Standardized Testing

Today seemed like a way to busy and stressful day, leading to a horrible night, so far. The ACTS, they call for fear to emerge from anyone who is going to be taking them. Yay yet another standardized test that I am going to take that tells me how smart I am versus other students. So when I get my crappy results back from them test, I will dreading it, just like I dread any other standardized test called by it's acronym name; SAT'S, ITED, and ITBS.

Should the rest of our lives be measure according to one test? I think not, multiple factors affect a person's performance on tests like the ACT. Things like, nerves, sickness, and tiredness. Therefore, based on everyone's "best" effort on the tests and answers guessed correctly by very, very lucky people, these tests are not accurate at all. Though it does measure how much you know, it does not measure how lucky you are. There are infinite amounts of questions that could be asked on the ACT or some other test, that I would know, but it just so happens that they chose to put the one question I don't know the answer to on the test.

I had been quite successful in the practice tests, getting a 34 on both of the practice ones before I went to take the actual test. It just so happens that the day before the test, I get sick with this awful, cold, cough and flu bug that has been going around over the past few weeks. So, sitting in the ACT room, and having to get up every ten minutes or so to blow my nose and cough as muffled as I could make it, I began my test. Of course I was feeling like crap the entire way throughout the test so I couldn't focus throughout almost any of it, besides the math because it is the easiest for me. I actually ended up not having enough time to finish my the English portion of my test. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that they were making us answer 75 questions in 45 minutes. That is absolutely disgusting, we have to have time to read and think about the question you know. On this portion of the test we have 36 seconds to answer each question. Say that it takes 15 seconds to read the question, then you on have 21 seconds to think about the question. Along with that you have to read the article it is asking you about, say that takes 3 minutes to read, and you have to answer 15 questions about, that's 12 seconds per question, take that away from 21 seconds and you get 9 seconds to think about your answer. That is ridiculous and no one should have to answer a question in nine seconds. Oh and I haven't even taken out the time it takes to find the corresponding bubble and bubbling in, plus double checking. It is things like this that make me feel like the government has nothing better to do then bother us with tests like the ACT that just cause us pressure.

Needless to say I am taking the ACT over again, hopefully I will be healthy this time. I am still in pursuit of the perfect score, even though I have a new found hate for these tests.