Standardized Testing Helpful

Standardized Tests: Helpful or Hurtful? The major tests that have quickly taken over high school juniors’ and seniors’ lives: The ACT and SAT. Countless hours of studying spent all to obtain a score that is going to determine what colleges you get accepted to and if you are even going to qualify for scholarships. Standardized tests in today’s society have become a very significant factor that most colleges look at for admissions, even though it is not a true assessment of student’s knowledge. The subjects you are tested on are limited therefore your scores should not be used as a way to view what kind of student you are. This is not even taking into consideration the hours you spend studying for these standardized tests and learning how to
Often, students who usually excel in school struggle with standardized tests. Standardized tests are more of a representation of how well you take tests and can manage your time, not how much you know. To do well on this test, one must take it many times and learn how the makers of the test want you to answer it. Giving this, the test matches your aptitude of one day rather than academic progress, which is more important. It is stated, “With respect to education assessment, reliability equals consistency” (Popham and Streetman) which makes standardized tests unreliable because of the fluctuation from test to test .The conditions in which you take your test may affect how well you score. The rooms you are placed in may be too cold or too hot and this can affect your ability to focus. You may be put in a room that is full with people and this can be distracting. Students are forced to sit in a room for almost five hours with one fifteen-minute break. It is even possible to be sat so close to someone that you are able to see their answers, which causes people to cheat and get scores they do not deserve. It is not a true assessment of knowledge unless the test is administered exactly the same throughout the nation (Streetman). Not only is the ACT and SAT not reliable, it is also tested on irrelevant material that is not vital
Most students during this time are in honors or dual enrollment programs that require much time devoted to studying and homework. If a test allows you to retake it multiple times it is not a true assessment. This makes standardized tests a way to show how well you study, not how much you know. True aptitude tests should be taken once and should not be practiced for. Not only do you waste time, but also money. These standardized tests are costly and add up fast when you have to keep taking it to reach a certain score. You also have to pay even more money to get your test and answers back to see why you missed the ones you did. Study sessions that tend to be pricey sometimes last all day. Even more, strategies used to study standardized tests are not strategies students are taught for regular tests they take at school. As a result, students often get tired of countless hours of studying and not improving due to the trickiness these standardized test makers put into the assessments.
Although colleges rely greatly on standardized test scores, and have for a long time now, something needs to be done to abolish these tests. Instead of putting so much emphasis on test scores, colleges and scholarship committees should put more focus on classes students took and extra-curricular activities they were involved in during high