Opinion Column
Standardized tests
Standardized testing
has been used for a long time in almost all schools to measure the intelligence
and abilities of a student. Standardized testing is not only used in schools
but in almost everywhere, from job applications to university applications. One
of the most used standardized testing is the SAT, which most universities
require a certain score for the application. Many people say that standardized
testing are unfair, people come from different cultures and speak many other
languages other than English which will be a disadvantage for them in oppose to
people with a first language of English. But, there are varieties of
intelligence tests made especially for non-English speakers, like the IELTS and
the TOEFL tests.
Although many people
judge standardized tests as unfair, and claim that it is a bad way to recognize
a student’s abilities, in my point of view, standardized tests are very good
for teachers to understand and evaluate his/her students’ weaknesses and
strengths, and to adapt his/her way of teaching to suit the students. It also
helps the good students show their intelligence, so universities would pick
them over other students who got a lower grade. This makes it easier for
universities to choose who to accept and who to not accept.
Many people declare that standardized tests
are unfair for non-English speakers as they will probably be at a disadvantage
in standardized tests. I add that English is considered as a subject, and that
the tests show the level of your English language, and do not show your
abilities in other subjects. You might not be very good at English but very
good at mathematics or sciences. Most of the public would complain about these
tests because English is not their first language and think that they would
have scored better if the test was translates, to be honest I might agree
because some questions in a math or science tests have English words that I do
not understand. This was a very rare case because most questions contain simple
English.
In all honesty, I am
with both sides of the argument. A solution for this controversy would be to
create different versions of the SAT or ACT tests. Like tests for people who
have English as their second language, and maybe go farther and have a test
created for people who speak more than three languages, or English as their third
language.
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