Do All These Tests Really Test the Right Things? (PB)



 

 

 

    These past few weeks have been pretty hectic at Lakeview. All you hear over the announcements anymore is when to go to and when to leave your testing rooms. The PARCC tests have taken over the area and I guess every school has been doing them. They are supposed to test us on our knowledge and in some ways they do that. I understand that we are supposed to remember important aspects of each subject but no one can remember every detail of their educational career, or at least anyone who isn't crazy. Can you remember the math or science that you learned in 6th grade or 5th grade? Probably not. These tests don't test your skills on how to balance a bank account or how to put a down payment on a house (I'm not even sure if I said that right because I never learned). These performance based assessments test you on who wrote the Constitution and what the primary colors are and unless you are planning on starring in a game show any time soon, I don't think these tests assess us on the right things.

 

 

    Granted that my grade only has to take a Government test and I am very thankful for that but some of these tests that the other grades have to take are ridiculous. There are many ways that smart people can do badly on these tests and the outcome just isn't fair. Yes, if you know what you're talking about you should probably do fine but the fact is that you're not going to remember every detail of everyday of your life. Another example is my sister. She was the only girl valedictorian of her class and got a full ride scholarship to the Ohio State University for the honors college, but she is the worst test taker I have ever met. Lauren likes to over analyze everything and second guess herself, keeping in mind that she takes about 5 minutes per question on her tests just to make sure she is right and with limited time, she usually doesn't do too good.. Not only does the stress of getting all the questions answered right take a big toll on students, but the stress of being timed plays an even bigger role.

 

 

 

    Your knowledge to colleges shouldn't be based off of a big test. One or two tests shouldn't get to define your whole high school career. Yes, some colleges do look at GPA's, do look at job experience, do look at community service, but I know a majority that base their decisions off of standardized tests. Say you have worked your whole life at the same job and the one day you get observed you mess something up. FIRED!!! You know what you're doing for the most part but you mess up one little detail and all of a sudden your boss thinks lower of you. That's how it feels to students to have our entire learning career be smashed into some little answer sheet. I understand that they want us to know how to use scientific notation and that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell but I would rather learn and be tested on the things that will be useful to me later in my life.

 

 



this is my freebie(:(:(:

Stopping at NO Lengths (PB)

"I'm sorry but you can't finish your track season until you receive your surgery." "I'm sorry but your surgery didn't work and we are not sure that track would be the best thing for you." "Not only do we think that your heart will hold you back from running but we have found that we think there is something wrong with your lungs." My cardiologist Dr. Grace Smith had said all of this to me last year when I found out that I have Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome. Being one of the four people out of every one hundred thousand, I was a rare case, but nothing they had never seen before and after finding some issues with my heart while mapping it during surgery, four and a half hours later, they found out that I was one that they just couldn't fix. My extra blood vessel was too close to my main blood stream in my heart and to try to remove it could end up in my death, so here I am. They told me that I wouldn't be able to do track or any cardiovascular exercise for that matter to the extent that I needed to successfully compete in track. I may not be the BEST at track but it's something that I'm good at, something that I found myself looking forward to each year, something that I love, and the only thing that I can't do. But here I am, my fifth season of track starting and I'm leading the lines. 

After some heavy convincing to my doctor and parents, I convinced them that I know my limits and if I get close to reaching them, I will pull myself from what I'm doing. If I get light-headed, I need to sit down, if my heart pumps too fast, I need to sit down, if I feel like my lungs are working too hard, I need to sit down. How are you supposed to know if your heart is pumping too fast or you're just working hard? They told me of the precautions and how if I don't sit down, I have a chance that is too high of having a breathing attack, passing out, and even a heart attack. Sadly, that's how most athletes my age find out that they have the condition that I do. Luckily during my physical last year at my pediatric doctor, he happened to hear a "water sound" and sent me to get checked out. 

Even though I may not be able to go to the extents of the other runners, and this frustrates me because I try harder than most of them, I'm still running and I am so thankful that I'm allowed to do even that. Everyone doubted me. Everyone asked me why I even risk it or why track is so worth it. I hear everyone complain while running the mile in gym and trust me, with my condition, I contribute to the whining but track helps me in so many ways. I have made so many friends in track that I know I will keep for a while. Track keeps me in shape and helps me work out my heart. Track helps me relieve stress when I'm upset. I know that it may not be the best thing for me, with my heart condition still prevalent and not being cleared on my lungs yet, but I would much rather run and have to sit out every other sprint at practice than sit there like I did last year and watch as someone else runs the race that I should have been in.

The AP Test is Just Around the Corner

Essays, essays, essays.With how much we have written them lately, us students probably see them in our nightmares. We complain and fuss and whine about doing these essays, but think about it. The AP test is NOT in any way far off! Yeah, we have a few more months, but that's what we said about those government assignments we have online that got assigned to us in September. "Oh, they're not due until February. I will do them later." It's February and I know I sure don't have them done. Time flies and the end of the year will be here before we know it. We may hate that by the time we're done writing our essay in class, we can't feel our hand anymore, but think about going into that test and sitting there not even knowing what an 'analytical essay" is! These essays are more than effective in preparing us for the test. 

I feel as though my understanding of the types of essays and their form is pretty adequate, although my scores may say otherwise sometimes. I know that in an analytical essay, you should have at least 3 different rhetorical devices and that you need to explain how they relate to your closed thesis. I know that a synthesis essay requires loads of citations and tons of reading that you get about 0.2 seconds to read, and I know that an argumentative essay is mainly your opinion, but not too much of fallacious language. Would any of us even know that a fallacy was if we hadn't seen examples, read about it, and done a project on it? It may seem like a tad bit of over-kill, but try to forget what a fallacy is now.

My opinion on the essays is generally positive. Yes, I loathe the depth of thinking I am forced to do, but who doesn't? Almost all of us are lazy enough to say that. And yes, hand cramps do get annoying, especially when your mind is throwing ideas at you left and right and your hand is crying, but isn't it worth it? Getting out of two years of English in college and not having to pay those fees sounds pretty fantastic if you ask me! So why not do the work now instead of later in life?

Confusing items do come up in the essays at times, from not knowing a good word to describe what you're trying to say to not understanding a word of the prompt at all. There are always going to be obstacles in everything we do. It makes most of us feel like AP graders expect us to study the dictionary every night and have the knowledge of Jesus, but in all reality, we're the ones who took an AP course. We knew what we were getting ourselves into. We knew that with a hard class comes more rigor, more work. A college credit test is not going to ask you how to spell cat. Yes things can be hard at times, but we need to buckle up and try our best because in the end, all of this work will be worth it.