CBEST in show

I took the CBEST test this morning, the California Basic Education Skills Test to those of you outside the backasswards world of California education. It's the test graduates take to qualify their two year credentialing program, or as I call it, throwing-more-money-down-the-state-tube-program. And since I'm not planning on spending more than my car is worth on more schooling at this juncture, it also happens to be the test I need to take to substitute teach.
It was pretty dang easy, as I expected. Easier than the ACT test I took when I was in high school. I think that means I was over-qualified to have subbed my own classes. It scares me that I've heard of people failing the test 3 times in a row. How did they get out of college? Is that what happens when you're a liberal arts major?
Another glaring contrast to the standardized tests of high school, was how strict the "proctors" were. Here are some examples:
1) We were not allowed within 30 feet of the testing rooms until 5 minutes before the test began. What, were we gonna plant cherry bombs in the trash cans?
2) No water allowed in the classroom. If you need to drink water during the 4 hours of the test, you have to bring a bottle in, but leave it next to the door. Then you must raise your hand, wait for the test-warden to come over and give you an orange piece of paper that allows you to get up out of your desk, pick up your water, walk outside the classroom and drink it there. Same also for pee breaks, but hopefully the person would go further than just outside the door. As the 50 year old woman behind me said "we're not children."
3) No cell phones or calculators, if you have one, you have to take it up to the front of the room, and mark it with our ID #. If caught with one on your person, your test is void.
4) State issued photo ID required. It had to be on the desk at all times and when the proctor came around to check us in, she said "you have to make the same face you're making in the photo" and we all thought she was kidding (this would've been her only joke) but she wasn't. She really made us make the face. Good thing I make the same bad smile when prompted by any government official. Oh and out of a whole room of international students, the only one the woman couldn't say was mine, Thayer. What's with that?
I did learn some interesting things from the reading selections that they provided for reading comprehension questions. Like to catch a hoop snake , you wait for it to go towards a wooden fence. Then feed it one hardboiled egg, and once it's head is thru the fence pickets, feed it another one and it'll be stuck. How bout that?
There were also two articles about Rachel Carson, the marine biologist heroine of early American ecology. Go Rachel, you matter.