YA Fantasy book where children are tested for powers and they have different affinities for certain elements

[Bradley]

I read the book maybe 6 or 7 years ago. It started with kids getting tested in some big hall and then they went to a magic school that was in a cave system and the protagonist had a messed up leg and I think his mother was killed by the antagonist after giving birth to him in an ice cave. He was some rare chaos mage that hadn’t been seen since the antagonist who was also a chaos mage and then the protagonist starts to think that the antagonist transferred his mind into his own when he killed his mother in that ice cave and he started getting worried that he would become this evil chaos mage overlord. I remember in the school there was a ranking system determined by your year of study and there were creatures in the school cave and I specifically remember something about a glowing lizard. Maybe the protagonists pet?

[Rainbowheart]

Does anything on this list look familiar?

I Go To A "Special" School

[Astra]

Bradley wrote: "I read the book maybe 6 or 7 years ago. It started with kids getting tested in some big hall and then they went to a magic school that was in a cave system and the protagonist had a messed up leg a..."

This is probably the Magisterium series by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare!
School is in a cave, magic is element-based, there are rare chaos mages, and a glowing lizard.

The Iron Trial

[Kris]

Google Books preview of The Iron Trial by Holly Black - Astra's suggestion:

- https://www.google.com/books/edition/...
- There are different cover images.

Kirkus Reviews:

- "Book 1 in the five-book fantasy series introduces the Magisterium, a training school for young mages that is located in underground caverns in Virginia.
Admittance is by invitational tryouts. Twelve-year-old Callum Hunt has mage potential, but his father, Alastair—a mage and a graduate of the Magisterium—tells his son to deliberately fail. He has brought Callum up to believe that the Magisterium is evil and he must never attend. But Callum, small, skinny and partially lame from a serious leg injury incurred when he was an infant, is picked anyway, and this kickoff entry details Callum’s first year of training under Master Rufus. ..."