A few weeks ago I took a test called The Praxis II which is designed to measure content knowledge across the English curriculum – essentially every book you’ve ever read and all the literary critical terms that scholars use to talk about them. Think of it like the LSAT or MCAT for English teachers. They haven’t sent me my scores yet, but I got a certificate of excellence in the mail yesterday congratulating me for scoring in the top 15% of all test takers since 1998. I guess this means I passed.

That’s an odd sort of a designation, since 1998, isn’t it? I suppose the designation will mean more as we get further from the inception of the test. At some point a wine maker starts saying “in business since 1998” and around twenty sixty people start to be impressed by that.

It’s not really a fair test given the amount of possible knowledge they could test over. I got lucky and simply happened to have read all the books and poetry represented on my test. It’s my understanding that there are at least three tests, so I am lucky to have lined up with the right one for my knowledge base on my first try. These scores might make me more attractive to the more lucrative teaching posts (contradiction in terms noted), but I’ve already accepted a position, so that avenue will have to wait until next year or later to by fully explored.