Written by Abagale Elliott

The SAT, NWEA, PSAT and ACT are all tests that juniors take throughout high school after preparing for them. But, does test taking become too much? How can schools help prepare for these tests? 

There used to be a larger pool of colleges who were interested in kids because of their test scores. Now, many colleges don’t even require SAT scores in order to apply. Some students simply do not plan on going to college and therefore feel they don’t need to do well on state testing. The shift in a need for these scores have left many students with the idea that taking the test and doing well isn’t important.

Just because test scores aren’t required does not mean that tests aren’t important. Test taking is a part of school life. But, for some people, test taking can be hard. Students with learning disabilities cannot have one-on-one extra help during state tests, which can be stressful. These students may have test accommodations such as a quiet room. For people with invisible disabilities like ADHD and dyslexia, this can be hard as well. Since their disabilities are not visible in regular scenarios they may not get any help at all. 

There are built-in accommodations on testing websites such as a line reader or text enlarger. These accommodations are necessary for many students with learning disabilities, big and small. 

“I’d fail without [accommodations], honestly,” said junior Isabella Elliott. “Without them, I would lose my place.” 

Something as simple as a box around what you are reading that blocks out anything that could distract you is the difference between failing and passing for some students. 

Schools need tests to show that students are improving and retaining information for various reasons, including how to adjust teaching 

Another question is: are students being tested too much? Test exhaustion is a real problem in schools, according to Edmentum. Test exhaustion is when students no longer care about how they do on tests because they have been over-tested. Test exhaustion is caused by test anxiety. 

Test anxiety, as defined by Edmentum, can increase stress levels and cause negative emotional experiences. “Test anxiety can impede cognitive functioning, hinder information processing, and have a detrimental impact on test performance.” (Edmentum). 

Students can take SAT prep classes to prepare and hopefully ease that anxiety. Matthew Adkins teaches a SAT prep class at SHS. They go over how to answer questions and test taking strategies. The students who take that class walk out feeling better about their future.

 “They feel optimistic, they seem confident,” Adkins said. 

When students prepare using an SAT prep class they generally feel more prepared for state testing. Although testing can be intimidating, teachers at SHS feel they are still important.

“I think it’s hard to tell from a test the depth of knowledge people have… (tests) are important as a tool to try to understand what people know,” high school teacher Michele Medlock said. 

She further explained that tests work as a blanket tool for everyone. This is because learning is different for everyone. Some people learn visually and some people learn best when they hear information, so a test usually works as an equalizer at the end of a unit, that all people should be able to understand.

This, again, does not include disabled students, but it also does not help students who “cram for tests” the day before, because they memorize material instead of learning it. This cannot be an option at all for the SAT, PSAT or NWEA, just because they are more focused on generally understanding how to do things using critical thinking and you cannot get a good score just by memorizing a few definitions.

Since you cannot get a good score by “cramming for the test,” some students have no idea how to even begin studying for the PSAT or SAT. This is a systemic issue. To fix this issue, educators could explain earlier on how to study, but that doesn’t fix the issue for the people who are already juniors, so SHS has decided to start practicing SAT questions as bell ringers. These bell ringers are formatted like the SAT or PSAT questions so they are more familiar with the style.

Principal Bob Setser has been an advocate for bell ringer SAT prep questions. Bell ringers could be vital to improve scores. 

“Bell ringers help with test taking strategies,” Setser said. “They assist students in analyzing the questions like they will during the SAT. Bell ringers are reviews and the math part of the exams are mostly algebra and the bell ringers are a review for the seniors and juniors who haven’t been in algebra for a couple of years. Also, you go through tests for jobs, and those questions are mostly ‘which is the best answer’ questions, so the bell ringers get you ready to answer those questions.”

For the people with disabilities that affect their ability to take tests, these bell ringers could help. Just by helping students be prepared, bell ringers could improve scores. 

It is a widely-known fact that children are more commonly exposed to social media than children of the past. The scores of last year’s juniors are lower than what was the usual, and that could have been caused by spending more time on social media, effectively shortening the attention span of those who took the tests. Social media leaves no room for critical thinking like one would use for these tests. 

Another cause of the problem of low scores is not taking the tests seriously. As previously stated, some colleges no longer look towards the scores on said tests, which leads the students who take the tests to not care about them. While the bell ringers can help with critical thinking skills, they cannot fix the fact that some people really just don’t care about what result they will get. If a student doesn’t try then there is no fixing the problem.

With that being said, the real solution to the problem of test scores and test exhaustion is a mix of a few things. Bell ringers are helpful for getting someone into the mindset of testing and preparing them for the SAT and PSAT. Educators need to prepare students for state testing before they become juniors, or maybe even before they get to high school, and the act of taking state testing will simply become less of a hurdle. 

Students need to know that their test scores do matter, but that they have other chances to improve their scores if they get a bad one, and that they should not stress as much as they do. When students stress over their scores it can lead to more harm than good. Overall, testing has to happen, especially the SAT, because educators need to be aware of how students are responding to lessons, and because it is a tool for colleges.