In my opinion standardized test don't test the student's abilities. I can talk from experience that even when you know all the information on the test, once you get the test it seems like you forget everything. You can spend hours studying and studying, getting help from your teachers and still bomb a test. Tests don’t show everything to have learned. They don’t show the hours of homework you have spent, or the days of studying. Standardized tests just show your ability to remember certain information.

Teachers always say how important it is to remember that we all learn different, but since we all learn different it also means we all show our intelligence differently. I don’t think bubbling in answers, captures the student's abilities. Jeannie Fulbright says “If the purpose of learning is to score well on a test, we’ve lost sight of the real reason of learning.” I completely agree with her. We get so caught up with just getting through the test and passing it, we don’t actually care about what we are learning. We look for the easiest way to remember things and coming up with shortcuts. We don’t think about what it means or why we are learning about it, all that seems to matter is “will this be on the test.” Is that what learning is about? Taking a test can be compared to living life. We can’t just go around life looking for shortcuts and just trying to get through each day. We have to learn from our mistakes and work on them, not just forget it when we think its no longer something to worry about.

Tests are usually a big part of our grade and can sometimes even determine our grade. I don’t think it is fair that everything comes down to one test. Some students are great test takers and can do a test with no problem. Other students can’t prove their abilities by filling in lines or bubbling answers. Theres other ways to prove one’s intelligence. Doing a hands on activity or doing something orally works for many students. Many things are changing to make an individual’s learning better, why not wrap our heads about this. Testing doesn’t have to be filling in lines or bubbles in a certain amount of time. A student’s ability shouldn’t have to be shown through a standardized test.