Let’s face it, the Testing Center was made for the teachers. With the Testing Center, teachers aren’t forced to spend class periods administering exams or spending their free time grading exams. It give the teachers more time to conduct “research.” The problem is, the Testing Center is neither convenient nor effective for students.
As students, the Testing Center forces us to take the little time we have outside of our class periods and studying, and spend it taking tests. It takes up our extra time that we could be using to find an eternal companion — if we don’t have one already.
We wait in long lines at the Testing Center; I waited in line for two hours once, and I have heard of worse. Just the image of the Testing Center invokes a Pavlovian response in us, inducing unimaginable stress and anxiety. It has taken more money from me in the past four years than a lifetime of schoolyard-bullies ever could.
Studies have proven that information is best recalled and remembered in the same location it was learned — in the classroom. So why are we still taking tests in the anxiety-oven? We should be taking tests in the classrooms where we learned the information. But why aren’t we? It’s because the Testing Center was designed for the teachers.
Wilsonville, Ore.
