The Dreaded Placement Test
David Wingens ‘19
As the end of the school year
quickly approaches and the workload only increases, one thing many students
have on their minds is what the next year of classes has in store for them. The
process of placement differs by department, but generally, the department
chairperson and teachers look at students’ grades and participation and, in
some cases, placement tests.
The goal of a placement test is to see how well a student
can retain knowledge and apply what they have learned in class throughout their
high school career to the question at hand. Only Math, Spanish, Language Arts
and Social Studies have placement tests. Even though they are not supposed to,
these tests almost always lead to added stress.
Teachers often attempt to comfort
students by emphasizing that the placement exam is only a small piece of the
placement equation and that class work and participation are just as important.
However, students still feel stressed and study, which creates additional
unnecessary stress for students. No one can blame a child who is being told
that he or she is about to take a test that could decide what class they end up
in next year and possibly for the remainder of high school for being stressed
out.
Along with that, placement tests can put college-prep
students at a big disadvantage if they have not learned all of the material on
the test, leading to an educational system with little mobility for kids who
feel that they belong at a higher level. This is more true for math than any
other subject because it is naturally more fact-based and leaves little room
for abstraction.
Possibly the most disliked part of the placement test idea
is that a large part of the decision is made based on a moment in time. While a
student’s normal grade is an average of his or her work throughout the year,
the placement test tests a student’s ability in a specific timeframe and a
specific skill. There does not seem to be a whole lot that a placement test can
tell that is not already evident from classwork.
That being said, placement tests might
just be a necessary part of the placement process. They are a good baseline to
see what each student knows when put on an even playing field. In addition,
they never actually require studying. While many students do study for their
placement tests, it is rarely, if ever, necessary for success. This is because
the goal of a placement test is not to judge one’s knowledge on details, but to
see what basic knowledge is retained, what the larger picture is about a given
topic and what a student is capable of doing when applying this knowledge to an
unfamiliar prompt. For this, placement tests, generally speaking, work. They
are usually more about using prior knowledge and thinking logically to solve
problems without having to memorize anything.
While they may have their flaws and
they seem at times to be unnecessary and stress-inducing, placement tests are
an integral part of the placement system and they provide much needed
information to the department heads and teachers when placing students into the
appropriate class for them.
