A couple of weeks ago I had to go through the state's Standard Achievement Tests. For the eighth grade I only had to take Language Usage, English and Math. Or something like that anyway. The science test is only taken for 7th and 9th grade, so I got sandwiched out of that one. Good thing, too, because I don't know how terribly I would have done on that, having never had any public education on that (not that I've had it with other things, but science is what I feel I'm lacking at home).

First I took the English, so it was mostly vocabulary. I'm sad to say that I did have to guess on one question regarding a derivative of a Latin word meaning "to turn." I had my choices narrowed down to "divert" and "irrigation," both of which could easily be related to turning. I guessed correctly with "divert," which comes from Latin's "vertere." I got an advanced score on this.

The Math test was next. I'm very disappointed that I got a lower score on this than the other two tests. It bugs me because math is what I consider myself good at. I mean, I still got an advanced score, but I like math much better than English. Language Usage is just funny. More on that below.

I got an Advanced score on Language Usage, as you probably deduced from the above information. It's mostly things like punctuation, sentence combining, etc. I disagree with how the books tell us to put our periods in quote marks. I like my punctuation to be outside of the quotes, unless it's part of the quote (like exclamation points and question marks can be). Then there are the funny questions like:

Choose the best way to combine the following sentences:

 

Every year my grandmother picks blueberries. She makes blueberry jam. It tastes good on toast and waffles.

 

...

c. Every year my grandmother picks blueberries, makes blueberry jam and tastes good on toast and waffles.

...

Overall I'd say I'm pleased with my scores, but I still wish math would have been better.