If my life were a plot line in a story, I would be at the "rising action" stage.

Tomorrow is the big test. Passing it will allow me to hopefully secure a job for the fall. I must score at least a 70%. I've been scoring in the high 70s on the practice tests. It's gonna be close.

In order for you to fully appreciate what I'm about to undertake, the following is a practice test question:

16. For the past week, students in
Ms. Burgess's fifth-grade class
have been writing original stories.
Ms. Burgess observes that some students
are spending their daily writing period
adding on to their stories, making them
longer but not necessarily better, and
making no revisions except occasional
corrections of misspelled words. She
wants to encourage these students to take
a broader, more exploratory approach to
revision—to review and evaluate their
work and then reshape it based on new
insights. Which of the following teaching
strategies would be most effective in
achieving this goal?
A. asking students to think about
what parts of their story are most
important and whether they have
described these parts clearly and
effectively
B. encouraging each student to place
an appropriate limit on the length of
his or her story based on the number
of characters and events the student
intends to include
C. having students brainstorm words
related to the subject of the stories
they are writing and decide which
words might be incorporated in
their work
D. suggesting that students begin
each writing period by drawing
an illustration that depicts the main
story idea they wish to convey in
their writing for that day

Confused? Yeah, me too.

p.s. The correct answer is the third letter in my name.