Standardized Testing Persuasive Essay

Walking into a testing room, one can immediately sense the discomfort. Nervous teenagers are seated in rows. Some chew their pencils. Others repeatedly bounce their legs up and down. Upon closer inspection, one may notice students breathing heavily, panicking, or being unable to focus. This is the norm with the dreaded standardized tests students are required to take. Not many would willingly participate in such a stress-inducing activity, but these tests are vital to a student’s future. Colleges review student’s test scores when determining which will be admitted and which will not. Putting that amount of pressure on students is unfair and rather unnecessary. Although standardized test scores enable colleges to easily compare various student performances while deciding who to admit, …show more content…
A student’s health is an important factor in how they will do on the test, and prior illnesses, as well as ones gained from the stress of testing, are able to affect a student’s performance. Standardized testing is imperative to a successful future, and the stress this gives students can contribute to harmful practices, often at the expense of their own health. Studying so hard that sleep is lost and meals are skipped decreases one’s ability to think properly, affecting their chances to show what they are truly capable of. The same result can occur from previous illnesses that one has yet to recover from. Similarly, mental illnesses provide major obstacles for some students. Mental illnesses such as anxiety and ADD (attention deficit disorder) also prevent students from giving their best performances. Anxiety can make students really nervous, making them unable to focus or think properly. ADD makes it difficult for people to pay attention, making them get distracted from their test. Mental illnesses such as these, and others as well, give students affected by them an unfair disadvantage compared to students without these issues when test