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In my opinion, the TAAS was not fun in a sense that every homeroom class period we had to review TAAS material. We couldn’t spend time on our homework or anything that pertained to that. The TAAS was long and covered just the major groups of studies. However, it recently covers the science part. I can’t remember the information on the test. For it was a long time ago. But I do remember doing quit well. However I knew a lot of people that did not do so well. I think because they weren’t prepared for it or was not taught the right skills. I do believe that this test informs the administration on each individual knowledge and how they should be put in the right classes that will benefit the student in his or her ability. However, I think it should be taken one year earlier. This will prove the student’s skill and ability as they enter high school.
In my personal opinion, I think the Taas is a waist of time. It is a test that combines eighth grade material with useless information that will never affect our lives. It is also extremly long. There is no reason why a test like that has to be as long as it is. Especially, since you have to take the TASP and SAT a year earlier. These tests should be done away with. They dont truly measure someones knowledge.
In preparing for the TAAS test at [X] High School was quite a big deal. First we would take a practice TAAS test every year until the real one. The practice TAAS tests were previous tests from the year or years before. We would take these tests at the same time that the real test was going on and it was treated as though we were taking the real thing. We would constantly do five paragraph essays in my english classes and vocabulary words. For me it was not a positive experience because teaching how to write a five paragraph essay has helped me none in college and after I learned this there was only two years left for me to learn how to write a proper essay and research paper. It was kind of like before the TAAS everything revolved around that and after it was just college. I feel that they can still focus on the TAAS just as much and still get other things taught.
In response to your questions about the TAAS test, I considered the writing part a complete waste of time. The instruction I received my sophomore year consisted mainly of the teacher telling us to memorize the parts that needed to be in each of the five paragraphs. We memorized which information especially to put in the introduction and the formula for the thesis. We had to have the five paragraphs. It was no fun basically. We had to write a persuasive paper and my prompt wanted me to write a proposal to the government about what to spend some money on. Most people I talked to hated it and thought they did poorly. I was dissapointed by my results even though they were pretty good. I think that the test in no way measured writing skill, only how quickly one could respond in a formulaic manner. It was not a good educational experience. In fact my junior and senior English teachers told us to forget about everything we had been told about writing an essay before.
In the heirarchy of standardized tests the TAAS ranked at the bottom for me. I didn’t study at all for it, I felt that there was nothing that I really could study. I wasn’t nervous b/c I had received academic recognition in the past when taking the TAAS. I did as expected and was pleased w/ my results. Now, for more rigorous and demanding tests like the SAT and the ACT I prepared beforehand by doing practice tests and excercises on the computer and by purchasing books to further prepare for both examinations. With these harder tests I was apprehensive before and after the tests as I waited for my results. I think that standardized tests are an inadequate measurement of a student’s ability. Some individuals, like myself, are perpetually horrible test-takers. Though I may have participated in many extra-curricular activities and was in all AP and GT classes, this did not factor in as much as a standardized test score. I wish that standardized tests were abolished, and a new system would be created for college admittance.
It can be said that the TAAS test had only one physiological influence on me. Every year when one of my teachers told me that we were going to prepare for the TAAS test, I would think to myself literally what is the point of this. I always felt that it was not worth my time so I always put in a half-assed effort into it. But the problem with the test was that it was simple that a sixth grader could pass the high school test with eighties in each area.
Through out the years my school district tried many different ideas to get all the students ready, but they were all the same that they used the basic principles to get ready. My sophomore year in English class the essays were used in the style of the TAAS essay, and the teacher would grade them as they felt that the TAAS graders world. The problem with this was that the people that didn’t do as well would get better grades on the practice test than the people that made the better TAAS score. In my senior year of high school they made the entire school do a packet in every class. In the different class periods students would have to different packets. One day the packets might be about math and another day it could be about reading. My view with this was the same as my fellow students and that it was a waste of time because when the allotted time was up the teacher would give you the answers and why it was that answer.
All that I can remember when taking the test was when am I going to finish this stupid and pointless test. This was true especially during the exit TAAS test. I remember that I need to hurry up so that I can go to lunch at my normal time and be with my friends that took the test and with other that didn’t: When receiving the scores I didn’t even care because I knew I was going to pass and that I would do very well on it. I remember my mom telling me that my scores had come in and I told her ok what was your point. And when she told me that I passed and that I did very well i said tell me something new.
It was not until after our class took TAAS that I began to enjoy English. After taking the test, we were able to do activities and assignments that were interesting and could help us become better writers. We began reading and writing about Shakespeare, mythology, the Bible and Koran as literature, and contemporary work. I finally began to feel as if I was learning something. Preparing for and being taught how to pass TAAS took time away from actually learning something that I felt was valuable as a writer and a person.
Just to start off I dont like tests altogether. I’d say out of all the testing I’ve ever done, including SAT’s and TASP, TAAS was the easiest. This is probably due to the fact that it was during the High School era. But I really hate the SAT’s. I took it three times only raising my score by 10 each time. Unlike the TAAS I did prepare and study for the SAT test. But unlike the SAT test I got a better score on the TAAS. I guess I didn’t study hard enough, god I hate that test. A little quote here from Conan O’Brian about the SAT, “Looking up my old SAT scores would be like going back to Vietnam.” Ha! Hoo! Yeah! The TASP on the other hand wasn’t that bad. I never prepared for that test either but otherwise did alright.
Let me first start out by stating that the standerized tests I’ve taken have been limited to the stanford achivement test in elementry school and the ACT in highschool. when i was required (by my parents) to take the ACT wasnt too concerned with the outcome because at the time i didn’t think i’d go to college. the first time i took the act i was a junior and did no amount of studying for it. i recieved an overall score of 21. i didn’t really care about the results and since I knew tons of people that did worse than i did i really wasn’t stressing it. when i decided that college would be part of my academic career i decided to take the ACT again. again i wasn’t too concerned with the results since most colleges will take you if you have a 21 or higher. i did no studying for this on either and recieved a score of 24. i was quite happy with that and decided not to take it any more. i’m not so sure about these tests i have mixed feelings on them. on one hand i think that it’s extremely hard to construct a test to find out what people have learned. but on the other hand since it’s a standard test for everyone it’s a good way to compare what you know to what other people know. i think that over all it was a good experience for me except for the fact that the tests were always on sat. mornings. other than that i’m glad now that i took them. during high school, the whole taas thing was a pain in the butt. i think that my school over prepared everyone. they held all kinds of practices and reviews and when the actual test day came nobody took it seriously anymore. i prepared for all of the exams by taking these reviews, i also took the practice test like three times prior to the actual test. in english, we wrote prompt after prompt and was critically graded for it. when i actually took the real test i was ready for anything. i passed the three exams with flying colors and was tasp exempt. i can not really say that for some of my other friends...since we had already taken so many reviews they were tired of trying. overall, i guess taas was a good experience, i learned a lot and did not have to take another test because of it. however, i do not think that the reviews/practices should have been such a priority and over done.
My contact with the TAAS program was fairly good, as opposed to other programs like TASP, or the SAT test. Studying for the TAAS was a main priority for most of my teachers, some more than others but the work was generally not too hard. I sort of liked the TAAS practice sheets, especially since we did more of them than other writing assignments such as papers, reports and tests. Most of our home and class work was practice sheets, these sheets mostly dealt with spelling, verbs, nouns, sentence fragments, definitions, and various other forms of work. I believe the work I did for the TAAS was very useful and a good learning experience. The practice work not only prepared us for the TAAS but also helped me practice better usage of the english language and its purposes. As a result of this learning experience I did well on the TAAS test and in my future english classes. Although some of the sutdying and preparation was hard, I believe schools should still keep students practicing for the TAAS test.
My experience with TAAS started I believe in the second grade. I hated it so much, especially when every year the grade for the TAAS would change. Our class got hit the worst. For instance, when I was in third grade, the years for taking the TAAS were third and fifth, (probably other odd grades too, I just didn’t care about that at the time, and I was too interested in going home and riding my bike). But when I got to fourth grade, the test grades changed to even, and so my class got stuck taking it again. That is how I remember the TAAS back in elementary. I did not ever realize how horrible of a test it was until I grew older and heard the adults and teachers downing it so much. They would say how the test is more used to criticize and rank a school than to actually teach us something. This became noticeable to me when in ninth and tenth grade I was taking Pre-AP classes and all we did was prepare for TAAS. What was the big deal about taking AP? That is why I believe it is so hard to pass the AP tests, because we have a year to practice. Plus, just the word “TAAS” hurts my ears. The practices in English class were reading a story and answering questions over the story. Of course this develops reading skills, but it really got frustrating when you really believe something is right, and can prove it and just because TAAS says it is wrong, it is wrong. We also did outlines after outlines over persuasive, descriptive, and comparisons and reviewed over old tests. Teachers and schools are so scared of getting bad reports that my school had TAAS pep rallies, (like we cared). They also bought us pizza and sodas, (that actually kept our attention) and was something we liked about the test. Of course when junior and senior year came around it was really good. No more TAAS! Instead, for three days we came to school later than the freshman and sophomores. That made us feel special. But bluntly my feelings for TAAS are anger. But the truth is that I would probably just of considered it a fact of life except that I heard how horrible of a test it was from parents, and like I said even the teachers. Since I am e-mailing this to you I want to say that the way I write is extremely personal, probably like everyone else’s. When I write, I write the way I think. I put commas in when I am changing my tone or pausing for a moment, and when I am writing it, I think of it as if I was making a speech. Even if it is on an issue I care nothing about, I put my own sense of understanding into it and a piece of myself into everything I write.
My experience with TAAS varies by the age I was when I took the test. I remember a turning point in the eighth grade when I realized that the test did not matter at all. Before that point, I worked very diligently on the practice sheets and I tried to learn the most I could handle. I was always very excited to receive my scores and very proud of what I had accomplished. Then, as I reached the eighth grade, I began to see that the scores actually matter very little in the big scheme of things. I rarely did the practice sheets or only did them to receive a grade from my teacher. On the actual test, it was more of a challenge to see how fast I could finish, rather than how good my score could be. My sophomore year brought about new consequences--I had to pass to graduate. But the test was easy enough that I think I could have passed it while I was in the fourth grade and trying my hardest. My scores came and went as no surprise; I passed and qualified to skip the TASP test. To conclude, the test lost its “glory” the more years I was forced to take it.
My experience with TAAS wasn’t too bad, but in [my school] TAAS was taken seriously. Unfortunately, the class of 2001 took it almost every year due to the changes made by educational leaders. In most of my English classes the year of TAAS we would write prompts on how to do something, describing a picture, or making a story out of a picture. We would also work on grammar, often just practicing substituting better words in sentences. This worked. The teacher who had the biggest impact on me was Mrs. [X]. She wouldn’t concentrate on any of that, we just wrote on a topic that was written on the board and that was all. The whole class loved it because the concentration wasn’t on the TAAS it was on us learning something, and it worked the best. That year I did well on both sections of the English part. I realize now that what we were doing in class was helping, but she disguised it as though we were just having a normal class and not TAAS preparation. I think TAAS is a good way to access skills and that my experience in doing it wasn’t all that bad.
My experience with taking the standardized tests required in the state of Texas was an exercise in futility. I feel that my high school English class experience was geared entirely to doing whatever it takes to pass that test. I feel that everything I learned was very systematic and “force fed.” I was taught only basic fundamentals of writing. It was not until I started college that I realized that writing was more than making complete sentences and proper punctuation.
In my English classes, we did more reading and comprehension related tasks than actual writing. It was not until a month or so before the test that we started doing writing oriented things. We were given numerous handouts on “proper sentence structure and punctuation.” We were also given several practice tests to take. We were informed after each practice test that the model tests we has just taken were the previous years actual tests. I feel that I was everything was done so systematically, that we had no choice but to succeed. However, I do not feel that the tests were a true reflection of where we stood as individual students. I believe that the tests merely showed how good our teachers were at filling students heads with answers, not with actually teaching them or teaching them how to think for themselves.
Overall, I have had a negative experience with the TAAS test.
My experience with tests such as the SAT and ACT, which I took, was not a good one. I say this because I am not one of those people who are fond of tests that measure your ability to learn or how fast one can learn it. Even though I studied long hours and many days for both of these tests I can honestly say that I was on the borderline when it came to the scores that I received. For some reason during both tests I felt relaxed yet still uncomfortable. Relaxed because I knew I had prepared myself well for these tests yet uncomfortable because that’s just what happens when I take tests. I guess that’s my way of being nervous. The results of course were ok but the school that I came from everyone expected better. Even the second time taking the SAT was not a good one. I studied more and yet the result showed worse. Though I do not like tests they do help me know what I may have to learn more of or review. In the end a written test can only show what one knows not what they can do.
My experience with the SAT’s wasn’t so bad. I studied at least 5 hours everyday for a month before the test. I used a CD in my computer and it tutored me in all the areas needed and since this was my second time taking this test I improved my score by 100 points which is what the CD-ROM is supposed to do; improve you last score by at least 100 points. Also, for the AP Bio. Test, out teacher gave us two practice tests containing the same number and type of question that we would see on the test. She did this one every semester but the difference was that on the practice tests there were no essays. Overall the tests were very similar and they’d help to understand the structure and outline of the test. Even though the tests (practice) were not easy or amusing I believe they served their purpose.
My experience with the TAAS test was most definitely a stressful one. Our class was the class that was always stuck taking the TAAS because they changed it every year. We were stuck along the TAAS tests and practice tests over and over again until we really couldn’t stand it. The preparation in the English classes was very thorough, we would spend day after day taking little practice multiple choice quizzes and writing on prompts from a few years back. With the essays, we would trade with another student in the class and have them give it a numerical grade. Then, when we traded back, we would have a class discussion about what good papers should consist of and how you can get a 4. I was pretty much drained from all of the practicing, so when the actual test came around, I felt that I had never been more prepared for anything in my life. That is, until we got to the writing part. In all of the years before, I had never made higher than a 2 on any of my writing prompts. That made me a bit doubtful in my abilities when it came down to writing. I don’t remember the prompt exactly, but I do remember thinking that it was an extremely difficult topic to write about. After the test was over, I felt confident about the multiple choice part because I had always done well in that section. I was a bit nervous about the writing, though. When we finally did get our scores back, I was in complete shock. In all of the objective categories, I had not missed a single question. But what really threw me was that I had made a 4 on the essay, which gave me a perfect TAAS test. I never thought I could do that in a million years! Needless to say, I can still remember the shocked expression on my face. I think all of the practicing and the writing really did help, even if it did seem more of a burden at the time. Also, it was a good experience to have, so when the SATs came around, we were at least somewhat prepared for the test format (even though the TAAS test was not timed). It really was a good experience for me, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way.
My experience with the TAAS test was very pointless. In our school, we spent months and months preparing for this test that has little or no affect on anyone. well for me anyways, i think that if the people really wanted to challenge the students, they can come up with something more difficult, not so boring, and things that are not so common sence.
My experience with the TAAS was a good one. I found it to be very easy in every subject that was on the test. My teachers prepared us on a weekly basis, having us do practice problems from the TAAS test the year before. We were forced to go to hour tutoring sessions that would go over the materials that were suppose to be on the TAAS. The material was very easy, so I expected the test to be just as easy. As I took the test, I knew I had aced it. I finished really quick, so I had time to go back and check my answers. I was confident that I had done well. When the scores came in, I was not suprised at all. I had gotten perfect scores on my english and writing, and on my math, I had only missed very few. With my scores being so high, I was exempted from the TASP test. Overall, I think the TAAS is the most overated test in schools today. I feel that everyone makes such a big deal of the whole thing. I also beleive that basing so much on this test, is kind of dumb. Some people just happen to be bad test takers, or it might just so happen that people are having difficulties in their lives or elsewhere, when the test is taking place. Based on my experience along with feedback from my peers, I beleive the TAAS testing is a waste of time.
My experiences with TAAS in English class were good. It was easy and I don’t mind doing easy work. It was just simple skills that you learn in elementary and middle school. At my high school we took a practice TAAS test our freshman year and if we didn’t do that well or as well as they thought we should have, we were put into groups. In these TAAS groups we would meet for a couple of months twice a week. We would work on what we did poorly on. Once and a while we would take little TAAS tests to see how much we have improved. If we improved enough we didn’t have to meet in the group anymore. With all of this practice our school had some high TAAS scores and we were recognized. It seemed easy enough not to have to study for all of the time. It seemed more important for our school than it was for the students.