Solstice and those dreaded standardized tests

So today is December 21st, the longest (or shortest depending on which hemisphere you are in) day of the year. I've always wanted to be in one of those pyramids in Egypt where the light shines perfectly through that one hole and then through the use of ancient mirrors and other wonders lightens up the inside and you can see ghosts. I think that's how it works. But I'm spending this one in Chile, where the December Solistice means its summertime and despite the cold spring, it is defintely feeling hot like summer should.

December 21 this year also means a day of reakoning for those Chileans who took the standardised test to get into the university. The PSU. It's one of those dreaded tests that dictates you future and the future of your children and their offspring. Do poorly and you'll be flipping burgers, do well and you'll be walking streets paved with gold and own a bit of them too. Well maybe its not that harsh but it feels something about so. We of course have our share of college entry exams in the US. I believe I took the SAT but didn't really care since I was going into the army right after high school. When I did finally go back to school I went first to a community college where you just have to have write a check that doesn't bounce (ok maybe you had to send transcripts and show your HS diploma) and then transferred to the university.

In Chile the whole university route is quite strict in the sense that what you choose at 18 will have a long standing mark on your professional life. Plus the degrees run about 6 years here. I'm very grateful that I was able to take the approach my father suggested: just get it done with, worry about what I will do for work later on. As a result I chose a major that I thought I would enjoy: studio art. It was a lot of fun and somehow I've managed to find work and even break into other areas without the degree that might have been required if I were Chilean.

But for your average Santagiuno even thinking that route is hard. Its not just the pressure from the family, from friends, from that always watching mass of society, it comes from within. How will you find work with an art degree from a good university, much less from a tier two school? Better to go with that Ingeniero Comercial route.

So the whole process starts with those dreaded PSU scores that were delivered today at noon. I hope things went well for everyone who took one all though it never works like that. But boy am I glad that Kirkwood Community College didn't ask me to take anything like that to get in. Who knows where I might be had it worked out like that.