The mere mention of a pop quiz, test or exam sends a wave of moans and groans around a classroom. I’ll admit that I join the chorus of complainers with cries of outrage. It’s natural for teenagers to passionately abhor testing. We’re far too busy with more “important” things to do. Sleeping, surfing the Internet, chatting on the phone, listening to music, and watching TV are all in a day’s “work” for us. However, now that I’m entering my junior year of high school, I’ve noticed what a huge part testing has played in my school life. I’ve managed to endure close to 11 years of studying and last-minute cramming. Looking back on my experiences, I’ve come to realize that testing has taught me much more than just the right answer.
My introduction to testing was the Early Childhood Literacy Assessment System, administered to New York public schools from kindergarten through second grade. I was only 5 years old, rudely awakened to the fact that testing was inevitable. I don’t remember much about my first test, except that it was a big deal — especially for a little girl who was still struggling to distinguish her left from her right. I don’t recall the test having a pass-or-fail system, but I do remember that getting a word wrong would result in a disapproving look from my teacher. For a painfully shy and timorous kindergartner, that was the apocalypse for me!
Today, I can laugh at my innocence, but I learned a lesson all the same. The Early Childhood Literacy Assessment System often required teachers to be absent from the room in order to administer the tests. I believe students — especially young ones — need their teachers present. I’ve come to appreciate the time my teachers spend actually teaching, rather than testing.
Passing or failing started to make sense when New York statewide exams rolled around in the third grade. The idea of standardized tests still gives me a sickening sensation. All I see now are teachers pressuring students to get top grades, and piling students with loads of prep work. Despite this chaotic mess, I did learn that practice makes perfect.
My parents never believed in rewards for good grades, and taught me that achievements are self-rewarding. At the time, I was slightly disappointed for not receiving something special for my good grade. So when my friends chattered on about their new CD player (gosh, I feel old) or their new Barbie doll, I would flaunt my invisible self-reward. It would take years for maturity to set in, in order for me to understand what “self-reward” really entailed.
In elementary school, subject tests were infrequent and did not influence report card grades. Nonetheless, middle school and high school brought a new type of testing experience. Spanish tests, science quizzes, math exams, oh my! Subject tests introduced me to a dreaded school chore: studying. I learned that in order to receive a good grade on an exam, I’d need to put in 100 percent toward my studies. I yawned my way through future tense Spanish verbs, repeat geometry theorems, memorize the Cold War events, and reread all the quotes in Shakespeare’s work.
One of the biggest lessons studying has taught me is that no matter what mark I get on my test, I’ll always be the winner. All the work I put into studying helped me absorb the information, and my mistakes only called attention to the material I missed.
Another big part of high school was the highly anticipated Regents exam, the subject-specified New York standardized exams. While these exams are unique to New York, most colleges don’t acknowledge high Regents grades, but they do judge poor ones. Therefore, Regents are often heavily stressed in high schools. For me, Regents equaled tediously practicing every old exam online. It’s all about getting used to the questions, since many of them repeat themselves over the years. I initially thought of Regents as an unnecessary evil designed to torture students, but preparing for these exams has helped me handle pressure (an inconvenience we all have to overcome in life) and manage my time.
We’re always caught up in getting answers right and focusing on the exam material. However, testing has more significant lessons that lie beyond the pages of a test book. I’ve learned to have confidence in myself and feel pride in what I’ve achieved. So, maybe testing isn’t as bad as it seems.
Aglaia Ho is a 16-year-old student from Queens who enjoys writing. Her work has been published in Creative Kids, Skipping Stones, Daily News-Children’s Pressline, and The State of the Wild.
