Standardized testing is something that all students dread. Exam week is one of the most stressful parts of being in school. Some students don’t know where to go; some are just afraid of failing. With all of these factors, I believe that standardized testing is an unfair representation of students’ achievement. 

     Firstly, many students have testing anxiety. Testing anxiety is when someone gets nervous about taking a test. Testing anxiety can lead to students not doing their best on a test. When people get anxious about a test they often cannot focus on the task at hand. Testing anxiety can also lead to more serious things like panic attacks. Having a panic attack can lead to students not being able to finish a test. Not taking testing anxiety into account is unfair to those students suffering from this. A student that has done outstanding work in their class could completely bomb a test due to them being anxious. 

     Most standardized testing is a one-time option. If a student has testing anxiety one day they cannot take a makeup test later. One bad day is supposed to reflect how well a student has done throughout an entire class. To tell a student their worth in a class is defined by one day is completely unfair. Not only does this discredit the students coursework; it also increases testing anxiety. This will in turn lower scores overall. If there was a redo option to standardized testing then it would take the weight off of the testing. This could reduce the amount of testing anxiety and increase the overall scores.

     Standardized testing also limits teachers in what they can teach. To truly prepare a class for an exam, teachers have to teach students how to take their respective exam, not actual content. While content does go into the exam, every exam is formatted differently. Teachers have to give practice exam after practice exam to prepare their students. This could cause students to miss out on important information. Implementing teacher-made exams could allow the teachers