SAT

Riley was sick last October when he could have taken the PSAT. He was adjusting to the new school and the move and the new germs in the area. I figured he would take the PSAT next October.
Don't want to miss taking it as there are scholarship opportunities with these tests.  Mean while, I wanted to make sure he took the SAT for practice. You can take the SAT multiple times. Riley is not the kind of guy to do plain old  practice tests. It is hard enough to get the homework done with these boys. Tom's comment was Riley is taking it like an inner city kid, no prep, no practice.

Riley tells me he likes test, though. He finds  tests enjoyable, he tells me as we drive to the school at 7:20 in the morning on a Saturday.  The harder the test the more satisfying. We will see how he feels at noon when I pick him up. Of course, he knows he will get a couple more shots at the SAT. He has also been informed that there are scholarships tied to high scores.

Riley asks me what I would do if he got a perfect score. Lots of luck son. I would be ecstatic though after I questioned if the computer broke down.  Tom tells Riley it is better to leave an answer blank than to get it wrong. I'll be curious to find out how many questions Riley leaves blank.

I sharpened four pencils and found a calculator and erasor. Riley stuck them in his shirt pocket. He is wearing an olive green plaid button down collared shirt with his  blue jeans. We have waffles for breakfast so he gets a good meal. Riley bakes a quick batch of oatmeal cookies from the batter he made up last night. I bag four cookies in a clear sandwich Ziploc and grabbed a banana for him to have a snack during the breaks. I also gave Riley three dollars so he could use the vending machines at school.

We drove into the parking lot. We are early, with 15 minutes to spare. Instructions say to be there by 7:45 am for check in. It is 7:32am.  The lot is already over a third full with parked cars. Cars are lining up to drop off students for the test. It feels like a regular school day.  Riley is not the only one taking the SAT today. It is the last scheduled test until next fall. Probably plenty of students waited until the last minute to take the test.

At 8:15 am my phone rings. Riley has left his admissions ticket on the fridge. I had given him the ticket and told him to put it in his wallet but he said it was too big for his wallet. There it  was still taped to the fridge. I leap in the car and have the ticket to him  in six minutes. It is 8:21. Riley is waiting in the parking lot for me. He looks sheepish and tells me it is not NASCAR, I didn't have to speed, but as I drive off I see him turn and run into the building.

 The test begins promptly at 8:30 am. I just wonder what took so long for Riley to figure out he needed that admission ticket. When I saw the ticket still stuck to the fridge, after dropping Riley off, and realized Riley had forgotten it, I had hoped that perhaps his picture ID and pre registration for the test would be sufficient, but these days people have to be thorough. Luckily we live close in to town.  I would not have been able to get the ticket to him in time if we had lived in the big city or further out.

Now it is all up to Riley.