Studying for the Test
Please enjoy this multi-media story including a video slideshow, written text, and an audio interview.
Learning How to Learn
Diminishing the importance of tests and revitalizing a hunger to learn.
TYLER, Texas – As a college student coming up on graduation, I can say I have taken many, many tests up to this point. In elementary school children are tested to make sure they are meeting state standards, just as they are in middle school.
In high school, students are not only tested over their usual class material and tested to meet state standards, but they are also spending time outside of school preparing for tests like the ACT and SAT. These are long, stressful tests that students feel the need to do well on in order to get accepted to a good college. Having been in their situation only five years ago, and having studied at four different colleges, I can say that it’s a little hyped-up.
College tests are a little different than earlier education tests, because most of them are only focused on one specific class. Though there are entrance exams and classes that build on other classes. Of course you’re expected to remember that material from two years back.
What is the point of it all? No one will argue that tests measure learning and progress in an objective way, but I don’t believe they actually encourage learning or add value to our society.
I plan to graduate college with a 4.0 grade point average, but I’ve been told that it won’t matter, and no future employer will be concerned about whether I received an A or a B in my geography class.
Students try to stay tuned-in to a class concerning material that may or may not be of interest to them, then study and memorize and challenge the size of their short-term memory banks, stress out and give up sleep and finally take the test. Hopefully, they receive the they need in order to pass the class and eventually graduate and live happily ever after, right?
Or, maybe we should skip all the stuff in-between study and live happily ever after. It will take generations for our society to find an outlook that embraces learning instead of meeting requirements, but if we don’t start now we’ll never get to that point.
Maybe this way of thinking is due to the fact that I find myself a part of generation Y. Lea Grover, a slightly older member of generation Y, wrote an article on the Huffington Post titled, “The Question that Ruined Generation Y.” In the article she said, “There is no, what do you want to be? There is only, what are you doing now?”
Getting caught up in the stress of meeting the next requirement to hopefully move on to bigger and better things will pass the time, but in doings so we forget to enjoy the process of learning.
In a commentary written by a David Jaffee, a professor of sociology at the University of North Florida, Jaffee said, “Rather than telling students to study for exams, we should be telling them to study for learning and understanding.” Cramming for exams does not measure authentic learning.
He went on to talk about the need for a new model for learning in our society, and ended his commentary with, “Yes, our mantra of “studying for exams” has created and nourished a monster—but it’s not too late to kill it.”
All in all, I don’t think I am the only member of society who realizes our system of education needs to change. In order to embrace learning and leave tests as a simple means of measurement, we need to change things up a bit. So lets change how we see learning, and use the influence we hold over future generations in the best manner possible.
Tags: Studying for the test, Tests, Learning, Cramming, Exams, Generation Y.
Libbi Mayer 