Standardized Testing Day

The wide-spread use of standardized testing in the American education system is not helping anybody. Standardized testing was designed to help schools see how their students were performing academically in standard way. The NCLB (No Child Left Behind) Act made standardized testing tied to school funding. It made the government reward or punish schools based on test scores. It was made to help students stay on track. Instead, standardized testing is lowering the quality of education in the United States. Standardized testing puts stress on students, forces schools and teachers to “teach to the test”, and has not helped the United States in worldwide education rankings.

Standardized testing in the United States started in the mid- 1800’s (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org). This kind of testing was originally created to measure students’ performance and progress in school (Standardized Tests - ProCon.org). In recent years, the public school system has relied heavily on the information this test provides, in doing so creating controversy. Other than being a student myself, and participating in multiple standardized exams such as, CSAP, ACT, and SAT, I do not have much background knowledge on this debate. The debate over standardized testing has raised this inquiry question: What are the effects of standardized testing on the United States public education system?

Many know the stressful feeling of having to take the ACT. The exam room fills slowly with worried faces and remains quiet until the test stars. Students grasp their pencils tightly, their palms sweating with the thought of their future at stake with this single test. In order to get into any college, an ACT or SAT score is required. These required scores for admission vary from school to school which can make it difficult for every student to attend their dream school. A single test will determine who can and cannot attend a certain college. With this system, it can deny students with potential in certain fields a place in a college because they might not test well. College admission should not be based on

Alarming is an understatement when it comes to the anxiety and stress standardized testing brings. Students are told how vital these tests can be to college acceptance, class placement, and school ranking, so it is no surprise that they lead students to become stressed out and anxious about taking the assessments. According to education researcher Gregory J. Cizek, "illustrating how testing... produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students, and makes young children vomit or cry, or both" (2). The affect standardized testing has on students is unacceptable, no students should be anxious and uneasy about going to school due to a test. To continue, the Sacramento Bee reported that "test-related jitters, especially among young students,

There are common misconceptions about what you should do before a big exam. People are often cramming one or two days before the big final or pulling all nighters in hopes of learning a semester’s worth of material. This method is very unrealistic and does not yield the desired results most of the time. Now that midterm season is coming to an end, finals are fast approaching and some have realized this is their only chance to recover in a class. In order to bounce back, students should organize routine study time to decrease the probability of cramming, continue to move while studying, and limit the number of distractions around you.

Sitting on the computer, signing up for the SAT, I envisioned myself taking the standardized test that so many dreaded. I saw myself kicking butt on the exam, exceeding my expectations, and earning myself admission into the college of my choice, which I had not yet decided on. When the day had come to take the test, junior year of high school, I was terrified, not because of the test, but because of the circumstances I now found myself in. School had always been tricky for me – waking up and getting ready in the morning, forcing myself onto the bus, the worst parts. My grades were amazing though, considering my fear of school. I earned mainly A’s in college prep and honors classes.

Standardized testing is used to tell students level in certain areas of academics; however, it is actually a waste of time and money.

The way I take a standardized test is the night before i will study the subject that will be in the test so I can be prepared when I am testing. There will be some problems I struggle in when I am taking the test but I do my best to solve it out. I consider my self and good tester because because I am always about 60% prepare when I have to take a test. I feel like I have always been a good tester because I feel like I am always prepared to take a test I don't struggle as much when I am prepared. The way I prepare my self for a standardized test is I will ask the teacher to give me a few problems that will be on the test to keep on practicing until I feel prepared. The night before I will review a few problems that I think will help me out

In recent years Florida’s standardized testing program has taken a turn for the worst. After doing away with the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) the debate has only grown due to flood of new tests being created such as the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) or End of Course Exam (EOC). These tests are administered to test students’ abilities at the end of the school year. In spring of 2015, with only two months of testing between the EOC’s and the FSA, Florida’s legislature implemented the FSA. The main reason the testing was delayed was because the new tests had to be administered on a computer, so that scores could be calculated faster. Though most of the recent issues make it seem that testing is useless, there are still positives. Administering these tests allows the state to measure the level of improvement in the education students are receiving and it keeps the teachers adhering to the curriculum plan. The positive and negative points about testing bring up the question: Should standardized testing in Florida be eliminated or changed?

Try to keep your personal experience out of your test. Really read the question and think about what the question is asking and what information is provided. Try to base your answer only on the information that is provided within the question. If you are having trouble figuring out what the question is asking, underline or highlight key phrases, and then give the question a second look.

On the standardized tests I think that I do pretty well because I always answer the question even if I do not really know the answer I try to think on something that can give me unless a half of a point. I always have been that way because if I think about I always try to do my best on tests because I think they are important. I prepare myself for a standardized test by paying attention on the subject that we are studying or we had been studying so it would make my understanding more easy and listening to the teacher when they tell us that we are going to have a standardized test because they kind of tell us what is going to be about. What do I do for the night before the standardized test is that I try to study everything or the most important

Teachers don’t seem to understand that testing anxiety is real. Yes it is my fault that I did bad on multiple tests. But teachers shouldn’t make a big deal about big tests. They need to take a better approach about it. Instead of letting us fail help us to so we don’t fail the first time. In high school the teachers helped prepare us for the OGT so when the time came to take it I was so confident on it. When the results came in I did excellent on every section. I was freaking out before, during and after the test. But I stayed calm while taking it because the teachers prepared me for it. Now with the ACT, I was told that all of high school prepares you for the ACT. Boy, were they wrong. The ACT times you and if you run out of time, game over. Move onto the next section. In school if I you run out of time on a test you can come in later that day and finish it or finish it then and be late to your next

Standardized tests are annoying little things that students in schools all across the nation have to take every year. Though, if all the facts are taken into consideration, they do not really seem worth it, do they? Many people speculate whether or not they are actually measuring a student’s intelligence or anything like that. It seems that students do not necessarily have to learn the material, only memorize it for a short period of time. The question has to be raised, though-- what exactly qualifies a test to be a standardized test? Well, as described by The Glossary of Education Reform, there are two main things that make a test standardized. The first being that the test “...requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or

The best advice I can give to students during finals is to take everything in step by step. Students should start to prepare a week in advance and spend maybe 10-15 minutes on each class daily. There's no reason to over stress the situation because usually an individual knows more than they think they do. I have so many friends that constantly stay up and pull all-nighters the day before only to find themselves excruciatingly tired the next day and they repeat this process over and over and over again. What’s the point of staying up all night to retain information if you’re basically going to be sleeping during the test? On the first day of your new semester look at the calendar and mark down the day you will begin starting to study for finals

Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of Great Britain, once said, “You do not achieve anything without trouble.” This quote can directly apply to getting ready for and taking the ACT Test (Myres n.pag.). The ACT is a standardized college admissions test that measures multiple skills that students learn throughout high school. This test is said to determine quite a few things in students’ lives to come, and the ACT is supposed to be taken very seriously. Nonetheless, it is very difficult for students to prepare themselves for this test because there is so much that they have to know. Many students spend countless hours preparing and studying for the test because they want to do well, and they go through a lot of trouble in an attempt to succeed. Most of the time, preparing does help boost students’ scores; however, too much preparation can lead to problems and possible negative outcomes in their lives. Thatcher was completely correct when she said that there will be trouble in order to succeed because there are a lot of things that can go wrong in a student’s life while he or she is spending time studying for the ACT. Having said this, being a Junior who is getting ready for the ACT is truly the worst of times because it stresses students out, ruins their social and family lives, and determines their lives after high school.