Have you ever been so crunched on time taking a test that you started bubbling in random answers? Did the questions happen to be things you knew? Chances are, you have been in that dilemma before; rather if you realize it or not. It could have been a simple school test or an important test, like the ACT. The format of the ACT is almost impossible to complete, so it is not an accurate representation of students because many do not finish the test in the restricted time limit.
Standardized tests are not an accurate representation of students because several students do not finish in the restricted time limit, which then causes the students to stress tremendously. According to the ACT website, the total testing time for the ACT ranges between
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According to Herbert J. Walberg, author of “Standardized Tests Effectively Measure Student Achievement,” states that the tests fairly and comprehensively measure student performance. Students who study for the tests would obviously do a much better job than a student who spent their time watching television or playing on an electronic device. Research and experience show that standardized tests are generally good at measuring students’ knowledge, skills, and understanding because they are objective, fair, efficient, and comprehensive. Jeffrey Penn, author of “Standardized Tests Measures College Success,” says that the tests are more reliable for predicting college success than just a student’s high school grades. Many students have the “I don’t care about high school attitude” so they do not complete their assigned homework and they do not have a positive look towards school in general. That could be a major factor of having students take an actual standardized test in order for admission into the college of their choice, and having the hopes that students study and take this test seriously; however the test in general is an inaccurate representation of students altogether because of the restricted time limit they have to complete it, the little material that they are actually tested over, and the idea that many people are getting rid of the fact to use the scores and GPA for requirements for college and in the work
Standardized tests should not be used to measure student proficiency. These tests are becoming much more challenging and high stakes, resulting in a significant amount of stress and anxiety in students. Standardized testing has become a huge weight on students which is leading to test anxiety. Jasmine Evans writes in her article “Problems With Standardized Testing,” from Education.com about critics of the No Child Left Behind, an act passed in 2001 one under the administration of George W. Bush, who say that there is a lot of pressure on teachers, students, and parents, and school officials as a result of these tests. They say the pressure to...
Standardized testing assesses students, teachers, and the school itself, which puts a great deal of pressure on the students. High scores show that the school is effective in teaching students, while low test scores make teachers and schools look as though they are not teaching the students properly. This is not always the case. There are teachers who do teach students what they need to know to pass the test, but their students are still unprepared. Although teachers try to improve instruction, student performance is still variable to other factors that the school cannot control.
These tests have been used by high schools and colleges to determine if a student has the knowledge needed to succeed in college. It is felt by a large number of students, teachers, and others in the education field, that these tests are not a true representation of what the students know, but rather how well the students can take a test. Standardized tests do not show how well a student does in class work, homework, self-study, or their response to learning.
These standardized tests are used by schools because they find that it is an easy way to test a student’s ability. However, the issue in doing this is for example, the ACT is all multiple choice. Exams such as these do not give the option to include worded feedback to show that you at least know something about the subject. Multiple choice exams have this problem, they can’t test the information that a person fully knows, it only tests whether they chose the right answer or possibly just guessed it. With only a slew of multiple choice questions it can be easy to get a “good” score or a “bad” score. That’s why these tests are flawed, the results they show don’t prove anything or really show anything for that matter.
On each test instruction booklet handed to the teachers on test day, there is a section including what to do if a student throws up during a test. For this section to be included, it is obvious that testing has caused students in the past to stress themselves out to the point of being sick. Students are spend most of the year preparing to take one or two big tests in the end. The amount of pressure put on students to succeed on these tests is astronomical, making it impossible to focus on the actual goal of assessing their knowledge. A student in Florida spoke to her school board about the absurd expectations from these tests, “Every year I do good in school, but I get low test scores on the FCAP and it feels like a punch in the stomach. This is unfair and I don't want to lose my opportunity to take my advanced classes or get a better education because of this one test.” (Locker) Some students simply do not test well, others try their hardest and still cannot reach the impracticable standards set for them. The individuals who create these test do not understand the pressures of being a student, or the struggle to answer thirty-five questions in a compressed time period. One test cannot accurately measure the intelligence of a
Within the allotted time, the ACT only offers a few tests over 4-5 core subjects: English, Mathematics, Science, Reading and occasionally Writing. Amanda Mote claims in her essay that for the ACT to be a satisfactory standardized test, it needs to cover more than just a few subject areas (3). However, it is difficult to create a test that covers more than the basics. It is impossible for the creators of the ACT to administer a fair test to every individual based on their own personal learning experience. Over four years, high school students are exposed to dozens of classes they can choose to take. Most of these cannot be used within the test format to assess problem solving. With classes such as foreign language, speech and health, it would be difficult to avoid asking discipline specific questions. It would also be difficult to compare the test scores of various students for tests that cover different subjects. One student could score very high in Farm Mechanics and another could perform well in Government. However, these scores cannot be compared to each other because they are two different subjects. Each test score would be relative to the individual student; it would not aide high schools or colleges in determining the standings of a
Why is standardized testing part of the college admission process? Some of us might still remember taking the SAT or ACT when we were applying for college; however few of us question why we have to take such a test. Millions of dollars are spent on prep materials all so we can achieve a decent score and hope colleges will be impressed. The College Board claims a high SAT or ACT score correlates to college success which is defined as a good GPA throughout college. However if you stop and ask yourself what the SAT or ACT has to do with college success, most of us will arrive at the conclusion that these tests have almost have nothing to do with college success. Some of the questions are simply on these tests are simply ridiculous and will never
Standardized Tests are not effective at measuring student achievement (“Standardized Tests Do Not” 1). They also cannot tell what your main abilities are, or what you even know. Standardized Tests are bad for the classroom because they restrict learning, force teachers to teach to the test, and they do not effectively measure students’ abilities.
It is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions. With a good score the ACT can help a student financially. With a certain score a student can receive a scholarship. The higher the score is, the higher the scholarship money is.The ACT is broken down into four tests. Math, reading, english and science are the four main subjects. Later writing was added into the test, but the writing portion is optional. McManus states, “The ACT, on the other hand, is a test of educational development and measures how much the student has already learned.” A student must remember everything that he has been taught. Which can be difficult to remember everything. Each student has three hours to take the test. The english portion of the test requires the student to know how to fix essay. It measures standard written English and rhetorical skills. McManus says, “The ACT English Test now emphasizes writing style and organization over the mechanics of punctuation and grammar.” Whether a student does the writing portion of the test or not, he still has corrections in other peoples essays to fix in the english test. The english portion takes 45 minutes for 75 multiple choice questions. The math portion of the test takes 60 minutes to answer 60 multiple choice questions. McManus states, "The ACT Math Test has been expanded to provide more test questions in the outer polarities for students in advanced classes as well as
Authors Amy Witherbee and Denise B. Geier of “Point: Standardized Testing is the best Way to Establish Education Standards” say, “Standardized tests are important, not for the testing, but for the standards. They are, in essence, a benchmark that when properly done, sets out for students, teacher, parents, and a nation, goals for the next generation” (1). Standardized testing can aid in measuring student success, but they are not always an accurate representation of a student’s knowledge or a teacher’s capabilities. The key phrase in their claim is “when done properly”, which is not something that is easily said or done. It is nearly impossible to ensure that the system is not being corrupt, or to prove that everyone is testing the same way, “standardized” or not. Some students are simply not good test takers. They could be the next Einstein, but when it comes to their ACT scores students may seem as though they lack basic knowledge. Other students may be master test takers but have no comprehension of what they are answering. Sure, they know the nucleus is the center of the atom, but do they know what that means? These tests are much less accurate than their supporters may
Standardized tests don’t show accurately what the person likes or what they are good at. They don’t show if the student is a hard worker in and out of his studies. These tests show scores based off bubbles they filled in over a time span of 4-6 hours. 6 hours is not enough time to tell you who this person is and if they belong in a college. Even the test-maker admits that high school grades predict first-year college grades better than standardized test scores do. The reason behind that being is those high school grades have been acquired for over 4 years not just 6 hours.
You walk into school and you’re calm and relaxed feeling okay and ready to do the work in school. Once you walk into your english class you find out the class has to take a test, multiple choice and a few short answers. Once you hear that, your heart starts racing, you get shaky and you’re nervous. You suddenly forget everything you’ve known on the topic that the standardized test is on. You sit in your seat, waiting for the test to be handed to you, thinking if it’ll be too difficult or a piece of cake. Your teacher hands out the tests to the class and announces: “Okay everyone! This test is counted as a big grade and will let me know if you’ve been paying attention all these months. Do your best! You may begin.” The moment that is said you hope to do well so that you won’t fail and are more nervous than you were when you first started, and that’s how you begin and end your test.
There is defiantly more than one issue with the ACT and SAT, making this a problem for anyone who needs to take these test. These test can be scary and cause
This argument goes along with the other two mentioned and explained above. There isn’t much that is positive to say about these assessments. It places so much pressure on students to perform well and pressure on teachers to teach what is going to be on the test. This brings negative energy to classrooms. An article by Greg Jouriles helps explain why we don’t need these tests. He claims, “Standardized tests are unnecessary because they rarely show what we don’t already know” (Jouriles, Greg). He also goes on to explain that one’s test score isn’t reliable and that we should trust the teachers when grades are published. A school system can accurately judge the students in the school on what they are good at better than the standardized tests do. They can break down many different aspects of what students need to improve on and what they are already knowledgeable of. Students need to learn more than just the test information. Only studying and learning test material makes students less diverse and leads to boring lectures in the classroom. Another article written by an organization called Fairtest adds, “Some students simply do not test well. Many students are affected by test anxiety or do not show their learning well on a standardized test, resulting in inaccurately lower scores” (Fairtest). These tests punish students for what they can’t control, making them stressed and panicked that they won’t graduate or move on to the next grade. Some children are from low-income families attending schools with large classes with little to no materials for learning what is on the test. In addition to that, some teachers have never been educated on test content, which is not their fault, and this results in low-test scores. This all leads to why there are such negative feelings throughout classrooms of many
“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.” This quote by Michelle Obama illustrates the idea that standardized testing should not have such a large influence on education in America. However, a majority of people are under the impression that standardized tests are an accurate method to measure a person's intellectual ability. I believe that standardized tests have developed into a very critical part of the American education system; that is hindering the growth of students and teachers instead of providing a tool that can accurately measure knowledge.