Growing up, we are taught the importance of doing well in school and getting good grades. Many kids are often told by their parents and others that “school comes first,” and that it should come before extracurricular activities and spending time with friends. Basically, we are taught, from a young age that doing well in school should come before doing the things that truly make us happy.
While some competition can be healthy, we live in a world where academic competition often consumes us. Along with being taught that “school comes first,” we are often taught if we don’t get good grades, we won’t get into good colleges, get the better jobs, or be very successful. Success is obviously important, but if you think about it, it is kind of messed up that we are told that the one true way to be successful is to get good grades, which ultimately means being able to take tests well.
One thing to think about when you are thinking about academics and success is what you are willing to sacrifice for an education. One thing that many people are sacrificing today, is their emotional well-being. Reports from both the Anxiety and Depression Society of America and the American Psychological Association have noted that there have been sharp increases in severe psychological and emotional problems, such as depression and anxiety, among high-school and college students. The Association also stated that many students would express feelings of disappointment, anger, helplessness and fear as reactions to test anxiety. While many students have pre-existing problems with depression and anxiety, I believe that the excessive testing performed in high-schools and colleges across the world just contributes to pre-existing mental illness and can often prevents students from being successful. Even with students who don’t have pre-existing problems with mental illness can suffer from serious stress-related health issues. Stress has been connected to health problems such as heart disease, asthma, obesity, chronic migraines, gastrointestinal problems, etc.
High-stakes testing can also have a negative effect on a person’s overall education as well. While the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) had good intentions, it was implemented poorly and the strict penalties that were put in place if students did not meet certain standards had minimal benefit in regards to the students actual education. Many parents reported that due to the stress this extra testing put on their children, they often saw a decrease in the quality of their academic performance.
The reason I choose to talk about this, is because I have very negative experiences with testing, my academic interest, and my mental health. Fortunately when I was in elementary school, education was less based on testing and more so based on learning and creativity. Looking back at elementary school, I was happy almost all the time. Of course, I don’t entirely blame testing for my struggles or to others; however, it has contributed greatly to issues I have had with depression, anxiety, and with learning. From the age of 3 or 4 I have loved learning; of course, I have certain topics that I like to learn about more than others, but I would never say no to learning something new. As I have gotten older, and have had to take test after test, I have become less interested in education because to me it seems that the focus is no longer on learning but solely on memorization for testing.
I have never been one to follow social norms, and will never accept the way the education system is set up, primarily based on tests and minimally on hands-on experience, I have still been unable to escape the realities of the system. While I have continued to take exams over the years in order to not fail out of school or get into unnecessary trouble, I still fail to see any benefit in the constant use of exams in schools. In my personal opinion, there are so many other tests in life that we don't need written examinations on top of that. The pressures that have surrounded tests have been so harsh in determining the future of students and their careers that some students can't help but let this pressure fully consume them. Many people, including myself, feel that these tests are trying to "put them into a box," and define them. This makes it so a bad grade can cause a person to feel stupid or inadequate.
When many people think about problems with standardized testing, they mostly focus on high school educations, SAT examinations, and applying to colleges. However, I feel that the overuse of testing is an even bigger problem in college. Much of the time, a test in college can determine your grade for a whole course.
When students say that they just cannot take tests, many people say they are just making excuses and that they don't want to try, but as a matter of fact, some students just really aren't good test takers. For example, even if I know the material on a test, with no question about it, I could still fail that test due to intense anxiety or a lack of motivation associated with my depression, and sometimes I could spend a ridiculous amount of time studying for a test, participating in class, and doing homework, and still fail that test. Some students really only show growth through in-class work and one-on-one discussion. Many schools spend too much time and money prepping students for unnecessary, and often unreliable, tests and exams. This misplaced focus often blows the need for individual evaluation out of proportion and can drastically increase stress levels and worsen any preexisting problems with mental health.
Schools use standardized testing and student's grades as a way to show their "academic growth." However, there is no possible way that an exam can thoroughly and accurately show a student's knowledge of a particular subject and even less so their efforts to understand that subject. Students can also achieve success through many different avenues, and rather than encourage success of each student, grades actually discourage individuality. Schools and many professors claim that they use tests to "evaluate students fairly and set them to an equal standard." However, this is flawed because each and every student holds a unique perspective and views. Holding students all to the same standards is also quite detrimental as it limits creativity and promotes the idea of conformity.
Many people praise grades for their ability to measure the success of students and their academic progression; however, these people also assume that when students have good grades they automatically know and understand the material in detail and vice versa. In my experiences, these assumptions are quite false. Students generally tend to learn more effectively when they are doing the work specifically just to learn and to be able to discuss a topic, rather than when they are concerned in achieving a "good grade" for the benefit of a professor. Some people do not perform well during tests because of many obstacles; the time limit, the pressure, and the way the test is formatted, etc. If work does not help the student learn or provide information that will actually be beneficial to what the individual student intends to do in the future, then often the student gains little from it.
While not all students know what they want to do in the future, the time that is spent preparing students for exams could be used much more wisely in teaching the students different ideas that will actually help them in the long run regardless of the careers they want to pursue. However, the main problem here is that almost all schools require some sort of way to measure the "success" of their students. There is this basic idea that we need to compare students, or there will be no way to differentiate between which students should go to which schools, or which students should be in higher level classes, etc. Schools believe that they need a system to evaluate which methods of teaching aid students the most in learning. This system, in most institutions, involves the assignment of a letter or some sort of numerical grade to a student "in exchange" for their work. In some ways this system works effectively and in theory it can be a great idea. However, in practice, this system tends to be quite harmful and has many flaws. Many students are starting to lose passion for education and for learning and feel that school is actually no longer benefiting them in any way.
A great way to improve this system would be to increase the teacher/student ratio so teachers cold interact much more closely with each student and focus more on individuality. The problem with this, is there just aren't enough teachers or interested students to do this, and we are so set in the existing system that it would be very difficult to switch over to a new one. If we can't do this, at the very least, educators must put less focus on grading. Educators should no longer just each students concepts with the expectation that they can memorize all of this and be tested at the end of each unit, etc. This does not engage many student, a better way to encourage learning and create a healthy environment would be to eliminate exams or, at the very least, lower the percentage of the overall grade that exams are worth and base grades more so on discussion, class projects, and other means. If I take out the time I spend in class and should study a week, I have 115 hours left in a week. A healthy person should sleep approximately 8 hours a day. If I take out that time, I have 56 hours left. Okay, that seems like a lot of time, right? No. Socialization, exercise, and time for relaxation are also very important for someone's health. Personally, I also have really severe problems with depression and anxiety which makes managing this time even harder. Also, think about all the other things that I might have to do in a day or a week that I have not mentioned here. Even more, everybody works differently, has different schedules, and different ways of managing their time and their mental health. Even if I did happen to spend all that time studying and in class, that still doesn't necessarily mean I will do well on an exam. Half the time, the work I put in does not show through when tested and many professors tend to neglect that and just assume I haven't studied or that my methods are flawed, which makes it feel even worse.
So, next time you make someone feel bad for failing a test and assume they just haven't been doing the work, think about the other factors first.
