Module 43 Blog

Lauren Steinhardt

Ed Psych

GLE105 01

5/8/14

Question: How did you feel about taking standardized tests in secondary school? In what ways did your high school prepare you for standardized tests? If you had the ways and the means how would you do it differently?

            In secondary school I always felt seriously pressured when it came to standardized tests. I took two standardized tests when I was in high school, which were the PSAT’s, SAT’s, and the CAPT in order to graduate high school when I was a sophomore. My school held practice CAPT for us when we were freshman in order to prepare for a successful performance the next year. Teachers also taught material and gave us practice problems in class as a way to prepare. Even though I had this practice I still felt extremely challenged especially on the math part. I wasn’t confident at all and even though I had practice I felt way too much pressure because I knew that I needed to pass to graduate. In the end I did end up passing and graduating high school obviously, but my test anxiety still makes me feel like standardized tests should change. In my junior year of high school, I took the SAT’s twice and I felt even more pressure because I knew I had to do well in order to accepted into college. I took an SAT prep class that my high school offered and the writing/reading part really helped, but still the math part didn’t help at all. My test anxiety still gets to me, but in the end I ended up doing well enough to get into college. To be honest, I don’t think that I could have done anything differently because I practiced and worked hard to be where I am today. Now in college standardized tests are over, so I do not regret a thing.