Perfect Imagination

Test Information

Perfect Imagination cycles its entry test every three months. This three months is known as a test period. The test stays in circulation for those three months before a new one is released, and the old one withdrawn.

Everyone who applies to be a beta reader on Perfect Imagination is required to take a test in order to prove their skills. This ensures that we offer a high level of quality to the general public. Testing also ensures that people do not apply with the sole aim of getting fanfiction delivered to their inbox.

The test passage is a piece of original fiction which contains forty (40) deliberate errors. Spelling is in British English. The "pass" mark is to correct thirty-two (eighty percent) of the errors. If you achieve this mark you will be considered for entry into the directory. Almost all applicants who achieve the pass mark are entered into the directory. However, the administration reserves the right to decline an application. Full reasons for declining an application will be given, should it occur.

We ask that you only take the test once during its test period.

An additional field has been supplied to allow betas to make comments on flow, sentence structure and plot. An additional five percent can be awarded for pertinent comments in this section, therefore allowing you to regain some of the marks you may have dropped when correcting the passage. Comments made in a rude, cruel or inappropriate tone may result in the rejection of your application.

Please note: Correction of speech marks from single quotes to double quotes will not be counted as a correction, since both forms are valid punctuation. Re-formatting will also not gain you any points. It is also possible to lose marks for corrections that result in loss of the writer's style or that corrupt sentence structure.

Anyone caught cheating or attempting to cheat when doing the Perfect Imagination tests will be banned from the site, and all member accounts in your name or associated identities will be removed. No further applications from individuals deemed to have cheated will be considered.

Cheating is defined as taking the test more than once in a given test period. By attempting the test more than once you have an unfair advantage over other applicants. Collaborating with a partner or an existing beta reader is also considered cheating. Tests must be attempted by individuals, not by consensus.

Punishment for cheating in any form is a ban from applying to be an official beta reader. Any applications made by an individual who is deemed to have cheated previously will be deleted.

Applicants suspected of cheating will be informed and given twenty-four hours to contest the allegation before account deletion occurs. "I did not know it was cheating." is not a valid defence.

Published February 2008.