“Ring! Ring! Ring!” I groan as I force myself to turn off my alarm and get out of bed. It takes me a moment to orient myself to my surroundings, but once I do, a feeling of unprecedented terror falls upon me. It was the day. It was THE day that would determine the course of my entire life. It was time to face the beast that I had been dreading confronting for the longest time. It was SAT day. Okay, I know this was all a bit dramatic, but it doesn’t even begin to describe the terror I felt the morning of my first SAT exam. I think we can all agree that standardized tests are extremely nerve-wracking and stressful. With the rise of test-optional policies, the question can be asked: are standardized tests really necessary?
The most well-known reason for the rise of standardized tests is to create a “level playing field” for college applicants. This is because judging students’ academic prowess’ based solely on GPA is not fair because GPAs are calculated differently from school to school. Therefore, a need for a standard test to gauge students’ learning arose with the goal of judging students on their basic math and reading knowledge.
The issue with this test however, is not its original goal, but rather its effect on students’ mental health and learning capability. With only three hours to take tests like the SAT, many students face immense pressure when answering the questions. Students often experience test anxiety and become anxious in the intense testing environment. This puts them at an extreme disadvantage because standardized tests are more of a testament to one’s test-taking skills than their actual knowledge of the tested concepts. Furthermore, due to a focus on final scores and not the learning process, students and parents have become more focused on mastering test-taking skills and not the math and reading concepts they are being tested on. For example, when I attended a standardized testing class, I was shocked when the teacher started lecturing about the most simple algebra equation possible. I thought it was relatively easy to solve using basic algebra concepts, but to my surprise, the teacher started telling us to plug in each individual answer option into the equation to solve for x. Apparently, this was the “quicker” way to solve it, though it taught us nothing about algebra, hardly even grazing elementary school addition and subtraction. Therefore, students are not actually learning from these standardized tests; they are just learning how to best the system, a system that doesn’t actually need to be bested.
So, you might be asking, what do I think needs to be done about this issue? What is my “call to action”? I think standardized tests should be made optional and a new method of calculating GPAs and making them equal should be developed. Students can submit their standardized test scores if they believe it is an accurate representation of their academic abilities, but if not, they should not be penalized. The submission of test scores should be considered an advantage or a plus to an applicant’s application, giving them a bit of extra credit; however, it should not have so much power as to completely sway a decision. If it came to be a decision between two equally qualified candidates with one submitting a test score and the other not submitting a test score, further discussion should be had on their other merits instead of deciding based on the submission of their test scores.
I believe this system is the only way to lessen the dreadful impact of standardized testing on students while also allowing them the freedom to utilize the test tactics it does teach if they wish to do so. These tests should be taken out of choice, not out of necessity.
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