You’re stuck in a room that is either too hot or too cold with kids you see twice a week, for five and a half hours. You’re taking a state-wide test that you’ve taken before or never at all. This test will determine if you’ll be able to go to the college you want, what scholarships you’re eligible for, and will give you a number out of 1600 that will tell you how smart you really are.

Should students be tested on things they haven’t yet learned? Should students be given a test with no help at all? No. First of all, students are only tested on math and English. What about science and history? Some people have higher interests in subjects like chemistry or World War II, rather than the square root of 44,100. Second of all, it’s unfair for students to be scored on topics they’ve never heard of before. During the test, nobody is allowed to ask any questions or even discuss the test, so how are people supposed to know if they’re answering the questions correctly?

What about the people who are academically smart in the math and English portions of the test, but aren’t good test takers? Tests are stressful, they really are, but some people fly through them like it’s a piece of cake, while other students really struggle.

You could be super smart with technology and go on to invent the newest iPhone/Android or become the next most popular music artist, but standardized test creators wouldn’t even know that, frankly because they feel you should only have to know what’s on that test to be successful in life.

A test doesn’t define you. A standardized test doesn’t show how much you actually know, it just shows the subjects they feel you should know.