EDITORIAL: STANDARDIZED TESTS

End of Course (EOC) tests are finally over and I’m very glad. Standardized tests and the time around them make me nervous and really make the end of the year less enjoyable.  It’s stressful for a lot of people, too. Some things relieve the stress, like when someone in my fourth grade class threw up all over the test, and we all stood outside while the janitors cleaned up the mess. I’ve never been very stressed about the tests, and definitely not so stressed that I throw up. The worst part of it for me is when I finish before it’s over and I have to sit there while everyone else finishes. I’ve never been able to fall asleep on a desk, and I always seem to forget to bring a book to class. So I end up staring at the wall and listening to people working for an hour. In elementary school, they’d give us bags of chips and some juice in between tests, and that would help a lot. Then in middle school they’d give us mints. Now we have nothing.  When we still did them on paper, the teachers would handle the tests like bombs, and it would make me so nervous. I think it isn’t fair that the teachers don’t get to see the test. I don’t understand why they have to prepare us for a test when all they have is a vague idea of what it will be like. I understand the necessity of them, but they’re annoying, and it takes away from the last weeks of school.