@xodus Except they're /not/ in the same class, because classes should go by skill level generally (past the first few years, I'd think), otherwise you're not teaching effectively. Also the min age for graduating is 18. Elliot isn't that old yet, and Cam is /definitely/ not that old. Besides, a last-year test should be only for those actually /in/ their last year. If it's their last year, and they've spent several years there, and not using alchemy all the time and their mortality is such a big deal, they should be taught this much sooner, perhaps even alongside how to use their alchemy in the first place. If not, and AMRO /does/ teach it, it seems to me that they're setting the students up for failure. Important concepts are taught ASAP, generally, not last-minute. If it is taught sooner, then the test would come sooner, though perhaps without the rogue alchemists, and maybe with a basic weapon. Also not even giving a basic weapon in this situation seems rather stupid unless you've taught them hard-core survival techniques, especially with large predators and rogues.
Basically, you've been giving one impression of AMRO, though admittedly not the clearest one, and now you're reversing it considerably. I've been asking "why don't they emphasize not using alchemy for everything", and "why don't they encourage using common sense and mundane approaches". There was absolutely no indication that many teachers did.
Upon a second reading, I see the following:
When do we push our selves beyond what is humanly possible? In times of desperation, when we are backed against a wall and ingenuity is what matters.
Alchemy is a bane, A.M.R.O knows that and it cannot allow its Asylums to revel in it. You must be able to control it, to pacify it and the only way to learn that is if you can prove to be able to live through an impossible scenario without the use of alchemy. For Asylums every day is survival, against alchemists and insanity.
The objective is to teach them the most necessary ideology which is they are not alchemists. They must prove themselves better, rise to deny the impossible, rise above desolation and not be bent if alchemy is taken away. Else you are disposable.
Not breaking when alchemy is taken away should be taught early, especially if it's important and even moreso if there's an all-or-nothing test.
This isn't the sort of impossible situation they will be faced with. Yes, you need to surpass your limits, and be clever, and find better ways. ...I'm having trouble framing what I mean. Basically, either you're putting the students in a situation you expect most of them to fail at, to see how they do, but without a safety net, in which case I'd think the survival/graduation rate for AMRO is pretty low. Which I suppose could be a thing, but this would be known, and I don't think my characters would be okay with this. Even Sparks would go against a system that kills more than half the people because you have an unfair test. Or they've been appropriately trained, and this is a test of their skills, in which case most should survive and it's not a stress test at all, really. Or you put a safety net in place -- like the Kobayashi Maru in Star Trek, it's a no-win scenario, but the goal is to see how a person reacts when faced with the worst. But it's a simulation in that universe, and nobody dies.
Am I making any sense?
@Ryver et Rhine, can you give me a hand if I'm not?
