Pros And Cons Of Standardized Testing

The ACT and the SAT are both examples of standardized testing. According to Education Reform “A standardized test is any form of test that (1) requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students.” although standardized testing may seem like a good idea, it is not for many reasons. Standardized testing is inaccurate, creates stress, and ruins futures.

First of all, standardized tests like the SAT and ACT are inaccurate when evaluating a student’s intelligence. The SAT and ACT are used to evaluate a student's college readiness by testing on English, Math, Reading and sometimes Science. FairTest said “Even the test-maker admits that high school grades predict first-year college grades better than ACT scores do. In fact, adding the ACT to the high school record does not significantly improve predictions.” this further proves that these tests are limiting students by judging them on only these few subjects. A student could do better in other subjects in college, also it is not always to take Math or English in college. If a student doesn’t take Math or English in college, how could these
That creates a huge amount of stress on the student, some students can’t handle the stress and struggle to perform normally. According to Thomas Armstrong “And when stress becomes overwhelming, the brain shifts into a “fight or flight” response, where it is impossible to engage in the higher-order thinking processes that are necessary to respond correctly to the standardized test questions.” This is especially upsetting if the student has studied for this test for months and stressing every day only to fold under