I'm sorry you felt that the exam is a waste of time. The audios used in the entrance exam reflect the audio quality of files that our customers submit, and we lightly edited them to remove difficult/subjective parts for the sake of the exam. The audios would be much more challenging if they were not edited. The passing grade for each audio differs (and we do take into account the difficulty of the audio), but as we state in our exam instruction documents, they are all in the high 90s, as we offer our clients 99% accuracy. The exam therefore ensures that the people who pass have understood the style guide and can apply it correctly, and have good listening, grammar, and proofreading skills. You can always take the exam again, as 96% is a great score for a first try. Persistence is an integral part of transcription, so don't give up after the first setback!