I don't know what possessed those people at the Testing Center to start assigning categories of greatness for how well they felt you did on a test.
Background info* at the BYU testing center after you turn in a scantron exam you can see your grade on a tv screen before you leave. The screen will have your id number, your test score and then a space next to that for them to leave their own comments about how well you performed on your exam. I'm not sure what the exact grading rubric is, but it's something like 90 - Good Job! 92 - Wow! 94 - Fantastic! 96 - Awesome! etc. I think the idea behind the whole thing is ridiculous.
I got a 96.6 on an exam I took this weekend. Right next to my score was a big "Awesome!" While a 96 is certainly deserving of an "awesome" who's to say an 85 isn't. Let's take my Molecular Biology class I took my sophmore year for an example. The first test we had was out of 140 points when we took it. The professor put a cut off of 100 points on the exam though. So if I got a 96/140 approximately a 70% the testing center would not have given me an awesome even though in reality the professor considered the score to be a 96%. The final for that class I got 124 out of 180, and since the professor made the cut off at 120 that meant I got 100% on the final. Was that reflected with an "Awesome" at the testing center? Nope.
Maybe I see this happen often because of the kind of exams I take; pretty much no one gets in the 'A' range with the exams I take for class. The professor will curve the exam after it has been taken, so while the highest score may have been an 80 they didn't get that "Awesome" at the testing center that they certainly deserved.
Anyways, what I'm basically trying to say is the testing center should mind their own business. I don't think they can properly consider how good a score really is. I mean my 29/30 on my religion exam, that got me an Awesome this weekend, was not as great of an accomplishment as the 124/180 on my Molecular biology exam, which definitely did not get awarded any title by the testing center.
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Matt and I were married two years ago. We recently bought our first home in Eagle Mountain, UT. Little Ezra joined our family on September 30, 2007, and we love him lots! Feel free to get a peek into our life together here or at Matt's blog.
Heather, I think you're awesome! I give you a "Way to go, Superstar!" for how well you do on all your tests.
As long as BYU is giving "great job" and "fantastic!" and the like for high scores, maybe they should also include comments for those who score in the single digits, so they don't feel left out. These comments could include something like, "you suck" or "Burger King is accepting applications." I saw a sketch in Divine Comedy about that once.
Way to go on getting your first awesome. I only recieved that once and it was for an intro to interior design class. Good news, the ability to memorize different types of furniture for at least an hour is "awesome."