Standardized testing started in the United States. It is known that it started in the mid-1800s. This kind of test is mainly created to measure a student’s performance, progress or potential. Everyone is familiar with the topic of “Standardized Test”. It is widely spread all over the world.
Like many issues in education, standardized testing is a controversial topic among parents and teachers. Standardized testing has so many advantages and disadvantages. Among these advantages, there are some focused disadvantages and those disadvantages are not ignorable. The effects of a standardized test are more negative than positive.
Standardized testing has become an important part of modern education. Standardized testing is a well-known topic and it plays a vital role in our recent efforts to advance the quality of education. A standardized test is a test where the same test is given in the same manner to all the test takers.
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Standardized testing is an evaluation tool, the purpose of these tests is to measure and evaluate the performance of students in relation to the other students participating in the same test. Such tests are generally issued by specialized institutions. There are several ways of categorizing standardized tests.
The standardized test provides information about a student overall progress. It can give the idea of regarding an examinee’s areas of strengths and weakness. Students can compare their results with one another and make some changes to their education to get a better result.
Standardized Test
Tests are now-a-days are a common practice in schools, colleges and Standardized is among them a very popular test. Standardized tests are a common way to evaluate the academic achievements of students, teachers, and school districts. We can divide the tests in category like memory test, skill tests, achievement test, written test, subjective test, objective test, formal test, standardized test.
Standardized test mainly focused on Academic test. It is a mandatory examination in which all of the students have to be presented. Standardized test has so many benefits and also some disadvantages too. The question pattern and the contents of the question are same for all of the students. So, through these tests a student and also the teacher can know what the students potential, intelligence. It is unbiased system as the question paper is exactly same for all of the students. Many people put questions about teachers that teacher are biased to the students. They don’t give fair marks; they are biased for some students.
As we all know that results now-a-days is checked by Computers. Only computer can do this type of job without any defect. Standardized test is accompanied by a set of established standards. Some students are smart and they understand the content but it doesn’t show on the rest. Many students have test anxiety and its effects shows on the students result.
There are so many things that play into test performance. One test exam decides a student’s future. Students study for the whole year and if they can’t set good marks or fail in the exam then they have to do the whole semester again. Every year public exam, board exams appear in our country, students feel a lot of pressure and as well as the teachers and guardians too.
Two commonly known ways of standardized test is ACT and SAT, for example, objective type questions for maths, English, science and reading. These multiple choice question pattern is not a way to measure a student’s intelligence or what he/she has learned in the class. Some student’s thrive at written tests when some students fail at exams.
Board exams or public exam is the opportunity for the students which can lead them into a brighter future. Some students get a very good result then they admitted themselves into a good college or good university. But for some students, a bad test score may mean missing out on admission to the college or university of their choice. The teachers feel a lot of pressure as they have to complete the syllabus as a result they sometimes end up teaching only for the tests.
They can’t give the students a deeper understanding on a particular topic or subject. They only spend time teaching those materials that will appear on the test. This practice lacks creativity and can hinder a student’s overall learning potential. Some students learn a topic or gather knowledge’s on a topic very easily whereas some do not understand a topic very easily. In a classroom it’s not possible for a teacher to give attention each and every student.
As those students remain unfamiliar with the format, topic then their results appears to be bad. Sometimes family problem, health issue creates a lot of problem to their education and it shows on their performance. When the students can’t set good marks they lose their confidence and starts developing negative attitude about their own abilities. Some believes that these standardized test cause rise in cheating.
As some student’s tries hard to just pass the exam. Students are failing to pass year long classes due to a single test. But a single test can’t measure someone’s intelligence and potential. Standardized test is a long and traditional way in the education history. But there are too many researches about standardized test that shows the positive sides of it but the negatives are more.
Opposite of Standardized test is called Non-standardized test. Non-standardized test is not as strict as standardized test. Non-standardized test are typically prepared by teachers according to students need these kind of tests are also called Informal tests. These informal tests are beneficial for the students as the teachers understand the need for re-teaching any concepts.
Unreliable measurement of student’s potential and intelligence: Despite of knowing various negative sides of Standardized test still, some parents, teachers think that standardized test is the accurate way to determine one’s knowledge, skills, potential in education. But actually can a single test decide a student’s future. There are some differences in the ability of standardized tests to predict future outcomes highlight an additional criticism of standardized testing: The tests are not valid because they are not accurate predictors of students’ success in college or university.
Standardized test are biased in content, methodologically and so on. When considering the language of the test, for students whose primary language is not English, standardized testing measures both English proficiency and achievement. As a result, the standardized test does not accurately reflect the achievement or potential of language-minority students in schools, colleges, and universities. Indeed, some researcher has found that a standardized test creates anxiety among student; especially, the poor students are the sufferer. As don’t have the ability to go for tuition, they can’t afford to buy books or paying the fees of school.
Standardized tests can’t give a proper result for each and every student. Cheating scandals are coming out every year. To pass the exam the students choose the way of cheating like leakage of question paper. Teacher and students feel a lot of pressure because of these exams. Sometimes the student doesn’t get proper time to prepare themselves for the exam. Because of this problem there results appear to be bad. When our board result came out a lot of students fail in the exam. Because of this failure in the exam the students take a cruel decision; some students also suicide. Students attempt suicide when they fail in the exam as the family pressurizes their Childs.
In conclusion, education standards are set and compared using these standardized tests. It is important to understand that standardized test has gained a national recognition. Standardized test has a lot of drawbacks. It creates a lot of problems for the students. To remove this standardized testing system some impactful alternatives should be introduced instead of standardized test in education world. “Portfolio based assessments” can be an effective way to understand the abilities of a student.
The portfolios should contain all the records of students kept by the teacher and on collections of the student’s work, called the “student portfolio. So, in the end of the semester the teacher can gather all the students work and show the progress of individual’s achievement in various subjects. These reflections keep the students encouraged, refreshed also what they have learned in the whole year and their overall progress. “Assignment” is also can be an alternative for standardized test. Teachers can give assignments on a topic or on a selected chapter.
