

September 29, 2023 2:55 PM

CATS/RATS by Examiner Raúl Barba

Raúl blew his nose. It always felt like the time of the year when he wasn’t being tortured by pollen went a lot quicker than the time he was, which just plain dragged and unfortunately coincided with test season. Not that test examiners did not do other things the rest of the year, like reviewing curriculums-both at schools like Sonora and for children under eleven- and other education related duties. Obviously their whole job was not just administering and grading CATS and RATS. They were people who had to do things like eat and pay rent. Not everyone was a Brockert or a Davison.

And because Raúl had to do things like eat and pay rent, that meant he had to work during allergy season when he felt awful. Like today. Still, even as miserable as he was, he was basically used to working when his allergies were acting up. After all, he’d had them since he was a kid and at this point, he was basically resigned to his fate.

Besides, it could have been so much worse. Like Cory’s cousin’s kid who was allergic to…pretty much everything, not just pollen. Apparently, this poor boy had serious food allergies which made finding things to eat challenging to say the least. Not to mention indoor allergies to things like dust and animal allergies such as cats and dogs. Basically, if you could be allergic to it, that kid was. It made Raúl very relieved to only be allergic to pollen, mushrooms-a food he could easily avoid-and horses-which he could also pretty much avoid. It was just the stupid pollen that he could not get away from.

And as if to illustrate that point Raúl sneezed loudly. He was indoors and this was an issue yet.It was probably on someone’s clothes or there was an open window somewhere. Which he absolutely was not going to ask to have closed. For one thing, Headmaster Brockert terrified him and always had, ever since his own Sonora days. He hadn’t been the headmaster when Raúl was in school, but he was Cory’’s uncle, and they were both absolutely petrified of him.

Of course, considering his grandson, Headmaster Brockert might very well be sympathetic to Raúl’s allergy issues but then again, sympathetic was not a trait anyone would think Mortimer Brockert possessed and that included the test examiner. Headmaster Brockert might, at best, have sympathy for his grandson-because it was his grandson-but that didn’t mean that he’d be sympathetic towards Raúl having the same issues.

The other thing was that Raúl really never asked for anything or advocated for himself, even against people less intimidating than Sonora’’s Headmaster. Just like he rarely took days off due to his allergies or asthma or sinus infections unless it was really bad-like the asthma attack he’d had while administering a test last year-and someone with more authority than him told him to go home. Raúl just didn’t feel comfortable asking for things in general.

And speaking of being uncomfortable, the students were now arriving. Oh goodie. Obviously he understood that was why he and the other examiners were here, to give them their tests. However, it still meant that Raúl had to do something he found more terrifying than death and possibly more terrifying than Headmaster Brockert-public speaking.

Raúl sighed to himself. Might as well get on with it. He stood in front of the students,spotting Cory’s niece Liesl who was taking her CATS today and gave him a big smile, which he was sure was meant as more an acknowledgement of him than any joy she felt at taking her exams. It was rare that anyone would be happy about that. Of course, this was precisely why he could not do her exams. He knew her. This might not be the case with his friend’s other nieces and nephews but the Teppenpaw spent considerable time with her uncle and sometimes Raúl was there too. He had already alerted his bosses to the situation. Even though he wasn’t entirely sure he had to recuse himself regarding Liesl-though he certainly would with Cory’s children, in particular Lorelei, seeing as she was Raúl’s goddaughter. Even though, as Adam with his usual tact had pointed out, neither Cory nor Amy was the least bit religious-but he tended to believe in the saying “better safe than sorry”. There was a reason he had been in Crotalus.

Still, it was nice to see a friendly face in the crowd. Plus, Ian Malone’s concerned one. The seventh had been a particularly memorable examinee two years ago, since he had seemed especially worried about Raúl’s allergies. That was not a reaction he usually got, most students were more focused on the tests ahead, but apparently Ian wanted to be a Healer and couldn’t help wanting to make anyone in physical distress feel better.

Raúl wiped his nose and began to speak. “Welcome students. Today, you will begin taking your exams. Fifth years, you will be in the classroom to the right taking your CATS and seventh years, you will be in the classroom on the left, taking your RATS. You will be given anti-cheating ink, paper and quills. You may scratch out and rewrite answers if necessary as well as ask for extra paper if you run out of space. Anyone caught trying to cheat will be immediately escorted from the premises and their tests will be submitted as is, which means they will receive zeros on the tests they haven't taken."

He continued. "There will be breaks between the exams for each subject and between the written and practical exams. At those times, you may use the bathrooms and snacks and drinks will be provided. All us examiners are here to answer your questions but we cannot explain test questions to you.” Raúl paused to sneeze once more before going on again. “If you need testing accommodations, you should have a slip that explains them and you will be accommodated in that way.”

Raúl managed a reassuring look and sat back down as the written portions were passed out.

Subthreads:

CATS

There are worse things by Christopher Brockert

RATS

Be calm, be calm, be calm, be calm, be... by Lorena Abernathy

Here we go again by Ian Malone

Nostalgic by Isla Brockert

11 Examiner Raúl Barba CATS/RATS 0 Examiner Raúl Barba 1 5

Lorena Abernathy

September 30, 2023 4:46 PM

Be calm, be calm, be calm, be calm, be... by Lorena Abernathy

As much time as she had spent studying - both on her own and whenever she could get Isla and Rosalynn to sit down and help her - Lorena was totally freaking out about the RATS exams. She had done well enough on her CATS, although she would’ve liked to score a little higher here and there, but these were really the big ones that would seal the deal on any tentative college acceptances. Lorena had applied to a few hybrid Muggle-Magical universities, hoping truly to find a place that felt like she did: between both worlds. She was pretty much in (unless she absolutely failed these tests), but her exact scores here could help determine scholarship allowances.

She gave her friends one last nervous glance as the exams began to be passed out. Lorena had a pretty good memory for things she had read, so the written portion was probably going to be the easier section. She was glad that it was first so she could ease into the harder practical applications. The Aladren really wanted to excel, but at this point, she would take anything good enough to secure her collegiate path. All she had to do was get through it.

With a deep breath, Lorena steeled her resolve and began her exam. This was it!

12 Lorena Abernathy Be calm, be calm, be calm, be calm, be... 1510 0 5

Ian Malone

October 06, 2023 12:16 AM

Here we go again by Ian Malone

While most of Sonora’s population seemed to have their minds on the upcoming Ball, Ian had been one hundred percent consumed by studying for (and worrying about) RATS to the exclusion of everything else. After all, if he didn’t get the grades that he needed, he couldn’t be a Healer. Yes, he had been accepted by Pumine already, but any misstep could prevent Ian from achieving his goal and not only would people possibly die from immune deficiencies if he couldn’t help them, being a Healer-or, at this point, future Healer-was a large part of his identity. The Teppenpaw had no idea what he’d do or who he’d be without that.

Granted, that was secondary to helping out people who were immunocompromised like his mom. Obviously, it was more important to cure or at least effectively treat them so they didn’t have to suffer the way Mom had and,to an extent, still did. So their children and other loved ones didn’t have to worry about losing them.

And in order to do that or at the very least contribute to that cause-he wanted to directly take care of people not research how to make new medications- Ian had to do well on RATS. Recently, he’d had the-completely and utterly terrifying-realization that this wasn’t the last trial he’d have to pass in order to become a Healer, but it was the next one and if he didn’t pass them, it was over.

So, once more, Ian was studying non-stop. Actually, he never truly literally had stopped since, well, since he’d started school to be honest. He probably knew absolutely everything that could possibly be on his RATS and more studying likely wouldn’t help him more but he’d never been one to take his chances on anything and he wasn’t going to start now. Not on something so important.

However, despite how much he’d studied, Ian was still extremely anxious. Still convinced that he was going to flunk his RATS miserably. After all, just like last time with CATS, he had failed to get a good night’s rest, deciding to study until he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, when he fell into fitful nightmares of the RATS exams being proctored by anthropomorphic rats who, had devoured the humans who usually did that job and otherwise embodied all the worst stereotypes of the creature and took a bite out of Ian every time he got an answer wrong, which, as this was a nightmare, was quite a bit. Also, he was in his underwear for some reason. Then the Teppenpaw woke up with his stomach in knots and failed to have a good breakfast, deciding to continue studying until he had to go for his exam.

On the plus side, Ian had neither slept well nor eaten a good breakfast before his CATS and he’d done well on them. And this time, he hadn’t had a year long school event that consumed the amount of time that the Challenges had, so he’d had more study time. Even though Ian was still convinced that it wasn’t nearly enough.

Mr. Barba began to speak, sounding as stuffed up and miserable as he had two years ago and at least somewhat temporarily distracting the seventh year from his own worries. Ian gave the examiner a look of complete concern. Although at least he was here and not devoured by rats.

Ian went with the rest of his classmates to the indicated classroom and began his written exams.

11 Ian Malone Here we go again 1522 0 5

Christopher Brockert

October 07, 2023 4:13 AM

There are worse things by Christopher Brockert

All year long, Christopher had not been particularly worried about CATS. Although he had been slightly worried about the Ball, because he’d been worried about not having anyone to talk to, but now he had asked Verdillia, and she’d accepted so everything was good. He wasn’t thrilled about dancing in front of everyone, and being on display where others could see it if he messed up but it wasn’t as if he didn’t know how and he’d made that sacrifice for his friend so she wouldn’t be humiliated by not having anyone to do the opening dance with.

Well, to be fair, she still might be-and if it was because of him, Christopher would feel awful. He might never forgive himself and he certainly didn’t want to lose his closest friend because of it either. Still, for the most part, he was not that worried. He could dance and there wasn’t anyone that he was really worried would make fun of him just because he was there. While Chris had a small list of people to avoid, none of them seemed to really have him on their radars-which was a testament to his ability to avoid being noticed by people he didn’t want to be noticed by-and were inclined to just pick at him like Uncle Eustace was.

Now that was something that Christopher was truly worried about. Going home, where, while he didn’t see his uncle all the time, he saw him more than he did at school-and seeing Uncle Eustace for two seconds was two seconds too many. Plus, there was either the worry that he would see him on a planned occasion and the anticipation of how awful that would be or the worry that he might visit Christopher’s house unannounced,as Chris’s dad was Uncle Eustace’s brother, and his uncle felt that he meant he had the right to do that. Either way, the Crotalus spent the summer on pins and needles.

Plus, Christopher was going to start having to attend society balls, which some of his cousins had made very clear weren’t enjoyable. He was pretty sure that they were right. The idea of a brand new social situation full of people he didn’t know was basically a minefield to the Crotalus. Or at least that was the comparison he would have made had he ever heard of landmines.

So, compared to that, CATS was a picnic. Although, now that he was here, Chris admittedly did feel a little nervous. Still, he knew that he was pretty good at academics and magic and even if one of the examiners was the alpha male type, this was precisely the setting where he would not be belittled as a nerd for being good academically. Granted, while people could be both good at sports and school, Christopher did not see people like Uncle Eustace being attracted to a job that seemed inherently nerdy.

And when he heard the head examiner give out the initial instructions, he felt any nerves he had left dissipate. Maybe it was his experience with Miles, but it was hard to feel anxious when getting instructions from someone clearly suffering from allergies. Of course, it could also have been that Christopher felt good about his academic and magical abilities already, but he was pretty sure if-unlikely as it seemed-a person who reminded him more of Uncle Eustace was standing up there, he’d probably have been a lot more nervous.

He went to the indicated classroom with the other fifth years and got the written portion of the exam. There were some questions that took a bit longer to answer than others, but for the most part, it wasn’t that bad.

11 Christopher Brockert There are worse things 1539 0 5

Isla Brockert

October 13, 2023 8:49 AM

Nostalgic by Isla Brockert

Today was RATS and instead of feeling anxious, like most people probably were, Isla was feeling weirdly nostalgic.Although not everyone else felt anxious about exams, some people, like Topaz, were so full of themselves that they were incapable of nerves and even Christopher who stressed out so much seemed surprisingly calm about taking his CATS.

Which truly was pretty shocking as she had been worried that he would stress out. Even though Isla personally hadn’t either now over RATS or two years ago over CATS, she wasn’t Chris. She not only had less to worry about with regards to needing particular scores in order to take particular subjects, like he did so he could be an architect but also, for understandable reasons, wasn't as anxious a person as her cousin was. Nobody gave her a hard time the same way Uncle Eustace had to Christopher and the rest of the boys. However, Isla supposed that all the ways that their uncle had undermined their confidence, did not really apply in this situation. Even though he’d always belittled them as nerds for academic success-Olaf in particular, who was the one who cared the least-in this situation worrying about being judged in that manner made little sense when the whole point of exams was to be judged on academic and magical talents and to do well was what you wanted.

However, as far as Isla went, she felt her nostalgia was not something that taking a huge exam elicited in anyone. Although,now that she thought about it, she wondered if examiners felt that way. Like, if every year when exam season came around they thought about when they had taken them. Probably not, or they likely wouldn’t do what they did, since most people associated them with trauma and misery.

Anyway, it wasn’t the exam that Isla really felt nostalgic about. Actually,aside from the fact that almost everything made her feel like that these days, it was more the fact that two years ago when she’d taken her CATS, it had been right after the Challenges finished up and her team had taken first. So now, taking her RATS made her remember CATS two years ago, which made her think of the Challenges that had also taken place then. It was similar to how this year’s Ball made her think of the previous one, but it was a good memory instead of a bad one.

And aside from the times with her friends, the Challenges were her happiest memory at Sonora. Isla definitely felt like they were her greatest accomplishment. Winning them had felt nice in a way other accomplishments like doing well on an exam didn’t. Like, it did feel good to do well on her CATS and would if she did well on her RATS, but it was just…different in a way that Isla couldn’t quite articulate..

She had also enjoyed the camaraderie with her teammates. She was sure, even though she couldn’t think of specific examples off the top of her head, it was unlikely that everyone could say that.Although she hadn’t really stayed close with any of them, which was really pretty disappointing. Of course, it didn’t help that Isla was older than most of them, and the ones a year older and younger than her had been Bonabelle, who was the only one she hadn’t felt a bond with, and Hans...who had a really close one with her cousin. So, she supposed it made sense.

So, even though she had been a little disappointed, in the end, Isla still had Rosalynn and Lorena and as much fun as the Challenges had been and as nice as winning had been, she had been glad to get back to hanging out with her best friends more. It probably would have been much harder bonding with her Challenge teammates, then not having that materialize once the event was over if she didn’t have them. Like most things.

Like next year, when Isla was in college. She was going to have to risk the roommate lottery all over again and she had a hard time imagining anything as good.

Isla pushed these thoughts out of her head as Mr. Barba started giving the instructions for exams, which were probably also very similar to last time-she didn’t remember exactly what he’d said then, but she couldn’t imagine it changed much, similar to when Grandfather did the Feasts. Also, she was pretty sure that the examiner was not internally reminiscing about his own testing days, he probably was thinking about the misery of seasonal allergies. Isla didn’t suffer from them herself but she knew they made Miles completely miserable and even if Mr. Barba didn’t have any other ones the way her cousin did, she still felt sorry for him. It could not have been pleasant to be standing up there speaking when he was also not feeling great. Isla did sort of wonder why his bosses subjected him to this, if she thought about it later, maybe she’d ask Cory.

She went to the indicated classroom with the rest of the seventh years and began the written portion of her exam.

11 Isla Brockert Nostalgic 1521 0 5

Examiner Raúl Barba

CATS/RATS by Examiner Raúl Barba

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