Should we get rid of standardized testing? - Arlo Kempf
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Date: 2020-08-22
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Comments and reviews: 10
Eira
I'm 2 years late on this topic but I would want to express my thoughts. I want the school exams to be a measure of what you have learned in a period of time and not a measure of how smart you are and what is your rank against your classmates.
Makes me remember how I was back in highschool. I had always been good at test and my goal was to ace every single one of them because failing was humiliating and having good grades get you awards and praise from your parents. So I'd rather be alone and study all the time. I'd rather stay at home than socialize & go to parties because I didn't want to be like my peers who often fail on their exams.
When I got to college, i started to realize my highschool life taught me the wrong thing. In highschool, exam scores held the highest percentage of your overall grade. As long as you ace them, you'll be part of the honor roll.
In college, you should be more active in participating to earn high grades. Recitation, reporting, joining clubs, & extra curricular activities. I wasn't that person and they made me anxious. I struggled on my grades. These stress of fitting in, wanting to be an ace student, anxiety from too much interaction weighed heavy on me and affected my performance.
I wish my grade school and high school didn't focused on these examinations and scores so that I would actually absorb what was taught and not just memorize them for grades.
Exams didn't really taught me how it is in the real world. You don't really need to remember all info in the subject to get a good job. They made be hate school at a time.
One annoying fact is that your peers who didn't actually took school that seriously have a better life after school than you who dedicated so much to be a top student.
I don't completely blame education, teachers, institution however the education department and school officials should modify our learning system.
Anyway, I also hope someday exams will not be a factor for universities to accept students. I think it's discrimination to decline student's enrollment just because they are unable to pass a test.
reply
I'm 2 years late on this topic but I would want to express my thoughts. I want the school exams to be a measure of what you have learned in a period of time and not a measure of how smart you are and what is your rank against your classmates.
Makes me remember how I was back in highschool. I had always been good at test and my goal was to ace every single one of them because failing was humiliating and having good grades get you awards and praise from your parents. So I'd rather be alone and study all the time. I'd rather stay at home than socialize & go to parties because I didn't want to be like my peers who often fail on their exams.
When I got to college, i started to realize my highschool life taught me the wrong thing. In highschool, exam scores held the highest percentage of your overall grade. As long as you ace them, you'll be part of the honor roll.
In college, you should be more active in participating to earn high grades. Recitation, reporting, joining clubs, & extra curricular activities. I wasn't that person and they made me anxious. I struggled on my grades. These stress of fitting in, wanting to be an ace student, anxiety from too much interaction weighed heavy on me and affected my performance.
I wish my grade school and high school didn't focused on these examinations and scores so that I would actually absorb what was taught and not just memorize them for grades.
Exams didn't really taught me how it is in the real world. You don't really need to remember all info in the subject to get a good job. They made be hate school at a time.
One annoying fact is that your peers who didn't actually took school that seriously have a better life after school than you who dedicated so much to be a top student.
I don't completely blame education, teachers, institution however the education department and school officials should modify our learning system.
Anyway, I also hope someday exams will not be a factor for universities to accept students. I think it's discrimination to decline student's enrollment just because they are unable to pass a test.
reply
Oscar
As someone who has worked in education at both the high school and university level, I can tell you that standardized testing simply serves to disadvantage students on the basis of how well they can understand and interpret a question relative to other students. To give an example, a lot of the mathematics tests used on the senior year of high school which contribute a score for university admissions, are not tricky to a lot of students because the questions are difficult or require a lot of work, but because they are worded in a very sneaky way so that only a very specific type of student will be able to pick up the true meaning of the question. Same is used in English tests, science tests, and so forth. It is actually the norm, and in fact when you design questions for these tests the first thing you are told is to make sure the question follows a certain format, that is: you can't just ask directly Jamie puts 30K into his bank account today, how much money will he have after 10 years at a certain interest rate? instead you need to ask If Jamie puts 30K in his bank at the Beginning of this month, how much will he have after 10 years at the end of this month. This is a simple example, and may not actually reflect the point I am trying to make, but believe me: the wording actually confuses over 70% of the students almost all the time. Why? Because unnecessary information is given and presented as important, so the student has to spend extra time thinking about it. You might think this is useful for testing problem solving capacity, but I can guarantee you after you go into the workforce, whether for a company or academia, questions have to be very direct and straight-forward, most people would hang you if you ask confusing questions like the one I just presented, it's actually categorized under poor communication skills
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As someone who has worked in education at both the high school and university level, I can tell you that standardized testing simply serves to disadvantage students on the basis of how well they can understand and interpret a question relative to other students. To give an example, a lot of the mathematics tests used on the senior year of high school which contribute a score for university admissions, are not tricky to a lot of students because the questions are difficult or require a lot of work, but because they are worded in a very sneaky way so that only a very specific type of student will be able to pick up the true meaning of the question. Same is used in English tests, science tests, and so forth. It is actually the norm, and in fact when you design questions for these tests the first thing you are told is to make sure the question follows a certain format, that is: you can't just ask directly Jamie puts 30K into his bank account today, how much money will he have after 10 years at a certain interest rate? instead you need to ask If Jamie puts 30K in his bank at the Beginning of this month, how much will he have after 10 years at the end of this month. This is a simple example, and may not actually reflect the point I am trying to make, but believe me: the wording actually confuses over 70% of the students almost all the time. Why? Because unnecessary information is given and presented as important, so the student has to spend extra time thinking about it. You might think this is useful for testing problem solving capacity, but I can guarantee you after you go into the workforce, whether for a company or academia, questions have to be very direct and straight-forward, most people would hang you if you ask confusing questions like the one I just presented, it's actually categorized under poor communication skills
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Molly. Dog8
Unfortunately the national secondary exams (GCSEs) in my country are slowly turning to more memorization. We have to memorize 14 poems, quotes from 5 short stories, all names of the techniques that have been used as well as how to answer the questions- and thats just in English. We have like 15 equations in science (5 are given in the exams) and all relevant formulas in maths. Dont even get me started with the 1014 years of British history we have to remember and about 200 years of modern world history. Music and French are the easiest oddly enough (bilingual in French though, so that doesnt count. My friend is struggling with it quite a bit) and thats no saying much.
Sorry for the rant, I just dont understand why they couldnt let us make spider diagrams from our notes that will be checked over, then we could take them into the exams. Or at least they could tell us what will be on the test (see: OCR RE, where you have to do 4/6 of the different topics, so you just gotta pray that it isnt gonna be one that youve struggled with. I feel for those that didnt get to do their exams this year though.
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Unfortunately the national secondary exams (GCSEs) in my country are slowly turning to more memorization. We have to memorize 14 poems, quotes from 5 short stories, all names of the techniques that have been used as well as how to answer the questions- and thats just in English. We have like 15 equations in science (5 are given in the exams) and all relevant formulas in maths. Dont even get me started with the 1014 years of British history we have to remember and about 200 years of modern world history. Music and French are the easiest oddly enough (bilingual in French though, so that doesnt count. My friend is struggling with it quite a bit) and thats no saying much.
Sorry for the rant, I just dont understand why they couldnt let us make spider diagrams from our notes that will be checked over, then we could take them into the exams. Or at least they could tell us what will be on the test (see: OCR RE, where you have to do 4/6 of the different topics, so you just gotta pray that it isnt gonna be one that youve struggled with. I feel for those that didnt get to do their exams this year though.
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samman7324
I didn't mind taking standardized tests in school. The problem I had with them was that they were timed. And Sometimes I would have to re-read a question several times because of test anxiety or due to a short attention span. But once I understood the question, I almost always answered it correctly. Or least I think I did. The problem was I rarely finished the tests because they were timed and it took me longer to take them compared to other students due to the aforementioned reasons. Maybe the test givers wanted to know this and that's what they put a time limit on taking the test. But how could they know why the student failed to answer a question? Was it because they were slow at taking tests or because they didn't know the answer?
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I didn't mind taking standardized tests in school. The problem I had with them was that they were timed. And Sometimes I would have to re-read a question several times because of test anxiety or due to a short attention span. But once I understood the question, I almost always answered it correctly. Or least I think I did. The problem was I rarely finished the tests because they were timed and it took me longer to take them compared to other students due to the aforementioned reasons. Maybe the test givers wanted to know this and that's what they put a time limit on taking the test. But how could they know why the student failed to answer a question? Was it because they were slow at taking tests or because they didn't know the answer?
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Cuddly
So many comments about the relevance of questions to what the test is suppose to assess. I have my own story. Before nursing school, I was required to take the ATI TEAS exam. It's used to assess how well one will do in nursing school. It gave me a scenario that required me to evaluate methods of collecting and analyzing data on chimney swifts, a group of birds that would inhabit chimneys as an adapted method of overcoming industrialization in America. I'm sure I got some questions wrong, especially when it came to the collection of measurement data on that specific bird.
I'm about to graduate from nursing school now and I still have yet to apply my knowledge of birds to patients suffering from hypertension or diabetes.
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So many comments about the relevance of questions to what the test is suppose to assess. I have my own story. Before nursing school, I was required to take the ATI TEAS exam. It's used to assess how well one will do in nursing school. It gave me a scenario that required me to evaluate methods of collecting and analyzing data on chimney swifts, a group of birds that would inhabit chimneys as an adapted method of overcoming industrialization in America. I'm sure I got some questions wrong, especially when it came to the collection of measurement data on that specific bird.
I'm about to graduate from nursing school now and I still have yet to apply my knowledge of birds to patients suffering from hypertension or diabetes.
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Ginger
a few years ago, I got a thing called a cataract in my eyes which made me blind. at the same time, our school, as well as all the other schools, were doing standardized testing. my parents explained to the teachers that I was blind and was going to have surgery and asked if I could take the test at a later date. they said no and made me take the test anyway. the test was a reading test, but they didn't allow the teacher to read it to me. I ended up failing the test and I had to take an extra class to help me be better in reading. the next year I scored above average and now have a passion for writing.
this just shows you how little standardized testing shows the ability of a child.
reply
a few years ago, I got a thing called a cataract in my eyes which made me blind. at the same time, our school, as well as all the other schools, were doing standardized testing. my parents explained to the teachers that I was blind and was going to have surgery and asked if I could take the test at a later date. they said no and made me take the test anyway. the test was a reading test, but they didn't allow the teacher to read it to me. I ended up failing the test and I had to take an extra class to help me be better in reading. the next year I scored above average and now have a passion for writing.
this just shows you how little standardized testing shows the ability of a child.
reply
Bookish
Exams work differently in Germany.
Tests that are solely multiple choice are illegal.
Instead, we get some kind of text that we first have to summarize a certain aspect from, then analyze the issue presented in it and then we have to critically answer a question, such as will this course of action solve whatever problem is presented in the text or does it have to be tackled differently?
For all of those tasks, we need to write long texts. (Most people write about 1000 words in every exam)
That way, we actually have to think and applicate information to situations that are only similar to the ones we practiced it on other than just remembering facts.
reply
Exams work differently in Germany.
Tests that are solely multiple choice are illegal.
Instead, we get some kind of text that we first have to summarize a certain aspect from, then analyze the issue presented in it and then we have to critically answer a question, such as will this course of action solve whatever problem is presented in the text or does it have to be tackled differently?
For all of those tasks, we need to write long texts. (Most people write about 1000 words in every exam)
That way, we actually have to think and applicate information to situations that are only similar to the ones we practiced it on other than just remembering facts.
reply
Masked
Ive been diagnosed with Dyslexia and dyscalculia (which doesnt affect me as much) but when I was in primary/elementary school my teachers had a suspicion. They brought me in a room just me and them and handed me a hand written equation fractions (I dont remember the equation) I answered it handed it back then took it back as I realised I got it wrong and corrected myself, they handed me a hand written equation it was too difficult for me to answer. They where the same questions second one was longer worded effecting my dyslexia.
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Ive been diagnosed with Dyslexia and dyscalculia (which doesnt affect me as much) but when I was in primary/elementary school my teachers had a suspicion. They brought me in a room just me and them and handed me a hand written equation fractions (I dont remember the equation) I answered it handed it back then took it back as I realised I got it wrong and corrected myself, they handed me a hand written equation it was too difficult for me to answer. They where the same questions second one was longer worded effecting my dyslexia.
reply
Nathan
When I started university as a STEM major, I got to skip the first 2 semesters of math due to my AP Calculus test scores. I took Linear Algebra as the first math course at university. and failed miserably, even though I was able to do all the assignments, most of which were open-book. That's because Linear Algebra was the first math course in which I couldn't get by just by memorizing formulas and algorithms; I also had to know when and how to apply those algorithms. In my professor's words, it was the first real math course.
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When I started university as a STEM major, I got to skip the first 2 semesters of math due to my AP Calculus test scores. I took Linear Algebra as the first math course at university. and failed miserably, even though I was able to do all the assignments, most of which were open-book. That's because Linear Algebra was the first math course in which I couldn't get by just by memorizing formulas and algorithms; I also had to know when and how to apply those algorithms. In my professor's words, it was the first real math course.
reply
Violet
The school system punishes people for doing poorly but does nothing to encourage excellence, the only reward is a good score, which, just isn't enough, especially for kids who couldn't care less about what some numbers on a piece of paper means. Kids have no concept of the far future, only the immediate consequences of present actions. So, yeah, just get rid of it until there is something suited for the individual and, maybe, some act incentive to do well on them at all.
reply
The school system punishes people for doing poorly but does nothing to encourage excellence, the only reward is a good score, which, just isn't enough, especially for kids who couldn't care less about what some numbers on a piece of paper means. Kids have no concept of the far future, only the immediate consequences of present actions. So, yeah, just get rid of it until there is something suited for the individual and, maybe, some act incentive to do well on them at all.
reply
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