23-041-2002
I am from Washburn Rural High School in Topeka Kansas. Therefore I
didn't take the TAAS test. In Kansas we do not have a test like this. The only testing
we aquire is the ACT which does not have any writing unit on the test. My
highschool did a wonderful job of preparing me for my schooling at Texas
A&M-CC. In highschool they stressed getting ready for college classes and
doing the work completely on my own. I am in 1302 as a freshman because I took
I semester coarse in Topeka Kansas at Washburn University. I felt like my
highschool English classes prepared me much more than my college coarse at
Washburn University.
23-042-2002
I actually took the PSAT and SAT and did almost exactly the same on
both of those about an 1120 which wasn't very good compared to my friends but
was really good compared to most highschool students. I was really aiming for a
1200 but I took a class specifically dealing with how to I am not from Texas so
I didn't take the TAAS and I was exempt from the TASP but I did take the ACT
and SAT and I took AP exams for Eng/Comp Spanish and Statistics. Overall I
really like taking standardized tests which may sound weird but I like being
able to compare myself with others. Standardized tests also have shown me how I
specifically learn best and the areas in which I excell.
prepare for the SAT after the PSAT and it barely raised my score at
all. I knew that my weakness was the vocabulary section so I tried to prepare
for that especially but it didn't work. It was then that I decided to try the
ACT. I was sick the day of that test so I wasn't expecting to do well going
into it but I did surprisingly well. I had a hard time concentrating and I was
sneezing through most of the test and didn't even finish the last portion of
the reading section so I wasn't very optimistic about the results. When they
finally arrived in the mail I was surprised to see I finished in the top five
percent in every catagory and I thought about taking it again to see how I
would do if I was healthy but I decided my test score 31 was well above average
anyway so I would let it slide. I definitely learned by taking those two types
of tests that I'm much better at interpreting data than actually knowing all
the little things. I'm also a lot stronger in math and science than English. I
think taking both tests was a very good learning experience for me and I wish I
had time to take them both again.
As for AP exams my first one was English and Composition and I really
didn't know what to expect but I thought it was pretty basic and easy. The
following week I ended up having Spanish and Statistics on the same day spanish
all morning and statistics all afternoon. I shouldn't have taken the spanish
test because I knew I wasn't prepared but I had taken five years of spanish
(the most possible) and was curious to see how much I'd learned. Coming out of
that test I knew the best I should hope for was a two; I seriously wasn't actually
positive of a single answer on the test and the whole group of us were laughing
through most of the test because we had no idea what was going on. Right after
that I had forty-five minutes to eat lunch and get to the statistics exam. I
had done really well in my statistics class and was well prepared but I was so
brain dead after the spanish exam that I had a hard time concentrating. By the
time I finished the statistics exam I had been testing for almost 8 hours
straight and couldn't even see straight. I was barely capable of even
responding halfway appropriately to the final question and thought I was going
to be sick afterwards. I literally almost called a friend to pick me up from
school because I didn't know if I was capable of driving since I was dizzy and
seeing double. I managed to make it home safely and slept the rest of the day
and through the night and my head still hurt the next day. I'm glad I was able
to take all the AP exams I wanted to but I definitely learned never to try and
take more than one per day. I know if the two tests would have been even a day
apart I would have done much better on the statistics exam but I guess that's
life. AP exams I guess are worth the time but they are much harder than any
standardized tests or even the tests you can take at college to test out of
classes so I'm not sure what the point was.
Standardized tests are a great way to compare yourself to all others
and where you stand against people in your own grade level. It helps in many
ways to teach you how to take tests and which areas you excel in.
23-043-2002
I am not from Texas so I never took the TAAS however we had a test
like it that we needed to take our sophmore year and had to be passed to
graduate high school. I really do not remember much about it. It was a lot like
all the other standardized tests that you have to take through to years. It had
different subjects that you had to answer questions about on a scantron and it
was timed. I never worried too much about it. This is because I am learning
disabled in english and dyslexic so I had motifications that I can not take
scantrons or have timed tests. I would take it the normal way the first time
and if I did really badly I was able to take it again with my modifications.
However it was really easy and if was almost impossible to fail so I passed the
first time around and did not need to do it again. Thats about it there was not
much to it and it was like 3-4 years ago so I do not remember anything else.
23-044-2002
I attended a private Catholic school so I did not have to take the
TAAS test. I took different standardized tests. One of the standardized tests I
took was the English AP test. I had never been in an AP class until I took
English AP. I had no idea what to expect. I did not request to be in the AP
class but was put into it because my schedule would not allow for me to be in
the regular English class. The class seemed to be okay at the beginning but
became harder as the year went on. As the AP tests came closer my teacher
started preparing the class. We would do timed essays. I dislike doing time
essays because I never had chance to think about the prompt and prepare my
essay. My essays turned out to be horrible. I would spend most of the time
thinking about what I wanted to write until I realized I only had 50 minutes to
complete it.
The second part of the AP test consisted of multiple choice questions.
These questions were supposed to test how well we could analyze literature.
This was another thing that I disliked. I had never been any good at analyzing.
My teacher would give the class practice tests and we would go over them. This
activity did not help me. My class spent most of the time getting off the
subject.
I was not sure whether I wanted to take the test or not but eventually
I did. The test date came and I was so nervous. During the test I remember
looking up at the other people and everyone was writing so fast and looked very
diligent. The essays were the hardest part for me. I couldn't think of where to
start or what to write about in relation to the prompts. I had a bad experience
with the tests.
A few months after I took the test I received my score. I had failed
the test with a 2. I feel that standardized tests are not a good educational process.
I do not do good under that kind of pressure. I get really nervous and my mind
goes blank.
23-045-2002
I believe a standard test such as the TAAS is a good asset to the
improvent and learning skills of students. Although standard tests are made to
meet a requierent not every student is at the same learning level as others.
English teachers/professors teach differently and therefore students learn at a
different pace. The Learning process varies somewhat but alltogether students
can improve by cooperating and making an effort to learn the material.
23-046-2002
I believe standardized testing to be a benefit in some cases. However
I feel that in the case of the TAAS test it was pointless. Teachers focused on
those problems that would be on the test and therefore the core curriculum
suffered. The focus of preparing you for college became second and preperations
for the TAAS became first on the agenda. In turn the students had to focus on
the TAAS rather than college because without the TAAS pass grade you couldn't
graduate. I believe the TAAS to be an overall "Pointless Test". I
don't feel I learned anything useful from the test and spent almost every year
of school beginning at an early age "preparing for the TAAS.”
23-047-2002
I believe that my TAAS expirience was not a bad because I never really
had trouble passing it but I do think that the state of Texas takes it too far.
My opinon of the TAAS test is basically that it is pointless to a certain
extent. I feel that all public schools do is prepare student from 3rd grade on
for the test and thats their only main concern. In my expirience I have found
that they drill what you need to know for the TAAS into the students and
nothing else. I think that public schools have turned it into some sort of
compitetion as to who can be recgonized the most and they are not concentrating
on the basic education of the students. I do think that it is necessary to take
an aptitude test and pass it to graduate but I dont see the point in starting
the TAAS test so young and taking it so seriously.
23-048-2002
I believe that TAAS was a waste of time for me because it is not fair
for people that have harder classes than the regular classes. The TAAS is
mostly the general things in every subject and people that are in harder
classes tend to score higher or tend to forget the general things because they
are more into depth with the whole subjects. I also think that it stresses out
a lot of the students because teachers are pushing the students harder than
they would usually becasue they think that it is a big deal for their school to
get recognized at a state recognition as one of the best high schools.
23-049-2002
I believe that the TAAS test is not a very good way in proving what
was learned in prior years to the test. insted was just cramed learning a
couple of weeks prior to the test. I also believe that its level was way under
my level of knowledge.
23-050-2002
I believe the TAAS was a brilliant waste of time and mind power. The state
of Texas thought it was challenging us students when in reality a fifth grader
could probably pass the high school exit level version. I took the TAAS through
my entire grade school career and I always believed it to be the best time of
year to slack off because it was always so easy. The few who couldn't pass it
the first time were total idiots and probably never amounted to much unless
they just blew the test off. The TAAS was a terrible educational experience fo
me because I never learned anything new everything on the test was something I
had learned maybe 2 3 or even 4 years before. With this in mind I strongly
believe the TAAS test is a terrible and pathetic standardized test that no one
with half a mind should even bother taking.