It’s the third grade and we are preparing for the state tests. There are students surrounding me in almost every direction, all of them with notebooks and pecils out. The teacher is going of the structure of the state test and what things we should work on first. The smell of coffee filled the room. While I wasn’t a big fan of it, it did remind me of pancakes for some reason. The lighs on the ceiling flickered sometimes. My desk would screech across the floor when I moved even slightly. The sun shined brightly through the window near me, so I remember it being hard to see my paper. All these different things bothered me little by little, but the thing that upset me the most was the state test. The state test seemed like the only thing on everyone’s mind, even the teacher’s. Everything we learned was just thrown out the window just for this one test. Even the other subjects like science and social studies were paused in favor of state test prep. Seeing as science was my favorite subject at the time, that really pissed me off.

The enjoyment of my school life diminished as school shifted its focus to the State Test. All the fun activited that we used to do were replaced with concentrated study on test structure. I never enjoyed learning how to take a test. I would rather just learn about the material on it. It’s not like I don’t get it. Tests scores are important for schools, but it’s a different story if you are more concerned with that then the student’s education themselves. Being forced to take countless practice tests while reading and writing everyday fueled my hate for the English subject. I will never forget the stress I felt while preparing for the state tests, asit is stress that I felt every other school year after that. I know all schools don’t do this, but if it is a school that does, then you are going to burn out your students faster than the tests will, especially at a young age. If you want better test scores, then actually teach the children subjects.