I’ve always done exceptionally well on standardized tests. Whether it was the WKCE, the PSAT, or the SAT, I excelled at multiple choice, fill-in-the-bubble tests. When it came time for me to take the ACT, I knew going into it that I had that test in the bag. I came out with much better than average scores, scoring a 28 on the overall test, much better than most of my peers. Though math was never my strongest subject in high school, I had still managed to pull a score of 25 on the math section of the test. When I got to college, I was put in the normal, freshman level math class. My roommate, who had scored only a 20 on the math section of her ACT, was in Statistics, which is a slightly harder class. I thought I had my class in the bag. After all, I’d scored better than average on the ACT, so I figured I had nothing to worry about. I ended up finishing the semester with a failing grade in that class, by far the worst grade I had ever gotten in any class. My roommate, who only scored a 20, ended up with an A in a harder class than mine. How can this be if the ACT is an accurate measure of a person’s intelligence and likelihood to succeed in college?
Standardized testing has long been used in our country to evaluate the intelligence of students at many points along their academic journey. Starting as early as kindergarten, students all over the nation sit in quiet rooms with only a pencil and a bubble sheet, answering questions that are in no way tailored to them as an individual. Though tests are designed this way in order to make them a fair assessment, the makers of these tests have forgotten that fair is not always equal. Standardized tests should not be used as a measure of one’s academic success in schools because of their ina...
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...kes creativity, knowledge, and teamwork, something that is not taught by these Standardized tests. If these tests do not apply to the real world, there is no reason why schools should rely so heavily on them to determine the fate of its’ students.
Works Cited
Chadha, Anisha. "SAT: Standardized Tests Do Not Put Students on a Level Playing Field." The International. N.p., 8 Apr. 2014. Web. 08 May 2014.
Evans, Jasmine. "Problems With Standardized Testing." Education.com. N.p., 4 Nov. 2013. Web. 06 May 2014.
The Perfect Score. Dir. Brian Robbins. Perf. Scarlett Johansson, Erika Christensen, Chris Evans. Paramount Pictures, 2004. DVD.
Peterson, Bob, and Monty Neill. "Alternatives to Standardized Tests." Rethinking Schools Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2014.
"Standardized Test Definition." The Glossary of Education Reform. N.p., 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 03 May 2014.
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