The bane of schoolchildren is an inadequate or poor test that hides behind a mask of being "standardized". If you have not guessed already, I am talking about standardized testing. This testing method is used in most schools. Its name comes from the fact that they are given and graded the same way. On the surface, this method of testing seems reasonable. Nevertheless, tradition has its faults. It comes to light that standardized testing is not an adequate, meaning satisfactory measure of intelligence. This method of testing has many flaws. Test smarts do not translate to life skills, and there is too much rote learning.
My first reason is, test smarts do not translate to life skills. The problems on a test are more obvious. In life outside of school, the problems are more subtle, meaning they are not as clear. However, even if the problem is obvious, then it is most certainly harder
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This means that students memorize specific information excessively. Let’s first address the "memorized" part. Students memorize meaningless information every day, but they only do this because soon they are going to be hit with another "standardized test". After the test they forget the information, and the cycle continues. Now, ask yourself this question. Do the students understand what they are memorizing? No. For instance, the formula for the area of a circle is pi*radius squared. Do they know why you multiply by pi? Can they even define what pi is? No. To put it another way, students’ education is 12 years of trying to be a human parrot. As you probably know parrots mimic what their owner says, but the parrot does not understand what they are saying. This is a perfect analogy of what students do. If schools continue on this same path of testing intelligence, everyone is going to walk away with the wrong idea of what it means to be "smart." Standardized tests measure knowledge in a very superficial, meaning not in-depth