Every year, as the school year comes to an end, chatter about end-of-year tests fills every room. Most students stress about whether or not they’ll pass, and the consequences that come along. Putting students’ futures on a singular test is not the move.
The mind is a place that tends to spiral, especially when a lot is on the line, for example, end of year tests.
Many people get anxiety while taking tests and once they’re in that state, it’s very hard to reverse. A student could study all they want; they could know the topics like the back of their hand. But as soon as that testing anxiety hits, all that hard work disappears.
It’s not fair to put a big thing like what class you get put in the next year, dependent on one test. Especially when in the long run it can affect things like colleges.
Life and its hardships hit everyone at unexpected times. The worst day of your life could be tomorrow and you wouldn’t even know it. Having this happen to you would deeply affect how you test.
Many factors can negatively affect how someone would perform on a test. School districts, states, and the country must take these factors into consideration.
On the bright side, however, many tests allow for retakes if you’re absent, allowing for flexibility in students’ lives. However, tests like AP exams do not.
AP gives students one date and that’s it, no retakes. If someone is absent, oh well. If someone just had the worst day of their life and can’t show, oh well. If someone spent all year working their hardest to pass but just got unlucky, most tests just say oh well, and that needs to change.
Another flaw is that state tests don’t give feedback to teachers or students. The point of school is for students to learn and become better at the subjects they take. If a student takes a big test which they studied very hard for, they deserve to at least see what they missed.
Many teachers don’t even care about their job because of “teaching to the test”. Teachers’ job is to get students prepared for their end of year test and do well in the class because that’s what affects their paycheck. Many teachers don’t put in their full effort to teaching and act as if they don’t want their students to be engaged, because they just want to get paid.
School is a place that is meant to educate students and get them interested in certain subjects for their future. But relying everything on one test at the end of the year disrupts this.
End of year testing does nothing but induce stress and is not a fair assessment. A better system should be put in place like multiple tests throughout the year to test improvement rather than one moment in time.
