Getting Testy

I tried to register via email for the upcoming (Saturday, 15 May) English area test under the auspices of the Massachusetts Teacher Licensure Exam.

I started with the internet where I was informed the testing agency (not the state) takes Visa and Mastercard. My debit card is backed by Mastercard and has been accepted everywhere.

The total cost of the test is $170 and my balance was $195. The card was decline. The next day, I deposited my child support check, tried again and again the card was declined.

I physically went to the Department of Education in a town just six miles from me where the intake worker informed me that agency has nothing to do with the testing process and that I should call the private testing service in Amherst, MA, a town 100 miles away.

I tried to call and the phone rang several times without an intercept informing me that I was in queue. I redialed to make certain the number was correct, then waited for five minutes while the phone rang (I am Patient Griselda).

I packed up my materials and left my house for the post office at 4:35 where I filled in the forms, standing at the desk provided. I mailed everything by express mail at a cost of $13.65.

I checked my bank account over the next few days and was alarmed that no moneys were subtracted. Saturday, I returned home from my retail job to a letter from the testing service, which I assumed was my admission ticket for the test. It was my registration which was rejected because I had paid ten dollars less than the amount required (I did not: their math was wrong) and I had also paid for tests I did not register for, which means that I simultaneously paid too little and too much.

It is now too late to take the test. I have emailed the governor and the letters to the editor column of the Boston Globe. I have written the state commissioner of education, the testing service, my state rep and Linda Wertheimer, the education editor of the Globe.

The remedy I seek is to take the test Saturday, without paying a fee and to be fairly graded.