NEW YORK – Yale University graduate and PIX 11 reporter James Ford wanted to know what the Common Core testing hysteria is all about, so he took the test himself.

He scored an 88 percent and found one spelling error.

“On deadline, I completed about half of the 103-page file of sample questions and accompanying answers and explanations for the 8th grade English Language Arts exam,” Ford wrote for PIX 11.

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He elaborated further:

As for the actual exam, this test-taking reporter was surprised by a few things.

On more than one occasion, on the multiple choice questions, two answers seemed to apply.  I found myself trying to figure out what the writers of the test had in mind as I attempted to choose between one of two potentially correct responses.

It was not all multiple choice, however.  More than half of the sample exam had essay questions listed after the fiction and non-fiction passages that make up the content of the test.  I was pleased with the specificity of the essay question instructions.  As opposed to the multiple choice responses, the essays allowed for detailed and specific answers.

I also found one error on the sample test. One non-fiction passage referred to “greenhouse gasses.”  The word “gases,” when used as a noun, as it was on the test, does not have have a double -s.  When used as a verb, such as “She gasses up her car,” it has the double -s.

Ford ended up with 22 points out of a possible 25 after an hour and three minutes of test taking. Ford said that despite his success, the experience illustrated why some students find the test overwhelming. He also spoke with psychologist Jeffrey Gardere, who believes that the high stakes tied to the test – both students’ perceived preparedness for college and teacher evaluations based in part on student scores – can make matters worse.

“They’re feeling, ‘I’ve got to get this right, because it says to everyone in the world if I’m prepared for high school, for college, and for life,’” Gardere said.

“Teachers and students interacting, and both sets are nervous,” he said. “Then you add that together and this is a case where one plus one makes three.”

Staten Island fifth grader Nadia Hardison told Ford her Common Corse classwork has been unbearable for both her and her brother Niko.

“Me and Niko actually came home crying one day,” Hardison said, “because it was really just annoying.”

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This year, Hardison’s mother opted her out of Common Core testing, which made things “kind of awkward,” she told PIX 11.

“I had to move to another class,” she said, “and everybody stared at me when I left.”

Meanwhile, parents in other states have been threatened by school officials for encouraging parents to opt their children out of Common Core-aligned standardized tests.

New Jersey mother Christina Moreira put up flyers around Elizabeth, New Jersey that read “Elizabeth Public Schools you can choose to refuse to PARC,” PIX 11 reports.

She posted about 10 of the signs when a school district attorney issued a letter demanding that she “cease and desist from posting signs that confuse the public,” according to the news site.

District officials told Moreira in the letter that students do not have the option to opt out of PARCC – which stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, one of two Common Core-aligned testing consortiums.

Elizabeth district spokesman Don Goncalves, however, later admitted to PIX 11 that school officials cannot force students to take the test.