Standardized testing is a method used by states and colleges to prove a student’s mastery in various school subjects.Tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT) are a burden on students. Students, who have high hopes of attending college, aim for certain scores in order to be admitted into their dream school and there is no guarantee that they will get in. Some students develop test anxiety and forget everything they know on the test because it is stressful. Tests like the SAT and ACT should not withhold anyone from attending the school of their dreams. Standardized testing is not a good method to choose whether or not a student comprehends a subject. Standardized testing has been around for …show more content…
The SAT and ACT have certain guidelines on objectives students should know by the time they enroll in a postsecondary institution. In an article written by Jill Tiefenthaler, she argued that the test glorifies itself and college admissions rather than the content within the assessment (US News). In her argument against the SAT, Jill discusses that the test’s focus has changed from focusing on different curricular objectives to focusing on how it measures how well one would do in college. Since Tiefenthaler is an economics professor at Wake Forest University, she highlights the reason as to why and how Wake Forest does not deny prospective students on how high or low they score on a test. She wrote “While it is true that there is some correlation between test scores and college grades, careful analyses reveal that high school grades are still the best predictors of college success, with test scores adding only marginally to a predictive model that takes into account high school grades.” A higher test score will not guarantee that a student will do good at a postsecondary institution just as a low test score does not translate to a student not being able to do well in college. The best way to determine a student's future would be to look at their grade point average, a list of the courses a student has taken during their high school career and the rigor of those
Throughout the United States standardized testing is a popular way that educators measure a student’s academic ability. Although it may seem like a good idea to give a bunch of students the same test and see how each one does, it is not that simple. The results do not represent how smart a student is or a student's potential to do great things in the real world. In taking a standardized test one student may have a greater advantage over another for many reasons. Reasons that are not shown in the standardized test score.
Almost every person who has graduated from high school has taken the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), which is generally used for college admissions. We all remember the stress of taking a test that could affect our future educational plans. Now due to the “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001, this kind of test is now being administered to children from the 3rd to 8th grades as a way to determine if the school or teachers are educating them properly. High-stakes standardized tests of this nature should not be used to determine the educational abilities of either schools or the teachers.
Standardized testing is a down fall to many students but also an opportunity for many others. Standardized testing has its pros and its cons. It can be the make it or break it factor into getting into colleges you are hoping to attend or the scholarships you want to earn. Some people may have their opinions about the test, whether they hate it or not but the fact is that it’s here to stay.
For example, at Whitman College, in using these factors, they determine altogether, whether or not a student should be admitted to their school. However, they mentioned that, “SAT scores alone neither admit nor deny anyone.” They look at an applicant in a holistic way while maintaining true to the idea that the SAT can determine a student’s success, just not alone.
Standardized tests have been a scourge of student life in America for more than fifty years. Throughout the United States, high school students prepare for months for the day in which they have to take out their No. 2 pencils, to endure four everlasting hours of bubbling-in answers. The ACT, American College Testing, and its counterpart, the SAT, Scholastic Assessment Test, are known as the high school exit exams, in which they have become one of the largest determining factors in the college-admissions process. Both standardized tests judge a student 's performance, in which it measures how well students learned skills to meet state standards. Although standardized tests are meant to measure what one learns in high school in order to determine
Students should not have to take a test just to enter in to college because students are more than a test score, they are people too. Why are students compared with a test score that – more often than not - does not reflect their academic ability? These tests are biased because people write the questions and, therefore, they can make the question wordy and choose which ones to omit (Pollard). These test do not measure a person’s intelligence; rather, their test taking ability. As proof, the ACT science portion of the test do not pertain to science knowledge at all; rather, it ...
Standardized tests are unnecessary because they are excruciating to the minds of many innocent students. Each year, the tests get tougher and stricter until the students cannot process their own thoughts. The tests become torturous to the minds of those only starting in the world of tests. The students already battling in the war are continuing to fall deeper and deeper into the world of uncreativity and narrowness. As the walls narrow in on them, they are lost and unable to become innovative thinkers. Moreover, the implementation of standardized tests into the public school systems of the United States of America has controversially raised two different views –the proponents versus the opponents in the battle of the effectiveness of standardized tests. Standardized tests require all test takers to answer the same questions; the tests are also scored in a standard manner. Thus, the education system believes that it is fair for everybody to take the same test because it is preparing students for college learning. In reality, intelligence cannot solely be determined by a test score; therefore, standardized tests are ineffective in encouraging learning in educational environments for three reasons: they are stressful, discriminatory, and uncreative.
In the United States of America, Standardized testing has become a way of life for students and children, especially in public schools. Many argue that standardized testing does not measure the students as a whole, takes up valuable classroom time, and creates drastic mental health problems in students and teachers. In recent years, a controversy surrounding the idea of standardized testing has been brought forth as something that needs to be changed or adapted to the growing needs of today’s students and this can be examined when exploring the negative effects, the testing has had on society’s future.
If you are a student in some form of higher education institution, you might have gone through the scary phase of having to take a standardized test to apply for a college, a scholarship program or better still to complete the high school program. Normally good scores in these tests guarantees good scholarships or admission into an institution because the scores from standardize tests are used as a conclusive measure of one’s abilities. But due to the fact that these scores ignores years of hard work and commitment and focuses on just a test, it’s about time we acknowledge standardized tests are not an accurate measure of one’s knowledge.
Standardized tests are exams that are supposed to measure a child’s academic knowledge but have long been a controversial subject of discussion. Although it is one method to see how a child is performing, is it the best method? Standardized testing can be biased or unfair, inhibit both the teacher’s and the children’s creativity and flexibility, affect funding for schools, cause untested subjects to be eliminated from the curriculum, and cause anxiety for children and teachers.
Colleges use the SAT and ACT aptitude tests to determine a student. These two tests should not be used to determine how good a person is, but other requirements, such as overall high-school GPA and extra-curricular activities, should do so. Because of the weight of these tests on college admittance and scholarship, many students study hard and prepare for a long time to take these tests. This drags the students away from their academic progress and removes any of their remaining free time. Because these tests are placed in such a way that intense preparation is required for succeeding in this test, students from underprivileged families have a difficulty to access prep courses to do well on the exams. Therefore, the SAT and ACT exam scores should not be considered as a criteria for college admissions.
In this day of age, one of the most important requirements, one must have on a college application is a standardized test score. Whether it’s from the ACT or SAT, this score could give students the opportunity to get noticed by prestigious universities, helping them increase their chances of getting into any school that they aspire to go to. In fact, there is even more emphasis on such big exams like these nowadays because it is a state required test that is used in all colleges across the country. However, standardized testing is commonly misunderstood, and is used as an inaccurate representation of a student’s academic ability.
Standardized testing is not the true test of knowledge. Most students are not always equipped and motivated for it. Even their teachers are afraid of poor test results that they spend more time on test related topics rather than focusing on the main lesson. By doing this, it fairly measures the student’s performance, does a poor job of measuring
It’s an age-old question. Do standardized tests really show what students know? Some may think they are a great way to measure education and others may think that one test does not justify a child’s knowledge. What is this test exactly? A standardized test is any test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from a common bank of questions, in the same way. They are used to “judge” or “measure” the knowledge or skills that students learn in school. The problem with these standardized tests is that they measure all students on the same material, leaving out special skills the student may have. It also puts a great deal of stress on a student to know that they will be timed on these questions that
Standardized testing is not an effective way to test the skills and abilities of today’s students. Standardized tests do not reveal what a student actually understands and learns, but instead only prove how well a student can do on a generic test. Schools have an obligation to prepare students for life, and with the power standardized tests have today, students are being cheated out of a proper, valuable education and forced to prepare and improve their test skills. Too much time, energy, and pressure to succeed are being devoted to standardized tests. Standardized testing, as it is being used presently, is a flawed way of testing the skills of today’s students.