How are standardised tests received by diverse populations? Taking its cue from Goffman's (1964) essay on the 'Neglected Situation' this paper considers the 'testing situation' as a site of enquiry. It describes the ecological characteristics of testing situations as distinctive social occasions with complex spatial, interactive, temporal and affective dimensions. The paper then considers the 'testing situation' as a moment of cybernetic inscription where embodied human, intellectual and affective ontology interface with the digital world of algorithms and psychometrics. The concept of 'assemblage' in Actor Network Theory is applied to consider testing situations as interactive encounters between human respondents and globally networked non-human actors. Describing standardised assessment events in Mongolia, the paper asks Goffman-inspired questions - 'what is going on here? 'What kinds of human and technical ontologies are performed? What notions of 'reality' and fantasy are enacted? The paper concludes by examining how testing regimes manage the 'Monster' of difference through procedures of DIF analysis and test item verification.