b_b: Amen to that. In the 50s, during the dawn of space exploration, there were hobby shops all over where you could buy powder, and engines for small rockets and building your own cannons, etc. My dad has great stories about accidentally blowing out the tires in his neighbor's car and breaking windows in experiments gone wrong. Even in the 90s my friends and I used to make bombs in the woods and blow up all sorts of shit. It was lots of fun, but I fear we would be put in juvenile detention these days.Anyway, bombs aside, standardized tests are useless. What do the tests measure and why? I don't think either question has a clear answer, but they sure do waste a shit load of time and money.