Tests

Students know all too well that there is much work to be done when they come to school. Nonetheless, there are a few great terrors that our teachers have up their sleeves and when they unleash them we students cringe in fear of the pressure and judgment behind them. The focus of today’s blog is one of those classroom terrors, the impending tests.

In my experience, when my friends and I are assigned a test, the air changes. From then on, until the hour after the test is over, there is great pressure in everything you do, every hour you spend and every break you take. As I study and as I procrastinate, I feel like I’m not doing enough because a test is more than just a test, it is judgment. Judgment in the form of a letter grade A, B, C, D, or F which brands you, has the potential to taint your class grade, and ultimately your life options, irrevocably. It is for this reason that many students view tests in a negative light and consider them to be the low point of a week if one is assigned.

I was about fourteen when I looked beyond my own fear of tests and looked at them from another perspective.

At its heart, I think that the concept of tests is a very respectable one. If we really care about our abilities or knowledge, than it is important to make sure that we fully understand it. A test provides a way of doing that, as well as setting a minimum bar of knowledge that lets us know what we should be capable of doing. Tests test us so that we can overcome them and improve.

There is a definitive satisfaction to taking a test knowing that you have the knowledge and ability to smash it and proceed forward. If you are not as knowledgeable or able to handle an impending test, then it is a challenge, an obstacle for you to match your wits against. You are pushed to improve yourself, to be all you can be, and if you succeed in overcoming the test then you can rest easy knowing you are better and stronger than you once were.

Even if you fail, a test is valuable because it shows where you are lacking. Since I began to think of tests in this light, whenever I failed a test I make a point of talking to my teacher about the questions I missed. I may have not cared about the information before a test but after I fail one, the information I didn’t know becomes highlighted for me and as I talk to my teacher about the answers I come to understand the information for myself. I may have failed the test, but I grew from it in the end.

Between us students, our teachers, and the society we live in that pushes us to succeed, I think we have lost sight of what I consider to be the true purpose of tests. I think that tests were originally meant to serve the purposes mentioned above but as time has passed, we humans have evolved the wrong perspective on tests in thinking that they judge our worth in society and that we can be labeled with letters.

I recently had a talk with a teacher about a test I failed and I mentioned to her how frustrating it is that we are judged by our grades. She disagreed and told me that grades don’t count for everything. Perhaps she has the right perspective but knowing how we students are pressured to do perfectly by our families, teachers, and society itself, I think somewhere in that quagmire the problem of judging people with labeling persists.

The pressure is good because we wouldn’t be driven to be better for ourselves if there was no stress. It is just sad how the pressure makes us forget that the hurdles and tests that are put in our way push us forward. We only think about how they hurt us and that takes away from pushing ourselves to be all we can be.

That said, I would like to look past my own stress and frustrations and thank the concept of tests for what they do for us humans and what they do for me. If I was not pushed to meet new standards of ability, I would not be the man I am today.