Picture yourself sitting in a classroom, waiting for the teacher to pass out the exam. But when she starts to walk around, you begin to feel dizzy. Your hearing is clogged, and you vision is fading. As soon as you look at the first question on the test, your mind goes blank. All you can think about is how you are going to fail this test. And this is just one of the reasons why students should not be required to take standardized tests.
We should not take standardized tests is because it takes a lot of time out of learning. “Students can spend 60 to 110 hours per school year in test prep in high stakes testing grades,” says Valerie Strauss. That could be up to 18 school days just doing test prep. Also, the amount of time that the tests take
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Test anxiety is the feeling of fear you feel before or during a test or an examination. It is what has caused americans to not score well on standardized tests. “The majority of students report being more stressed by tests and by schoolwork than by anything else in their lives. “About 16-20% of students have high test anxiety, making this the most prevalent scholastic impairment in our schools today. Another 18% are troubled by moderately-high test anxiety.” Says Richard Driscoll. Many students feel pressured to get a good score on a test, which can lower their scores and their overall grades. So many students are willing to do whatever it takes to get a good score.
When students are under pressure, they’ll try to do anything that can raise their ability to get a good test score. “Because students know that test scores will affect their future lives, they will do whatever it takes to pass them, even if includes cheating or taking performance drugs.” Says Thomas Armstrong. This shows that students will risk their own health just to get a good grade. And they could become addicted to those drugs they took to boost their score. This could also get them a zero on the test if they get caught cheating. Which is why we need to take the pressure off the students so we can keep them healthy, and keep them out of