There has been some buzz around the seminary lately (albeit, in quiet, hushed tones) about the GOE results from last month. Every year about this time, when the results of the General Ordination Exams (GOEs, or as my class refers to them, "The Test That Shall Not Be Named) come out, there is the anguish over scores not being as expected and the anxiety over one's Bishop's reaction. There is always a general feeling of, "why didn't I do better?"
This test is an academic exercise designed to test one's ability to be academic. Is that really the best way to determine who should be ordained? Are all clerics academic? I realize, and affirm, that a certain degree of knowledge should be attained, but is a timed essay test the best way to assess that? Would Diocesan testing be better? Maybe combined with personal interviews? Maybe with personal written statements about what you have learned and how you are going to put it into practice?
However, to implement that strategy would be to remove nation wide consistancy. Unless the Bishops could get together and decide on some particular standard of minimum, measured in Diocesan specific manner.
All of that sounds like a lot to do just to measure seminary students abilities, but there must be a better way than the current "Episcopal Church's Annual Hazing of Seminary Students!"
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I don't think it's even a good judge of being an academic. I mean, for pity's sake, I cranked out the equivalent of 45 double spaced pages in 3 and half days (including bibliography).
THAT IS JUST FREAKING ABSURD!
There is no way that is in any realm of reality a good gauge of how strong you are as an academic, much less a parish priest.
Cases in point: Master's thesis are not even that long, and you get over a year to work on it. The Bar Exam is only two days and half of it is multiple choice.
Don't fret about the GOEs, they are just stupid. If Simon Peter could not have passed them, I ain't worried about it.
The lecture/recital/thesis used by the Liturgy and Music crowd may be slightly better at being a judge of future usefulness as a church musician. It contains multiple portions:
As a primarily research to degree, there is the requirement that you be able to research and express your ideas in a coherently way without rambling on for pages and pages (much as I am doing here).
The recital portion demonstrates, in my case, an ability to both play, conduct a choir and chew gum at the same time. The choir preparation is life like in that you only have a couple of short rehearsals without every seeing a full choir until the performance.
The last task is demonstrating the ability to actually fool Microsoft Word into formatting the thesis per the extremely detailed Seabury requirements (best get out the ruler). Extra points for getting the footnotes to actually stay on the same page as the reference.
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