Standardized Tests Essay

These tests are used in many areas including in the army, medical field, and civic service among others, however, mainly standardized tests are linked with the academic performance of students. In the education field, standardized tests are mostly used to assess student’s academic performance. The SAT and ACT are the two common know and used the form of standardized tests in the United States of America. The SAT is used in evaluating skills in mathematics and vocabulary level, while the ACT involves a broad range of knowledge including some additional subjects like sciences. Besides these two tests, there are other known standardized tests, such as National Achievement Tests, SAT II examinations and PSAT. In some cases, the adaptive testing happens when a computer is used to administer the test where the performance of the student at the beginning of the test is used to determine what will be presented next.

Positive Aspects of Standardized Testing Practical Solution First of all, it is important to note that most of the standardized test comes in the form of multiple choice format; hence they are not as complicated as one might perceive them to be and they are easier to explain to the students who are about to participate in the same. It does not necessarily matter the level of a certain student since everyone is capable of understanding the ticking-technique when they find their right answer. Also, these tests are elementary to comprehend hence they help save a lot of time for both the teachers and the students as there is no time wasted in explaining why one has to do a specific section in a certain way.

The provided instructions are normally clear and fairly simple to follow as it tells the student to choose the answers based on the provided suggestions. Since the computer handles the grading, it not possible to for a teacher to influence the exam results. Unlike the past where teachers had to make up their minds about the skills of a certain student based merely on their biases towards the children, the computer has stripped them off this powers and allow the students to be judged on what they put down during the exam with no external factors influence. Teaching Students Prioritization The standardized test is used to cover the core subject’s materials that students require in order to succeed in other subject areas.

It would be difficult to learn and comprehend how to write properly without reading about it first, the same way, without mathematics, it would be hard for scientists to pursue scientific concepts that require deeper understanding. One aim of the standardized test is to cover the important materials of a certain subject that in order to help students perform better in other related subjects; thus offering the included students an opportunity to master the essential curriculum pieces and move forward with other subjects correlating with the same without much complications. Drawbacks of the Standardized Tests Test Scores can impact confidence One of the major disadvantages of the taking the standardized tests is that it is easy to interpret a score of certain students as the only judgement of their ability (Kuncel and Hezlett, 2007).

Some students may demonstrate a clear understanding within a concept through various assessment tests, but lack the skill of handling the multiple choice questions. Such might lower the confidence of the students hence affect their general performance. Generalization In most cases, the questions provided in the standardized test are general; thus they do not assess skills as they are general for the entire population. The test items found in these tests are not in conjunction with the skills that the teacher has offered their students as well as the student’s behaviors. For example, in America, these tests could be perceived as discriminatory based on religions since they assume that the first language of the students found in the United States is English.

Students with challenges, such as learning disabilities, special needs or any other challenge that are addressed by the Individualized Education Plan suffer a drawback while participating in such tests compared to those students who do not have such concerns. Tie down Teacher’s Evaluation The evaluation of the teacher’s work has been based on the results that students obtain from the standardized tests. A teacher might be demoted, fired or receive a raise based on the performance of the students found in their classroom hence creating a host of learning problems. Interestingly, only those students with poor students receive continuous attention from their teachers; thus leaving the good performers to fend on their own (Strong, 2004). References Kuncel, N. R. , & Hezlett, S.