As high school years go, 11th grade was pretty good.

My basketball team went 15-3 (after going 3-15 sophomore year.) I rocked out to Def Leppard in concert, joined the school newspaper, did pretty well on the SATs, stopped perming my hair.

A year of growth, all round.

I can’t say that taking the 11th-grade Maine Educational Assessment reading test brought that all flooding back, but it did remind me of how subjective high school could be.

Essay question: “Cite one statement from the text and indicate its relevance to a contemporary reader.” Another: “What does Chief Joseph’s father mean when he says in paragraph 1, ‘Never sell the bones of your father and mother?'”

I was left scratching out cursive answers in pencil, caught ever so slightly off guard. There would be no clear right and wrong answer, just points assigned based on how closely my answer hit the teachers’/test-makers’ mark. I have to admit, even for someone who writes for a living, it was disconcerting.

The rest of the test was pretty much what I’d expected: Read a passage, answer a question with four multiple choices – one answer correct, one nearly so, two so obviously wrong.

Even a passage on fishing and techniques to use in different types of water – dry, despite the topic – was easily answered.

— Kathryn Skelton