I am a crummy math student. I’ll be the first to admit that, but does that mean I deserve to be held back like some delinquent in the 3rd grade? I may have to stay at FAU an extra semester because of this so-called “standardized” test.

I failed the math portion of the College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) twice. Every FAU student either had to pass it or had to get an exemption from it. There’s no other way around it. It’s another one of Florida’s educational toll booths put up in order to get someone else’s fat little fingers in our scholastic pie.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, the companies that administer these standardized tests to schools get paid big bucks to do so. If the lawmakers make these tests mandatory, the companies have that much more automatic clientele. Not to mention, as a required test they essentially can charge the universities whatever they want.

Other than these money-hungry scantron slingers, no one else has a say in whether these tests are fair or even necessary. But they do have a sure-fire way of making sure you do take it.

The CLAST is a three-part test, testing a students reading, writing and math skills. If you haven’t taken it by the end of your sophomore year, the Registrar’s office will put a hold on your registration. If you’ve taken it once and failed, you will not only have a registration hold but this time you have to sign a contract vowing that you will pass the CLAST test.

That’s right, in order to register for next semester you must sign a contract saying that you are going to pass a test you’ve already failed. Once again, you have no choice but to make this deal with the devil or else you can’t register for classes.

If you fail it again, which, believe me, is very possible, then you’re pretty much screwed. Because you signed a contract against the previous semester saying you will pass the test, you’re now in violation of this contract, which makes you their indentured servant.

So now, if you want to register for classes, you gotta sign up to take the CLAST at the Lake Worth PBCC campus, and drop $30 in the process. But that’s not the worst part. The application will take somewhere between one and two weeks to go through, and all the while you are unable to register for classes.

While you wait to register for the upcoming semester, classes are filling up like spittoons at a tobacco-chewing contest. The scores from the CLAST test, for me at least, came in the mail on March 30, and the first date that certain students can register is April 1. Which means I found out I couldn’t register the day before registration began. It’s inconsiderate, to say the least, if not just plain mean.

At last, I summoned my superior intellect buried deep within my psyche and passed the CLAST at the Lake Worth PBCC testing center, but not before the damage was already done. I was unable to take advantage of my early registration privileges that I have for having X-amount of credits, and was locked out of a couple of classes I needed in order to graduate.