Standardized Testing Persuasive Essay

¨You may begin your test.¨ I sit in my chair and click the ¨Begin¨ button. I stare at the screen, not able to focus. I studied all night, I can do this. I have to do this. I think to myself. The MAP test is the most important test of the year, If I don't do well I won´t be placed in any good classes. You got this, you have to. I try to talk words of encouragement into myself. I´m too nervous. Too distracted. And I score poorly even though I knew all the information, I just was not confident, not mentally ready. I couldn't stop thinking of the upcoming punishments that would happen if i scored poorly, and my performance showed that. This, is a major flaw in the school system. This happens to way too many students yearly. Even the smartest student,

Unfortunately, this is not how standardized tests are. Students are all different. And I recognize some ways are easy for a group of students and can accurately measure how much information they withhold, but the story is different for another group. For instance, Test anxiety. I had my fair share of experience dealing with this considering in elementary I struggled with tests even though I understood everything that was given to me. But since I couldn't focus, my MAP score was lower than what I could do. Because of this the simple task of completing a test was extremely harder with every question the thought of me getting a bad grade was mortifying. And of course I knew the content but the task of a standardized test was way too hard for me and ended up in me making silly mistakes or not being able to focus because the stakes were too high. However that is just my personal experience, what test anxiety felt to me (which was minor). But this is happening to a lot of students all around the globe. Washington post says ¨It’s not clear exactly how many students have it but severe test anxiety could afflict as much as 20 percent of the school-going population, according to the American Test Anxiety Association, and another 18 percent may have a moderate form of

We’ve known this for a while considering you as the reader have probably had some exam stress before. And we’ve haven't really payed lots of attention to the effect it could have on our students and what it does long term. It turns out that test stress isn’t a healthy type of stress and can cause the following. “disturbed sleep patterns, tiredness, worry, irregular eating habits, increased infections, and inability to concentrate.” That is happening to our students, and it’s all because of standardized testing. But this isn't even the worst effects that standardized testing has on our students. Fairtest.org states the following. “A study in England, which has a similar focus on high-stakes testing, found a 200% increase in counseling sessions related to exam stress between 2013 and 2014. One agency found an increase in SUICIDAL thoughts related to exam stress.” Can you believe that? Because of standardized tests thoughts about a student killing him/herself are increased. Now what about low stakes testing, do students feel the same way about those? The answer is no. Monash.edu says ¨Despite the data limitation, the results support the argument that high-stakes testing may pose suicide risks to individuals with reference-dependent preferences when they perform worse than expected, while low-stakes testing is less likely to pose such