On Tests:

This is totally unrelated to anything, but I just found this wonderful quote:

Examinations visit the misery of one generation on the next--the scholarly equivalent of hazing. They invite students to exibit work that, produced under adverse circumstances involving anxiety, lack of resources, limited time, and mental and physical exaustion, falls short of their best, and they force students to accept judgements based on that hastilly conceived and frantically scribbled or uttered work. Meditation, reflection, revision--the essential elements of solid intellectual production--are deliberately debarred.
(Mairs, Voice Lessons 31-32)