I had decided long before the test that I would look upon it as all part of the fun; the fun being mixing with new people, getting out for a couple of hours, learning basic literacy skills and the tests.

The first three fun topics proved to the just that, but the fourth, the test, didn't come anywhere near that category at all. I guess that it's my age really, you tend to slow up as you get older and I think it's happened to me. Also, there's that little word 'confidence', if you're unlucky enough it will dwindle with the passing of the years instead of increasing.

Let's look at cooking for instance. I can rustle up a good, nourishing meal with no trouble at all and housework leaves a shining work surface and shelves to see your reflection in. Why? Mainly because they are jobs that are continual and once perfected are not forgotten. Whereas how to spell 'necessary' if you don't write the word often can leave you in quite a lot of difficulty.

And so, getting back to the test. The first word that hit me was 'gender'. I hadn't come across it often and my confidence let me down. I knew that I had to write 'female' next to it and also that I should move onto the next page. I now know and realise to my great chagrin that only one hour is allowed for the test. I knew it then of course, but the urgency of one hour never fully got home. I also realised an hour before the test that I was nervous. Where had all the fun gone? Nevertheless, here I was, face to face with pages of questions.

Read a page then choose an answer from four on the facing page. The only trouble was, the answers were not straightforward; also, some answers were so similar that I had to re-read them over and over again to try and make sense of just one answer that was correct. Of course time slipped by very quickly and when I was told that I could not write anymore I had another page of unanswered questions. On reflection, I see that I need to be much quicker next time, answer the questions that I can as quickly as possible and leave the others to go back to later if there is more time.

Summing up the whole experience I would say that I found the test paper tricky and not as straightforward as I had hoped it would be.