Essay on Standardized Tests

1946 Words8 Pages
Standardized Test Students of all ages are getting their number-two pencils sharpened and finest energy drinks ready in order to stay alert and prepared for all the standardized tests they will soon be encountering. For the last 50 years, standardized tests have been a way to measure students academic knowledge. But are standardized tests a proper tool for measuring student readiness? Standardized test are a problem because there are so many different factors that determines how well a student does on the test. Passing a standardized test is a skill that can be taught, but does not truly measure what a student has learned in the classroom; therefore standardized tests should not be used as a tool to measure students knowledge because students have more to offer than just filling in bubbles. Standardized tests don’t provide information that is useful in the future, resulting in students losing interest in learning because its not fun. The average student does not enjoy being cooped up in classroom for four hours filling in bubbles. This is when students think that the school is a reflection of standardized tests and they no longer want to learn. The information used in standardized tests has no importance in the real world. For example, when an ordinary man by the name of Drew Magary retakes the SAT, he shares his insight in a very abrupt but informative way, “But I'll be goddamned if I can remember the last time I had to figure out how many sides a covered polygon has. That sh*t is useless. Unless you engineer planes or something”(12). The SAT, or any standardized, are setup in a fashion that is meant to not only confuse the test taker but are worded in a way that makes the test taker also second guess themselves, “I just ... Christ. Where do you even begin to figure out the methodology needed to solve this? I guessed. I guessed wrong. That's the amazing thing
Open Document