Speech On Exams

Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.

I never considered myself smart or brilliant much less a genius. In fact, even though I took the most rigorous courses offered in my high school I always felt like I was dumb. That same day that my English teacher questioned us he gave us a book called Burro Genius: A Memoir by Victor Villasenor and told us we were to read it and turn in a reflection. So, as I rode the bus home I started reading. As the bus dropped me off

This essay is fairly accurate when it talks about how our school system has relied too heavily on test scores and they’ve made it almost all about memorizing. Most of the time people will memorize the information for the test and after the test they never end up using the information again because it’s not some we need in the real world. Especially after the invention of the internet there really isn’t any reason to have to memorize again since any question you could ever have could simply be answered by using the internet. The only part of this essay I don’t agree with is that the writer makes it sound like all schools today are focused on great test

Intelligence has a limit, geniuses have a threshold, and divergent thinkers are our future. Malcolm Gladwell addresses these issues in the chapter “The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 1” and I have to agree with his reasoning. In the chapter, the Termites are a group of highly intelligent kids that Lewis Terman (hence the name Termites) keeps tabs on as they go through life. He believes that because these students have such high IQs that they will be boundlessly successful. However, it turns out that some are successful and some are not, and I believe the success of the Termites was partially based on personality.

In today’s world, young people think that if they continue their tertiary education, they can access a better job, no matter which subject they take. This situation indirectly causes a huge enrollment of students into universities and colleges, which may drop off the quality of education. As the author says, “quantity trumps quality” (pg. 168) which certify that the environment is skipped from education to jobs; meanwhile, the knowledge part is ignored by the students. In detail, they do not expect to learn something but just to get a degree which acts as “a passport to consideration for a job”. (pg. 164) This condition gradually turns credentialing into the norm. Everyone only cares about the degree that they will receive rather than concerning about what they will learn and develop through their subject’s material.

How can we solve this concern? Scott does not reveal this because there is no real fix. Even though we know the problem it would be almost impossible to change the system at this point, it would then mean to change our entire culture. If we did not have set standards to distinguish those who are proficient then, there would be chaos. This article leaves the reader with a sense of being incapable to change the educational system. However, this article was created to try to transform the “system”, but just allow us to be aware of this “conditioning”. “…do what you have to do in order to fulfill the requirements and move on” (Scott 156). This quote allows the reader to realize what the school system really is; a bureaucratic structure while, giving the opportunity to self-assess our identity and express with

Scores are a noble idea and progress should be valued, but is the United States going

The last theme I found presented in these sources is measurement of student success. Source number one, “Are Exams Bad for Children?”, explains that we can find better ways to measure a student’s learning abilities. Stephanie Schneider says, “More reliable methods of assessment can provide meaningful information that assist student learning, rather than a test that often serves as a punitive device” (30). The

Education as a whole has been the key to the future and provides to the students with skill that they could not get anywhere. The new age has clearly shown us that education is a vital ingredient for a person’s future. Education has shown that one who studies further has a better lifestyle and will be highly respected, but what education cannot do is offer everyone the opportunity to succeed. Only a few students can take advantage of education; because if suddenly

In the speech “Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren” by Barack Obama, he encourages students to try hard in school because education will further their success in the future. President Obama uses the reasoning that with education students will have responsibility just like those around them to achieve high standards. Students must also try hard in school to get their work completed and not give up on their education and make going to college a goal of theirs. Students need to have responsibility, try hard on their education, and be aware that they have many educational opportunities.

We negate: Observation one: The skill of memorizing a test hinders the students from learning more than what’s on the test because standardized testing limits the teachers to only teach what’s on the test. The University of Columbia writes. “Standardized testing causes many teachers to only “teach to the tests”. This practice can hinder a student’s overall learning potential. With the stakes getting higher and higher for teachers, this practice will only continue to increase. The sad reality is that it fosters an atmosphere that is boring and lacks creativeness. Teachers have such pressure to get their students ready for these exams that they neglect to teach students skills that go beyond the tests” Therefore the most important impact in

Getting an education is the main goal for everyone, although it is easy to obtain there are some obstacles to it. One of the main obstacles students face at the beginning of their education is standardized tests. Schools have started to adopt this type of tests as their main way to evaluate students’ intelligence and teachers’ effectiveness to educate the students. The way students used to learn has changed, in order to get them ready for the tests they have to spend much of the school time preparing for it instead of learning something they can use in their future life. According to Bruce Jacobs in No Child Left Behind's Emphasis on 'Teaching to the Test' Undermines Quality Teaching, a 2007 study by the University of Maryland teachers were put in much pressure and had thoughts to teach the test […]. This shows that teachers have also been affected by standardized tests in a way they have more pressure to make students pass. Having teachers ‘teach the test’ means their way to educate has been corrupted. In most cases when teachers’ ability to educate has been changed leads them to practice methods not convenient for scholars. One of these methods is memorization, in Relying on High-Stakes Standardized Tests to Evaluate Schools and Teachers: A Bad Idea by Hani Morgan describes how students start to adapt to an “inferior type of learning, based on memorization and recall students gain when teachers

“ When Students cheat on exams it’s because our school system values grades more than students value learning - Neil Degrasse Tyson.” Cheating in school happens everyday around the world. This can be prevented by getting rid of tests, making class lectures more understable and fun, and also shortening the amount of homework students get.

Form of student or school assessment and how it impacts introduction of innovative educational practices and development of innovation skills in education system continue to elicit a lot of debate. Looney's report tries to shed some light on the impact of high-stake summative assessment on innovation. Looney (2009) is convinced that high-stakes assessment and examinations through innovative approaches to testing can be reconciled. Assessments based on high-stake examinations can at times be used as an incentive to teach or study to the test. The mere fact that high-stake assessment examinations acts as incentive to teach or study "to the test" limits risk-taking by teachers, students, and parents.

Therefore, an educational institution such as a University that does not uphold the conduct of a fair examination of its students is only breeding an angry generation that will turn against it sooner or later. The situation is so pathetic that it needs to be adequately addressed. It is against this background that this study is carried out.