Intellect Vs Test Scores Essay

Whether we realize it or not, test scores play a vital role in many people’s self esteem. A person who frequently scores high will be confident that they are very intelligent and will expect others to see them that way. Asimov attested to this when he stated, “All my life I’ve been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I’m highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think that too.” (Asimov, 536). On the other hand, those who score low on tests often write themselves off to be unintelligent. Emphasis on the importance of the ACT or SAT test scores can lead an adolescent to conclude that he or she is not capable of succeeding in college and lead them to not pursue higher education. The tragedy is that we may pass on opportunities because we have labelled ourselves unintelligent based on a test score which is not a true refelection of our

Most standardized test do not measure emotional or mechanical intelligence, actually a lot of educators argue that standardized test do not measure comprehension or actual intelligence but rather memorization. While others may believe that standardized testing just needs a few improvements, others believe that it is impossible to have a test that measures accurately the capability of a diverse student population. Today’s schooling depends heavily on the test scores from standardized test. Standardized testing should not have so much weight put on them because they have a negative impact on effective education, students’ self-concept, and learning styles.

Additionally, Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” There are different forms of intelligence that go beyond what our school system measures. Students are not a unit to be measured, and students cannot be assigned a numerical value to identify their intelligence. Students are diverse—they learn at different speeds, and they learn in different ways. Focusing solely on test scores is hurting our students and deviating away from building our society on success and excellence. Critics are slowly realizing the problems associated with standardized tests—they create anxiety, they are extremely biased, and they do not measure the ability to think deeply.

Similarly, many teachers, statewide, feel that these exams that no significant value towards a student’s overall intelligence. According to a survey by both the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Scholastic, of more than ten-thousand public school teachers, this report has found that teachers

We go to school for twelve years, and throughout those twelve years we learn many techniques and a variety of subjects. The techniques we learn in elementary school we pursue it into middle school. Once finishing middle school everything becomes more challenging. Walking into high school is a really big step, and also very stressful. Going into junior year and senior year is when you set your mind to different goals and you start asking yourself “What college do I want to attend?” “Am I even capable of being successful in the career I want to persevere in?” All those questions depend on a test score, throughout junior year every student is getting prepared for the test that relies on their future.

Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” I’ve seen this today, where students are these fish, and these standardized tests that we take are the judges at how well we climb up the tree.

The use of standardized examinations have long been debated in American society. In fact, the last several years have seen an immense shift from the prioritization of standardized testing to more holistic measurements of student achievement. Despite this shift, many school districts across the nation and college/university entrance requirements still place a significant, if not pivotal, emphasis on test-taking and standardized exam results. Throughout this paper, I will explore 1) the history of standardized testing, 2) arguments for and against its practice, as well as 3) situate the consequences of its use in one of the three philosophical goals of schooling. All of this will subsequently paint an investigation into the purpose of schooling in American society.

For many years, standardized tests have been a pillar of college admissions. Students are persuaded to take the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) because colleges believe the scores can predict an applicant’s academic success after high school. However, an increasing number of colleges have made reporting test scores optional due to inconsistencies with the tests, many of which have been emphasized by students. These inconsistencies and other problems with test distribution have led to increasing demands for standardized testing to be reformed or become optional in the admissions process. Standardized testing should be eliminated as a criterion for college applicants because the tests have made education less significant, have made scores vary among students with similar academic abilities, and have not contributed a noticeable improvement to children’s intelligence.

This is in fact not the case, there are an abundant number of alternatives to standardized assessments. Alternatives to determined how a school performs according to "Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students' Abilities" are "high school graduation rates and number of dropouts, enrollments in advanced placement and other college prep courses, college acceptance rate, and college remediation rates for recent high school graduates" (6). As previously mentioned by the research the Hampshire College performed there are also alternatives for accepting students into colleges that are not test scores. Some possible choices are essays and interviews, recommendations from mentors, and assess factors such as their community engagement and entrepreneurism. The main point is that these standardized tests can be replaced with better options of where to place schools and students on the overall

Albert Einstein once stated, “not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.” High-stakes testing attempts to determine the knowledge a person has obtained throughout grades K-12. These standardized tests are being used to judge a person’s ability to graduate from high school and also judge if a child has enough knowledge to proceed to the next grade level. Throughout this paper, I will be discussing how these tests do not accurately portray one’s intelligence, how they have increased drop out rates, and also show the damaging psychological affects they have had.

Tests, especially some standardized tests, not only make some students suffer from Neuro-psychentonia but also make teachers unable to handle the newly added knowledge in the tests that they even have not learned yet. Hence, truly effective standardized exams should test students’ understanding of the knowledge as well as their critical thinking instead of making standardized tests unreasonably tougher. And in order to buttress this perspective, the editor and publisher of The Nation Magazine: Katrina vanden Hevuel utilized many rhetorical appeals’ strategies to write her article “Stakes on standardized testing are too high,” which was published by The Washington Post. In the article, Hevuel displayed the uselessness and adverse aspects of improper standardized tests and emphasized her opinion that suitable and proper tests should truly focus on what students learned and how their teachers have been taught. Hevuel hopes her article can attract the attention of readers such as students, parents, and particularly educators and get their approval. Moreover, Hevuel

Does it seem fair to judge students on a test that cannot be studied for? Every year students are forced to take the dreaded SAT test to strengthen their college resume`. Those who do well stand out to colleges, but those with average or below average scores have a tougher time getting accepted by colleges. Doing bad on an SAT test can be so demoralizing for a person especially if they are hard-working. One may not realize it at first, but this test is very significant to our futures. It determines what college we want to get into, the type of education we will get, and how our resume` will look for jobs in the future; it is all a domino effect. This is why it is unfair for colleges to base the bulk of their acceptance rate

Advocating is a necessity that can help make people aware of the injustices with these tests and help recommend better and fairer evaluation tools. Advocating for the removal of college entrance exams also needs to be increased as well. Currently, there are over 800 colleges that are SAT/ACT optional. The research has shown that these schools still admit the same level of quality students and that their graduation rates have remained the same since they have dropped the SAT/ACT requirement. The statistics from these colleges need to be disseminated

A pencil and a paper is more powerful than it appears. It can determine our admission into college and our entire future. It is what creates standardized testing; it is what creates our deepest fears. The sole purpose of standardized testing is to measure intelligence in an “objective” way. However, the problem is WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME; therefore, we should not be judged the same. I am for the abolishment of standardized testing because it leads to stress and is only used for ranking. The only thing standardized testing does is measure one’s ability to take a test and nothing else.

As stated in the previously mentioned Columbia University paper, and in an article by Derrick Meador, titled “What You Need to Know About Standardized Testing,” many things can happen the day before or of the test that can hinder a student’s performance. Including, as Meador exemplifies, getting into a fight with his parents the morning of the test. Chances are, that no matter what the fight was about, that student is going to be much more focused on that, than the test right in front of him. And, unfortunately, the person - or machine - grading the test isn’t going to take that into account, therefore giving him a low score that he does not