Can Tests Measure a Student?

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Recommended: The effects of standardized tests on students

Throughout an academic life students will be asked to take part in prestigious exams, or as they are more commonly known as the standardized exams. Do these exams really measure a student’s academic ability or does it merely measure their progress? Although these exams cannot measure how intelligent a student is they can show a student’s progress within the subjects that they are being tested on.
Therefore, when students are informed that these exams are going to be used to see their progress they will not feel discouraged while taking the exams. So instead of feeling stressed or discouraged they will be motivated to do well on the exams, since their goal is to see progress within themselves. Progress is what teachers want to see in their students, but students fear that making mistakes on this exam will hinder their academic progress because if a student is to score low on one of the subjects the student is to take a remedial course and most student would not like that idea. With no mistakes how are teachers suppose to help their students? Small mistakes are good on a standardized test, since mistakes are what “give teachers guidance to help them determine what to teach students and when to teach it,” (Columbia University The Pros and Cons Of Standardized Testing) which is where teachers will create ways to help students understand the subject and promote more progress within the students. Not only do these tests examine the progress of students but they also measure the progress of the teachers, because according to worklife.columbia.edu “The greatest benefit of standardized testing is that teachers and schools are responsible for teaching students what they are required to know for these standardized tests.” (Columbia Univers...

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...-skills/standardized-testing/many-colleges-require-act-standardized-test-for-admission/>.
Walberg, Herbert J. "Stop the War Against Standardized Tests." Defining Ideas: A Hoover Institution Journal 20 May 2011: n. pag. Rpt. in Standardized Testing. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2012. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014. .
Phelps, R. (2011). The Effect of Testing on Achievement: Meta-Analyses and Research Summary, 1910–2010 Source List, Effect Sizes, and References for Quantitative Studies. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: http://www.nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Resources/QuantitativeList.pdf [Accessed 5 May. 2014].

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