Do you remember when you took the ACT or had to take a big test at the end of a course? Did you struggle? Students deal with standardized tests all the time, and most of us are not good test takers. Many students stress over these big tests when they define nothing about us.
In the early 1900s, France began to use testing. America has used testing to rank its students and make the schools act as factories. Our country has changed over the past 100 years, so what’s the point of a standardized test?
Students often take these bigger tests and panic over it because it defines which college we get into, which will define the rest of our lives. This way of thinking is very outdated. The SAT was created to measure an ill-defined concept of “g.” But what is “g,” and why is it so important? People don’t know what “g” is, nor do we care how much one has scored. We should be focusing on the work we have now and how to function getting into being an adult, not staying up all night studying for one big test that you will most likely fail.
Due to COVID, many tests were forgiven and didn’t happen. When my eighth grade year was interrupted, I was glad I didn’t have to do the end-of-the-year tests because my test-taking skills weren’t the strongest. When I had to take the ACT, nothing changed, but I still got into the college I wanted because it doesn’t count that score. If most colleges don’t need this information, why do we use it? These tests typically are used if you are going for an Ivy League school that looks at these scores to decide which student is different from the other.
Since Tropical Storm Helene came through and caused mass devastation, these students don’t have the resources to live, let alone study for a test. Why are we thinking that these kids can make a future for themselves when they don’t have a home to live in, food, water, power or even family? What if these kids were going to Ivy League schools? What do they do? They will not get into their dream school they worked so hard to get to only because they couldn’t take a test.
We need to get rid of this outdated way of education. If we want to continue and give our youths the best lives possible, why are we torturing them with this idea of standardized tests defining their lives? This is why we should get rid of standardized testing and teach our students to work hard for their future and not some big test.
— Carter Warren
Cullowhee
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