Are you smarter than a 6th grader?

Am I smarter than a 6th grader? I'd seriously like to think so. 

This weekend I took my 4th out of 5 MTELs.  I took the General Curriculum - General Subject test.  It's basically information ranging from science, literature, geography, history, the arts, and such and such.  I'd heard it was one of the harder MTELs and really studied like crazy (on top of a hectic and busy semester). 

I'd heard there weren't many official MTEL study guides for this exam and that using a series of books called "What Your _____ Grader Needs to Know" was a really useful way to study. And study I did. 

While studying for and taking the MTELs is a bit annoying, dare I say that I enjoyed reading these books?  And the crazy thing is, I actually was learning about things that I totally did not learn when I was in 5th and 6th grade. I now actually know what the Progressive Era and New Deal were about and why deserts have little to no rain fall.  I always thought I was a fountain of random information, but now I am a serious fountain of information! Of course, I'd love to know why I didn't actually learn this information in 5th and 6th grade, but I guess better late than never.

In true Tamar fashion, I was pretty anxious.  The test was actually pretty challenging.  55 multiple choice questions and a 300 word essay.  Two and half hours later I felt my brain hurting.  Some questions I knew the answers the second I read the question and plenty of others I felt my eyes bulge out of my head.  I really think I did well on the essay, which hopefully makes up the multiple choice questions I was unsure of.

I don't think I bombed it, but it's all about the magic qualifying score.  Now I wait six weeks to find out if the MTEL thinks I am smarter than a 6th grader.  Regardless of what my score report says, I know I am smarter than a sixth grader and that I tried my hardest - and Jeff Foxworthy I'd like to lock in that answer!

Then Sunday night I went out for drinks with some friends from Wheelock.  The pub we went to happened to have pub trivia that night, so of course we had to play along.  What was our team name? I Am Smarter than a 5th grader.  We did pretty well. And by that I mean we came in second to last place out of 5 teams.  We nailed some really random questions though! Like: This Italian made form of transportation is named for the sound it makes and roughly translates to wasp.  Vespa!! We were super stoked we got that one.  So we may not have won, but we are definitely smarter than a 5th grader!