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School Grades and Exams - Do You Think Schools Place Too Much Importance on them?
Posted by filosofia • 10/17/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: education, exams, grades, school
It seems like it's exams all the time, and it just makes students get stressed out. It's a stress for the teachers too. Lots of people say there are too many exams nowadays - do you agree?
User Comments
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Too many exams but not enough education. Stress is in the grade where it should be on making sure the students learn their materials. Say you missed a certain percent of questions on the test. What happens with that? Also there is very little reference on how the materials can be applied or the use of internships. -
Too much homework. Kids aren't graded on what they know anymore. They're graded on their ability to complete superfluous review exercises. Grades should come from tests, not review exercises designed explicitly to help people who can't understand the concepts the first time around.-
Grades should come from tests, not review exercises designed explicitly to help people who can't understand the concepts the first time around.
Yes, what he said. If you can't pass a test of your knowledge, writing a review of the field is not tantamount to understanding anything in the field. You might know about the field, but not any application.
Stress is a reality of life that people have to learn to deal with. -
I agree. I'm 30 and when was in school, I never had any homework until I was in about 8th grade. Now kindergarteners have lots of homework. I think tests are good. They force you to become familiar with the subject matter before the test if you haven't already. -
I think review assignments help prepare you for tests. I do agree however, that kids have too much homework. What it does is it creates the attitude to just "get though" it instead of obsorbing the information. The educational system is not based on what kids should know anymore, but more on what kids used to have to know. It's sorely out of date.
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yes flaming actually taking it one step further and applying what you know to solve problems is an area a lot of students tend to be weak in.
It's ironic , we are doing standardized testing this month here, what Ayp is measured with for NCLB, -
Yes, because the curriculum that they are tested on contains very little information that will be useful to them in the real world. Why is not more emphasis placed on teaching students to manage their money, their homes and families as well as history and language?-
I agree with you ! I teach special needs students and instead of teaching them life skills like how to balance a checkbook, calculate interest on credit cards, make change and find the best deals at the grocery store. Instead I am teaching them algebra which they will certainly now make as much use of
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msbaby; I totally agree, as well. As a 41 year old looking back on my school years I can see clearly how very little anything I learned then did for my "real" life.
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Sorry testing is a necessary evil. I hate it but if not a test what would you put in it's place to verify if the kiddies understand? -
I do not think there are too many tests. If there is, I will not place the blame on anyone but myself, by not doing everything I can to prepare my kids for the tests. -
OK but what if the tests are all about some useless irrelevant things like algebra or Nazi Germany. And yeah there have to be tests, but - all the time? And there is pressure to get grades to make your school look good, so they get more funding?
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Algebra is not useless. I used to be an art major, thinking I'd never use maths again in my life. You'd be surprised how much maths an artist needs to know. You need to calculate material costs, event organising costs, the cost price of your art works, the necessary mark-up on your works, the minimum you need to make out of an exhibition to break even, the ratio of material in a sculpture, how far you can get with a tube of paint, etc.
Being a digital artist requires even more nerve wrecking maths! When you start working with vectors in 3D graphics APIs...
Concerning Nazi Germany: it's crucial to learn about events like that in order to recognise them when they are about to happen again.
A school may have ulterior motives for testing its pupils, but ultimately studying and performing in a test benefits the pupils. -
Yeah sorry I shouldn't of said they were useless or irrelevant. x
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You're right in that you do learn a lot of things at school which you would never use again in your life, but school is meant to be basic education.
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Yes, your right too, it's about basic education.
BUT... what I'm interested in is philosophy (if you didn't already know it lol) and they don't even DO that in school. (Can you even believe that?). What could be more basic than philosophy? Everything I learned about it is in reading from the internet or the library. So where is school in all this? x -
but don't you get your philosophy even from the Nazi era? When I was in school learning history, Well i'm from mALAYsia, so we learned a different syllabus from you guys. And most of our information is rigged,
So i went to the public library and learned up the Nazi era and I was intrigued of their philosophies and how one man can change the mind of everyone and kill thousands. Maybe because of your emphasis to study it, you didn't get the point of studying it. But it was my wanting to know that allowed me to discover a knowledge.
. . . . ??
i think interest plays a heavy part in the subjects that we take. For some reason, I actually apply angles and algebra to my playing of pool/snooker and daily schedule to see what's the shortest route.
hmmm.
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not more funding , keep their funding , it's all about Annual Yearly Progress
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I fully agree that there is lot of stress for students these days.
I'm a student(8th grade)and we have weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual tests. No time for other enjoyment.-
"No time for other enjoyment." Yes, Meghna, that's what I mean. I thought it was only us that had this, but I see now it's in other countries too.
The stress on students comes from the fear that if you do badly, people might laugh, plus you can get put down a set and lose all your friends. x
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One of these days they'll develop a test that plucks a hair from all the students' heads and run tests on it to find out how intelligent the child is, and the time the child would have normally wasted stressing out and learning how to check the appropriate box, instead will be spent actually learning something.
But then, i dropped out of teaching b/c of all the BS testing. Teaching kids to test well is NOT teaching kids to be intelligent.
Seriously, why not develop a drug-test like test for intelligence!-
Like an IQ test? But you can't tell your little Jimmy that he is not as intelligent as little Mary-Sue. That's not PC. It might be reality, but it's not PC!
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@flamingpoodle - re algebra and Nazi history. I'm with you on what you say. The only reason the subjects seem useless is because of a failure in presenting them in a way where the student can see how it can be applied to life.
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Exactly. Nothing you learn can be bad for you.
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Thanks to everyone for your comments. x
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What I think: The problem is caused by an obsession with "accountability". The school has to keep its place in the league tables.
Plus it is not good for students if their teachers are continually stressing about performance indicators, or about getting through the scheme of work in time for the next test. x -
I guess it all depends on what schools you're talking about.
But anyway, shouldn't we stress the students a bit?
So that they are a bit better prepared to handle deadlines and stress when they start working?
It is not like we're talking 3 years old toddlers here... -
Trying to say that the system is flawed? I think it is. Any ideas for reform?
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I have to agree, the NCLB has put a lot of restraints on the school system, and a system that should be decided by the states are now being mandated by the National Government.
I used to be an Elementary Education major, but when I started student teaching, I saw that teachers were more focused on tests rather than the true love of learning. It's a shame that these tests put so much stress on teachers AND students, and for what? Why do we need tests, what do they prove? That we're all ready to have the same type of knowledge as everyone else? It seems like to me that the government's goal is to produce the same type of citizens, like we're just being trained and processed through a factory. Every one of us will come out no different than the other. Sorry if that doesn't make sense. Why is there so much importance placed on a test, it makes no sense. When I was younger, sure we took tests, but it was not a big deal like it is now. I actually remember having more fun in grade school back then. Now I see these kids being pushed to learn something that has no relevance, if little at all, to their lives.
Further more, there are other countries where children are doing so much better. If the USA wants to compete with other countries, that would require a change of culture. Also, that would require them to see what other countries are doing, and what is different that is making it easy for them to get the results.
But case in point, our whole education system is flawed. It is a big fat joke, nothing like it used to be before.-
Yes, test are big deal now. And the problem is not only with US, but other countries too.
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I also agree that there are to many tests or exams. I'm only in eighth grade so I don't have exams yet but I do have tests. In fact, I have one in math on Monday. Well, I do take this big test in the middle of April. It's called the WASL. If your in elementary school, It's grades 3 through 6. Middle school, It's grades 7 and 8. And I don't know about High-school. In another class of mine (Language Arts) I take quarterly district assessments. I learn how to write persuasive essays and exploratory essays. It's very time crunching when I only have that class an hour every day. Very difficult to get them done.
Maybe school would've been easier in my parents time!-
Yeah, that's right, in those days, everyone used to sit around and say "What shall we do today?" and someone else said, "Oh I don't know really, what would you like to do?" Life in school was a breeze, and they had like maybe one test per year, and then an exam just before you left. I have it on good authority (from independent sources) it was like that. But now we have to work hard the whole time and what is gained? x
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Surveys have shown that many people leave school barely able to read or write, yet they know how to pass tests, so the pass-rate statistics look fine.
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yes I agree.I think through exams, school and teachers can tell how well did you learn..
www.fieldstoneacademy.org-
I like doing exams, but I know a lot of people don't...
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Yes-
same here
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