“Are you serious?!” was LM’s reaction when I handed him his test scores. He looked up at me with a shocked but excited look on his face. I was a little puzzled by his reaction – his previous scores on the Pennsylvania Standardized tests were actually higher than these.

“I scored in the 600’s?!?” he shouted excitedly.

“Yes,” I replied, still uncertain what all the excitement is about. I mean, the scores are good, advanced in most cases, but they aren’t off the charts or anything.

“So I qualify?!”

Ah, the lightbulb moment.

Gingerly I broke the news. “No, LM. These aren’t your SAT scores, we don’t have those yet. These are your MEAP (Michigan Standardized Test) scores.”

“oh.”

The poor kid.