Stupid

Author: Megan Licious | |

I feel no shame in posting it in a public forum that I got a 77% on the Physical Science test I took yesterday. The reason I feel no shame is that I studied seven hours--not counting in class or homework time--for that single, 30 question test.

Here are the reasons why science tests should be expelled from society:

1. No matter what the language in your textbook is like, the questions on the test are in a completely different style of language, with different terminology. Why do science tests have to have that mucky-worded, vague, indirect, horrifically standardized style of language? Do all scientists seriously actively seek to deny other areas of study any of their glories? Including fundamental literary grammar and functionality? Well guess what. No one can understand your tests. The only exception is the science major student that has been beaten down by The Science Man with the terrible-English-standardization stick.

2. With the exception of those in one class I took in high school, all science tests I've encountered ask you a lot of questions about specific sets of topics--this is epitomized on especially important tests like the ACT, which is horridly unfortunate. They will give one excruciatingly specific situation, and ask anywhere from five to ten questions about it. Keep in mind, there are only ever about four or five different sets of questions. This is one of the most terrible way of coming up with an accurate representation of the student's overall knowledge in existence, because if a student failed to masterfully understand one specific point, their score automatically goes down an entire letter grade.

Um. Science tests are stupid. This current form of measurement of scientific knowledge back bites on human dignity and teaches students to learn in a way that is not only inapplicable in other areas of knowledge, but is an insult to them.

Gah.