Oh hey, I remembered what I was going to post about
Figures, it popped into my head in the middle of the previous post.
There is some issue with taking the AP Japanese exam. Brace yourselves, this is a bit of an epic tale. (Cussword warning.)
The AP Japanese test is (a) new this year and (b) administered only on computer. Not a good combination. Especially because this is the first year College Board has tried administering tests on computer. Very not a good combination.
Way back at the beginning of the school year, the appropriate people acquired the necessary software and tests and certifications and blah blah blah bureaucratic nonsense. The test software only works on PCs, and Menlo uses Macs. Fine. There's a whole room full of shiny new Macs-with-Parallels (both Windows and Mac operating systems on one box, completely separate from each other). I repeat, this was all arranged way back at the beginning of the school year.
THREE WEEKS AGO, College Board calls and informs Menlo that, sorry, the test may only be administered on 'actual PCs'. Macs-with-Parallels are unacceptable. What the fuck? First of all, a Mac-with-Parallels is an actual PC when you toggle it to PC. Second of all, why the fucking flaming fire ants on fire couldn't they have told us way back at the beginning of the school year, when all this was arranged, and they said our setup was perfectly OK?
Cursed incompetence!
Also, why did College Board combine a completely new exam with a completely new (to them, at least) way of giving the exam? Newness in these contexts always leads to issues. They really didn't need to compound the newness and the issues. Plus, since they didn't prepare paper versions of the Japanese exam, there is no backup for schools that have computer trouble. Computer trouble is a foreseeable occurrence. And besides, what about the 20% or so of schools that use Macs primarily? Disenfranchisement! (That 20% figure not from a reliable source, but I know that the percentage of Mac-using schools is non-negligible.)
Menlo does not have enough 'actual PCs' to test us all at the same time, and we can't just do it in series. Not allowed for cheating-prevention reasons; fine. The next best thing is to put us all on a bus to some other school that is administering AP Japanese 'properly', using 'actual PCs'. Trouble is, there are only four such schools within remotely reasonable driving distance, and none of them have enough comps to test all us extra Menlo folk on the prescribed test day (May 10th).
[Update 4/28: Harker, one of the aforementioned Japanese-test-administering schools, has just given up on the whole thing because they had the same issues as Menlo. I think the others have too, because apparently the College Board is having real trouble finding us a testing site. (Either that or someone's not getting off their lazy ass.) We can't just rent some PCs for the day, or hop over to Language Pacifica which has actual PCs and is two blocks away. The software setup and testing and bla bla bla woof woof takes forever and much money. Apparently there's even a requirement that your computers have to be X inches apart. *eyeroll*]
So we have to wait until May 24th, the official test-make-up day. GRAAAAGGH. They really could not have picked a worse day. For the seniors, it's immediately before senior project presentations begin, naturally a stressful time. For the non-seniors, it's immediately before final exams, which is a Bad Thing. (Seniors don't take finals 2nd semester.)
With all this in mind, the following option has been offered to seniors (and probably non-seniors too, but we need to confirm that). Any individual can decide not to take the AP exam, and Menlo will allow us to substitute with a comprehensive final written by our class teacher, Sakamoto. (She was going to write one anyway, for practice, so that's not a big deal.) Anyone opting out of the AP because of this issue gets a refund. (I should fucking hope so.) Since we would have to test elsewhere anyway, Menlo may get a refund for the testing software. (Again, I should fucking hope so.)
I'm thinking the best course of action would be for us all to opt out. We're very ill prepared for this test because of Sakamoto's incompetence (whole other rant), and for seniors it doesn't matter, and I really don't see what the non-seniors stand to gain. It'd just be a painful experience. The only person who has a breath of a hope of getting a high score is Amy. (And Kevin, who's ethnically Japanese and practically native-level competent.) The rest of us, enh. I haven't decided for sure what I'll do yet -- I need to scope out the situation a bit more, but it would be awfully nice to opt out.
In conclusion: Fuck the College Board.
There is some issue with taking the AP Japanese exam. Brace yourselves, this is a bit of an epic tale. (Cussword warning.)
The AP Japanese test is (a) new this year and (b) administered only on computer. Not a good combination. Especially because this is the first year College Board has tried administering tests on computer. Very not a good combination.
Way back at the beginning of the school year, the appropriate people acquired the necessary software and tests and certifications and blah blah blah bureaucratic nonsense. The test software only works on PCs, and Menlo uses Macs. Fine. There's a whole room full of shiny new Macs-with-Parallels (both Windows and Mac operating systems on one box, completely separate from each other). I repeat, this was all arranged way back at the beginning of the school year.
THREE WEEKS AGO, College Board calls and informs Menlo that, sorry, the test may only be administered on 'actual PCs'. Macs-with-Parallels are unacceptable. What the fuck? First of all, a Mac-with-Parallels is an actual PC when you toggle it to PC. Second of all, why the fucking flaming fire ants on fire couldn't they have told us way back at the beginning of the school year, when all this was arranged, and they said our setup was perfectly OK?
Cursed incompetence!
Also, why did College Board combine a completely new exam with a completely new (to them, at least) way of giving the exam? Newness in these contexts always leads to issues. They really didn't need to compound the newness and the issues. Plus, since they didn't prepare paper versions of the Japanese exam, there is no backup for schools that have computer trouble. Computer trouble is a foreseeable occurrence. And besides, what about the 20% or so of schools that use Macs primarily? Disenfranchisement! (That 20% figure not from a reliable source, but I know that the percentage of Mac-using schools is non-negligible.)
Menlo does not have enough 'actual PCs' to test us all at the same time, and we can't just do it in series. Not allowed for cheating-prevention reasons; fine. The next best thing is to put us all on a bus to some other school that is administering AP Japanese 'properly', using 'actual PCs'. Trouble is, there are only four such schools within remotely reasonable driving distance, and none of them have enough comps to test all us extra Menlo folk on the prescribed test day (May 10th).
[Update 4/28: Harker, one of the aforementioned Japanese-test-administering schools, has just given up on the whole thing because they had the same issues as Menlo. I think the others have too, because apparently the College Board is having real trouble finding us a testing site. (Either that or someone's not getting off their lazy ass.) We can't just rent some PCs for the day, or hop over to Language Pacifica which has actual PCs and is two blocks away. The software setup and testing and bla bla bla woof woof takes forever and much money. Apparently there's even a requirement that your computers have to be X inches apart. *eyeroll*]
So we have to wait until May 24th, the official test-make-up day. GRAAAAGGH. They really could not have picked a worse day. For the seniors, it's immediately before senior project presentations begin, naturally a stressful time. For the non-seniors, it's immediately before final exams, which is a Bad Thing. (Seniors don't take finals 2nd semester.)
With all this in mind, the following option has been offered to seniors (and probably non-seniors too, but we need to confirm that). Any individual can decide not to take the AP exam, and Menlo will allow us to substitute with a comprehensive final written by our class teacher, Sakamoto. (She was going to write one anyway, for practice, so that's not a big deal.) Anyone opting out of the AP because of this issue gets a refund. (I should fucking hope so.) Since we would have to test elsewhere anyway, Menlo may get a refund for the testing software. (Again, I should fucking hope so.)
I'm thinking the best course of action would be for us all to opt out. We're very ill prepared for this test because of Sakamoto's incompetence (whole other rant), and for seniors it doesn't matter, and I really don't see what the non-seniors stand to gain. It'd just be a painful experience. The only person who has a breath of a hope of getting a high score is Amy. (And Kevin, who's ethnically Japanese and practically native-level competent.) The rest of us, enh. I haven't decided for sure what I'll do yet -- I need to scope out the situation a bit more, but it would be awfully nice to opt out.
In conclusion: Fuck the College Board.