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You have to be tested on everything these days, driver’s tests, eye exams, even physical fitness tests to be in the Armed Forces. But something not everyone can relate to is standardized testing. This is something fairly new to the school system and while it is a good idea to be tested on what you have learned, you shouldn’t have to devote a semester to learning how to take the FCAT or take any number of gmat prep courses. Test taking should be no different than a final exam, but these create more headaches between teachers, students, and parents than they are worth.
Teaching tests is an online resource that contains the latest information on how these tests are designed, what kind of stress is causes students, how it affects college applications, and how schools lose funding depending on performance. The site also offers readers tips and tricks to beating the tests. Most of the tips include how to inform students that they should treat this as any other test, that teachers should not emphasize what consequences students will face with failure.
The object of these tests is to see that students are operating at the appropriate level, and for some reason the tests, finals, projects, and powerpoints that they do throughout their 13 years in school are not enough to provide adequate evidence that they are performing at their expected level.