Wildcard Wednesday
RE: Standardized Tests

The following is a reply to Boris's blog post on Standardized tests. Click on the underlined text to read it. I also highly recommend the rest of his blog; he's an excellent writer. I confess not every post is my cup of tea, but the ones on subjects that interest me are all very good, and he writes on a wide variety of subjects, so there should be something for everyone.

Okay, now for my reply:

I confess that my bias goes the other way since I have always hated tests. But this is because of my inefficient study habits and severe test anxiety. I will grant you that they're not stupid. I have sometimes been very tempted to believe that, since it would make me feel a lot better, but it is true that it couldn't possibly hurt someone to be good at the things being tested. That person would have some pretty valuable skills.

However, I think your first argument is weak because having a lot of people believe that tests are important does not make it true. A lot of people used to believe that the sun revolved around the Earth. Their belief didn't make it true.

Also, while I won't disagree that test scores help a lot of students get into school, I am very lucky to be the exception to this rule. My SAT scores were lower than the average that my undergrad generally accepted, and my GRE scores were lower than my SAT scores and I got a full tuition merit scholarship. I couldn't tell you what made them decide to ignore my test scores, but I wouldn't have the education I do today if they hadn't.

My main issues with standardized tests is that they're too...well...standard, and they don't test you under the conditions you would actually work with in real life. Now, if someone's yet to decide what they want to do with their life, then the first issue isn't really a problem. You need a really general gauge of skills if you're the type of person who might go from being a biologist to an English professor. A test might actually help you decide which one of those fields you're best suited to do. However, a lot of people have at least already narrowed down a particular skill set by the time they take the standardized test. They may not know exactly what they'll do with the rest of their life, but they generally fall into one of two categories: arts or sciences. Does this mean they don't have to know any of the other? Of course, not. But they won't need to know nearly as much as what is tested. For example, would an English professor be a better, more rounded person if he could ace the math section of the SAT? Sure. Does he need that for his job? Usually not. Yes, he should be able to calculate averages for grades and know enough basic arithmetic to not seem a complete fool, but he will not need to calculate the cords of a circle. Alternately, would an engineer be a better person if he could spell the word engineer? Yes. Does he need to for his job? Oftentimes, sadly, not. People who choose careers based on their strengths and weaknesses should be allowed to take more targeted tests. And before you say it, I KNOW there are subject oriented SATs, but those are all in addition to the normal SAT. I say you should be able to take the subject oriented tests INSTEAD OF the standard one. The standard one could still be an option if you want to generalize, and you could always take a different subject if you wanted to switch fields. But tests would be more reasonable if they were more targeted to the individual's needs.

My second complaint is the real life conditions. True, you shouldn't have to check every little fact while you're working because that would make you too slow to be efficient. But, if you blank out on something, the majority of people at work look it up. It's actually a bad practice in many professions to rely on your wits alone. You should be able to effectively and quickly verify facts and be able to collaborate with colleagues. This is why I think standardized tests would be far more fair if you were able to look stuff up. You'd still be timed, which I will grant is perfectly fitting for real life. You always only have so much time to solve a problem, so you'd better not need to look up every one, and you'd still fail a timed test if you did. But being able to look things up and learn them quickly is just as important in real life as memorization.

I won't say there aren't situations in life that don't feel like tests and where my test anxiety doesn't crop up. But for the most part, it's not because I'm in a little room working on the exact same thing everyone else is...and what's that? Did that girl just finish...she did, she did finish before me! Okay, okay, calm down, Cherie, it doesn't mean she's smarter, she's probably just--ahh! That guy's done too! Agh, agh, agh! Okay, okay, Cherie, focus, it doesn't matter, just focus on the test. What? Only, five minutes left! Just a little taste of what goes on in my head every single time. It doesn't matter that logically I would get more done if I didn't worry about it. I know that. But it's the same as telling a severe claustrophobe that being locked in a closet won't actually hurt them. Sure, that claustrophobe could go to a psychologist and get their issues worked out. Or they could save the money and just not get locked in closets which isn't really necessary to their life anyway. The only times I've ever not experienced test anxiety is on tests where I was absolutely sure of all my answers and one time in undergrad where I was allowed to take a test in a storage closet because the light above me was flickering. It's not even a factor of how well I do on the test because I've aced tests that I have made me want to throw up while taking them. I've never wanted to ask for special consideration on tests because it's my firm belief that people don't get special consideration in life for test anxiety. But that is a large part of why I hate them.

In summary, I would never ask you how you sleep at night, Boris. I have great admiration and respect for good test takers and even more for someone who can teach how to take them. If I had been able to hire someone to coach me, I think I could have done a lot better. But I just want you to know that not everyone who hates tests or struggles with them is entirely without good reason.