The man named Eric has around 30 or so answer sheets and test booklets tucked in his hands, which seem to have ample grip strength to be able to pinch the booklets and not need to tuck them in his armpits. Then, when he put down the testing materials, he looked around the room and seemed to also be amused by the colorful age range of the group, which had their youngest at 10 years old, just like Anthony, and the oldest around 40 to 45; Anthony and Eric can't really judge.
After observing the examinees, Eric pulled out a folder readily available in his desk and put it up, opening it and showing it in front of all examinees in the room.
"Alright, now that every seat is occupied and all of you are 30 in total and are all settled in, I would like you to sign this attendance sheet and write your exam number. Remember, this number since this will be your ticket to claim your license if you pass the breeder's exam."
After saying that, Eric passed the attendance to the first person to the left before grabbing the answer sheets and the test booklet and made the same person pass it around. Then, Eric continued.
"While your exam permit already has instructions about this whole exam, let me give it to you one more time to jog it out of your brains. The test will be pen and paper. The first part of the breeder's exam contains a total of 50 points; half of it is all about theoretical knowledge, and the other half is one-sentence essays about different situations that require decisive judgments. This is part of the 150 total points in the breeder's exam, with the 100 for the practicum."
"This may sound harsh, but anyone who can't get 75% of 50, which is 37, will not be able to enter the second phase of the exam since it's all about living Pokemons, and we can't trust them to people who are not up to the task. Yes, this is what they explained to me in our briefing, and I am told not to sugarcoat it, too, so you have to do your best or else your stay here would've been for naught."
After the proctor Eric paused and pulled out a marker in his pocket and went near the whiteboard, Anthony could hear some sighs as well as see some squints. Some even started to sweat and vibrate slightly due to nervousness. Anthony felt bad about them; after all, not everyone have a Dr. Melissa Edison giving you free ride because she got an autograph of your mom and dad and fare is always a tricky thing. Though this reaction did help him calm down a little and silently watch the writing of Proctor Eric on the board.
It has '1:00' in it, as well as the right way to shade the circles in the answer sheet.
"Okay, now, you will have 1 hour to finish the 50-item pen-and-paper test. You also have to put your name, age, occupation, and other required information that are indicated in the answer sheet and shade the corresponding circles with their values, make sure that it's full and won't go out of the borders of the circle. It has to be exact since we will be having a very big machine check the first 25 items of your exam. The back page and the empty bond paper inserted in the test booklet will be the answer sheets of the one-sentence essay questions."
Anthony and the interns nodded at this and looked at their answer sheets. Eric, knowing that it seemed that nobody had any questions, continued talking.
"Now then, please put all of your gadgets and any kind of papers in front of my desk. Also, put your bags in the racks at the back of the room before we start."
Immediately, seemingly to ease their nervousness, almost everyone stood up simultaneously to give up their cellphones and Pokedexes; some put their tissues, reviewers, scratch papers of their writing-based memorization cards, and more too. Anthony himself also stood up alongside them, though he didn't have any scrap papers, so he went straight with only his measly 3 sections per page, 3 page reviewer and put it below his phone and Pokedex and then went back to his seat.
In the end, it took around 5 or so minutes for all the examinees to put their things on the desk in front and their bags at the back. All this time, Proctor Eric is just looking around and seemingly letting them let out their nervousness; Anthony can feel it too, since these people (including himself) are most definitely not used to such a standardized exams that's rather common in his previous world.
Proctor Eric continued speaking.
"Alright then, you can only use a black ballpoint pen, and again, you have an hour to finish the test. And the timer starts now."
Just like that, Proctor Eric stopped standing up and sat down in his chair. Alongside this, all examinees opened the first question in their booklet before concentrating on answering the demographics section of the sheet. After Anthony did all that, he brushed his neck-lenght hair up before tucking them in his ears and read the first question. The question goes:
"What kind of consumable Pokemon trainer item is banned from being used in any form or way, in any kind or type of Pokemons due to its heavy toll on the body of a Pokemon?"
It also has 4 choices ranging from a to d, namely: Rare Candy, Honey Dew, Evolutionary Stones, and Gemstones in that order. It was a rather basic question, and if one read about the laws of Pokemon breeding, then they would know that Rare Candy is the answer, while this surprised Anthony when he first read it, it makes sense since there is no level ups in this world, meaning Rare Candy has a chemical that lets the Pokemon forcibly create the mysterious energy they have in their body in great quantities, which can result to fatigue.
In Anthony's review, he has this note that Rare Candy can induce the unlocking of Might Guy's eight gates. Well, no one dictated Anthony to not read anything and just become a Pokemon game nerd; if someone did, then he wouldn't have gone to college. Going back, Anthony shaded the right answer and went on to continue at a rather fast pace.
Since he's not really someone who has to be discreet about his knowledge since he can always pass it off as something passed down by his parents, Anthony didn't feel like being polite to his exam mates and decided that he wanted to show off a little. Something that he didn't get to do in his previous world since he was rather average, now however that he's in a world with lots of base knowledge in his day 1, he can pretend to be smart.
The exam, all and all is not hard by itself, however, since the essays are open ended questions with one point each (which is rather unfair in Anthony's opinion), he has to be correct in grammar and concise as much as possible. Though the essays are all about how to treat this specific Pokemon, or how to use body language to make sure Pokemons do not see you as a threat, the hardest item for Anthony is how to explain the whole process of how to groom big Flying types, which are known to be rather jerky and can impale a trainer with their talons accidentally if one is not careful.
So in the end, Anthony wasn't able to show off that much as he finished after 55 minutes of answering. Just a minute or so earlier than the average time of everyone in the room.
"Alright, thank you for taking the breeder's exam and for your willingness to contribute to the wellness of Pokemons and the World of Pokémon. It's a given that some of you won't be able to make it past this part, but be sure not to be downcast and look at the lessons that you have learned during this exam that I'm sure you have prepared for intensively. This exam doesn't have a repeat cap, and you can take it yearly until you turn 60, so relax and feel free to order food in the cafeteria, the results will be out at around 4, so you can still take a nap or something."
All the examinees made their prompt response; some chuckled while some nodded silently whilst someone are more polite and said, 'Will try to, sir'. Proctor Eric, however, could see who were confident and who were downcast and sighing their lungs out; some were even teary-eyed. However, he can't really do anything about what they feel, so he can just nod at them while smiling as he watched them get their gadgets, though he did see a kid who grabbed a Pokedex and a phone who caught his interest.
The boy has bouncy, long hair with two symmetrical side locks in both sides of his head. Eric felt like the boy thought a lot about his hairstyle, specially in his age that normally thinks his face would look cool with anything colorful.
"What's your name, young Mr.?"
Anthony, who was just giving a courtesy nod to the proctor is quite shocked by this question, though he still answered.
"Anthony Dover, sir Eric."
For a moment, Proctor Eric squinted his eyes before suddenly lighting up and smiling, though because he's supposed to be partial, he can't just blurt out that he knew the kid's mother and father (though they didn't meet personally and only on TV).
"Heh... must be a lot of pressure bearing that surname, good luck on the results."
Anthony stared at Eric with his blank face before nodding.
"Well, they're not as strict as you might imagine. They're just mom and dad for me. Also, thanks."
Anthony said this because he doesn't want people thinking that they should pity him for having famous parents, actually Anthony pities people who are not his siblings; they would've had incredible parents who knows how to raise with gentle yet firm hands. Except for the concussion Anthony's mom gave him.
Eric smiled at him and nodded once more before he watched Anthony go back to the space between the chairs that had been arranged one seat apart and outside the room. Anthony looked back at the room and glanced at the windows to look at Eric before sighing.
_I hope I won't hear that kind of question again. It would be a pain to be stopped at anything I do because I'm a child of Ben and Hana Dover._
Anthony continued walking and sighed once more before pulling out his phone to see a message from Mary saying, 'I'm waiting at the entrance'. Anthony closed his phone and stopped thinking about how it would suck for him from now on while ignoring the sighs and teary grumbling of examinees around him, though he had the same sentiment that 1 point per essay question is too much of a torture for the mind and just walked towards the entrance.
At the entrance, he saw both Mary and Andrew there already, who both waved their hands at him, which he reciprocated before joining them in their chatter about exam as they went to the cafeteria. Well, Anthony found it refreshing that he's now surrounded by two people who are not sighing about the exam, specifically, because the 3 are interns and have experienced most scenarios on the one-sentence essay part, so they just talk about how hard the grammar is and how is it hard to make one sentences sometimes.
Anthony actually introduced them to the glorious semicolon that saved him during his essay-writing time in college. This is his weapon against the tricky flying-type question, making him confident that he would score high and also subsequently making him able to leisurely walk towards the Pokemon ranches of different Pokemons, something that the friends of his just randomly thought to do.
_This place really has a lot of staff, considering they are still using all of these ranches in their complex while having a full-blown licensure exam. I wonder if Mom and Dad will ever be at this level by scale... hm, maybe if they put their branches side by side, though they're yet to erect one at the moment..._
While Anthony, Mary, and Andrew went and gathered up to a tour guide that's explaining how to feed the Pokemons safely, Andrew suddenly nudged Mary and Anthony, which made the two person look at him.
"When will we go to the cafeteria? It's cold out here."
Anthony and Mary looked at each other and felt like, while they also do feel cold since they're only wearing a single coat on (and the weather department of Kanto Region seem to not mind the level of snow right now unlike 3 days ago that they have to use their 'magic' to make it warm enough for t-shirts to be worn), they feel like their friend is just too excited to get over this exam and get his breeder's license to then get his associate field researcher license.
Mary was the first one to respond.
"We'll go at 1 pm."
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Read my novel Sophia Demiurge, remove the open and close parentheses
http://wbnv.in(remove this)/a/3ak49Kj