Stress, anxiety, worry, and pressure. All of these things can be felt by students while taking a timed test. The topic of timed tests is often overlooked because people consider it an unimportant topic. However, after thoroughly looking into this topic and fairly weighing both sides of the argument, I firmly believe that students should not take timed tests. Primarily, stress can affect a student’s memory, causing them to have a hard time remembering the details about the topic. Secondly, timed tests can create negative messages about the subject. Lastly, students are so focused on the time constraint that they often don’t show their full abilities. While some opposers may tell you that timed tests are great to see who knows the material and …show more content…
As Jo Boaler, Professor at Stanford University, explains in the article Timed Testing and the Development of Anxiety, “Timed tests suggests that the most important ability is by working quickly, rather than thinking deeply and carefully.” What this evidence suggests is that students will truely believe that the most important thing about a subject is how fast you can do it, not how well. If a student carries this belief with them later through high school, or even college, it will affect them in a negative way. They will focus only on finishing in a short amount of time rather than clearly thinking through their answers. There is a point to be made that in the real world you will have deadlines, and yet most deadlines are not 30 minutes or one hour like many timed tests. In addition to that, while having an important deadline, even for your job, you will be able to have help, something that students do not receive while taking a timed …show more content…
As Cathy Seeley explains in the article, Faster Isn’t Smarter: The Trap of Timed Tests, “Some students are good at timed tests and some are not. Students are also was prevented from finishing the test, something that causes some them a tremendous amount of stress.” Furthermore, the teacher was led to falsely believe that the student did not know the topic well. When students are put under tremendous amounts of stress, they often underperform because of the presence of anxiety. Indeed some of the students who completed the test and did well were those who indicated the most severe anxiety, talking about being “scared” when they were asked to take the test. The following were responses from fourth and second graders: “Complete this sentence, This test made me feel…” ‘Worried that I won’t finish.’ ‘It just scares me that I might get a bad score.’ ‘Nervous because I am afraid I will not finish or make a mistake.’ As you can see by this study done at Stanford University, students are more focused on the time constraint rather than performing well on the test.
In conclusion, it is crucial that we take a moment to review the evidence on the impact of timed tests which can lead to an inevitable path of anxiety and low achievement. Primarily, the stress of a timed test can affect a student’s brain, causing their memory to be blocked. Secondly, create the idea that
Standardized testing not only stresses out students, but it also leads the teachers to go in a dilemma whether to focus on the curriculum or to get students ready for the standardized testing. No one has ever enjoyed taking a test in his or her entire educational history. Similarly Mr. Estrada’s 4th grade class was not every excited about taking standardized test. Each student has his or her own level of learning. As the students were taking the test, I noticed some students were panicking, while others were confused.
In Gregory Cizeks "Consequences of high stakes testing", he states "Illustrating how testing... produces gripping anxiety in even the brightest students and has been known to make children cry, vomit, or both. " You've felt it before. The nervousness, the 'what if I fail' and 'I can't fail or I'll never have a good future' thoughts. Standerdized testing instills a large amount of fear and anxiety for fear of failing. In a Washington Post article from 2011, they talk about a 7th grade girl who ran away from home to avoid a test.
Some supporters of these tests argue that the new computerized testing is better, however, the test day truly showed the hamartia of the test. When having a school as large as Hudson, with its 1,600 students, you might take a moment to consider what the effect of 1,600 students using the school’s minute network. If you guessed that it would take more than a half-hour-hour for all of them just to get to the system, you’re
Instead, the boss will present a problem and expect its employees to come up with solutions to this problem , anticipated to be presented for discussion later that week. It is expected, in whatever career, to know simple skills like problem solving and even how to write a well-educated report based on research. Many schools have switched over to standardized testing as an accurate measure of a student’s, teacher, and a school’s success. However, evidence shows that standardized tests lead to stress, most importantly,
Test make us like zombies. Every year we take around 1-3 STAAR exam 's depending on if you passed previous ones or your grade level. After a day that we are stuck in a class taking a test that gives result 's based on what you learned throughout the year, we the student 's, are too tired physically and mentally to deal with anything and that includes homework. We do not need to take test, we need to learn to grow up to be well-rounded adults, to be prepared for society and all of its forthcoming. We need to learn and understand what they are trying to educate us on so we will not be doomed to repeat the same mistakes that society has already passed through.
Many students are smart and understand the content, but it doesn't show on test scores (Gregory J. Cizek, 2001). In essence, testing brings out stress in even the brightest of students, messing with their heads come test day. The facts show that from the 50 states, 700 school districts claim that standardardized tests are causing greater anxiety than the average everyday assessments (Joseph Spector, 2015). In conclusion, student achievement
The first attempt and success to climb Mt. Everest occured in 1953. Since then, almost 4,000 people have been able to scale the mountain, but over 230 people have not been able to climb it successfully. There is a chance of accident or death when climbing this mountain or any dangerous activity. All people should should have the right to rescue services even if they knowingly put themselves at risk because there is always a chance of an accident happening, rangers are there to save people in danger, and there are rescue vehicles being produced to be used in case of an emergency.
State standardized tests are exams students take to assess their schools, teachers, and what they learned in their year. Many parents and teachers deem these tests useless and see it as an unnecessary stress added to their child’s life. Students should not be taking this exam because it causes a major curriculum gaps between students, causes stress and loss of interest in school, and after almost a full year of learning, this test is supposed to determine a student 's knowledge of the year’s curriculum. Although some say this test prepares students for college, the stress and loss of interest in school caused by this test and test prep can affect student’s mental health and grades. State tests cause stress and anxiety in students, especially lower performing students because of the pressure of making sure all students, regardless of ability, reaches the same level.
To begin, standardized testing puts a lot of unhealthy stress on students and gives them even more problems to worry about. Many students find standardized testing to be extremely stressful and can lead to faulty habits. According to the author Quinn, Mulholland: "One student couldn’t handle the stress of all of these tests and broke down in the middle of one. “She had a complete meltdown,” Neely-Randall told the HPR. “And I could do nothing to help her, I couldn 't help her with the test.
When the test is timed students try to rush through it to finish in time. That can sometimes be them to make many mistakes. By students rushing they can read the instructions wrong, mark the wrong answer, or even forget to answer some. A student can’t show all their knowledge on a timed test, that's made by the state. Wording on standardized test can be hard to comprehend.
In Howard Gardner's article “Test for Aptitude, Not Speed”, he uses his knowledge and understanding of test taking to support his belief that tests, such as the SATs, should not be timed.. Gardener reflects on the College Board's announcement about no longer informing colleges and universities on whether or not a student had extra time to finish the SAT. Gardener is glad that the College Board has made this decision, however, he does not see why the SAT is required to be timed at all. He states how the SAT is designed to know what students have high intellectual capabilities. Although, students who are used to taking timed test have an advantage over those who do not. He continues to write about the aid students with disabilities receive
It creates an obsession with test scores as a chief “accountably” metric for students, educators and schools. This system has led to the exams becoming an end instead of a means to an end. For instance, according the Joh Holt, within the learning environment “the air practically vibrates with suspicion and anxiety, the child learns to live in a daze, saving his energies for those small parts of his life that are too trivial for the adults to bother with, and thus remain his.” (E) This represents the crucial and harsh environment students experience when facing tests. It puts unnecessary stress on the minds of students and degrades their self worth into nothing.
The way we test takes up time that could be used to learn something new. The first piece of evidence that I have, is that the tests cause stress to many people. The text stated, “Tests cause lots of stress and anxiety to people.” Some reasons are that parents believe that teachers have been “teaching to the test” throughout the years.
This faster pace makes learning and remembering all the information difficult for students, especially when circumstances such as missing a day of school come into play. Block
”(Williams 14) If Laura were to complete the test in the heat of the moment she would have not let her anxiety get to her and achieve much higher results. The situation validates that overthinking the situation at hand leads to ultimate