Standardized Testing In China Essay

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Introduction:
Standardized testing is often seen as a necessity when attempting to compare how much a student has grown education-wise throughout the year. Because of the pressure placed on students to do well on these tests, students often result in being immensely stressed and worried. This stress is felt by students around the world, but some countries apply extremely high amounts of pressure. In many Asian countries, students’ futures rely fully on the results of these tests which lead to instances of students taking alternate methods to cope with the pressure they face. This leads to the concern of how students in different countries manage to handle the onslaught of pressure which is brought on by their education.

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Educators then compare these test results to see how much a student has grown. According to Kimberly O 'Malley, a writer for Pearson Education, “Results from standardized tests help inform the next step in learning for our students.” In her article, O’Malley talks about how standardized tests in The United States are formed and the purpose behind them. In China, tests have a different purpose—they decide how capable a student is in completely a further education: “determines which university they can attend, and therefore much of the rest of their future” (Tan). Yvette Tan, a news correspondent and author of BBC News, writes of the stress faced by students in China and what they have to go through when they take the “notoriously hard exam [which] tests high school leavers.” The Gaokao carves the pathway to the student’s futures and students prepare for this test for their entire life. The end of the year exams in the United States test: “English Language Arts and Mathematics […] Science [and] Algebra or Biology” (O’Malley), and standardized tests in China test many of the same topics: “Chinese, mathematics and English and another science or humanities subject of their choice” (Tan). With many of the topic students are tested on being so similar, the question arises of why students in different countries feel the immense amount of pressure they