18-341

The TAAS test was very boring and basic knowledge. I did not like doing the countless exercises I felt like they where pointless they did not have concentration on the things that where important. The school want to have good statistics on TAAS and they don’t worry about having well rounded students as long as you can pass the test. They think that it is so hard but really if they would raise the standard then people would try harder and end up being more knowledgeable and would also do better. TAAS is a basic level test and should not be concentrated on so much.

18-342

The TAAS test was very boring. The actual test did not help me at all. Some of the preparation helped me a little. I think that the test would not matter if the teachers would teach more about writing in class rather than just the week before the TAAS test. There was never any stress or fear of the TAAS. The only fear was of sitting in that room for four hours. The TAAS was always easy, but long and boring. The word “TAAS” still makes me cringe in disgust. I did have an okay feeling of joy when the results were back because I placed out of all other tests like the TASP. This meant no more of this long, monotonous testing.

My overall feelings toward the TAAS were very negative. I have never been closer to committing suicide than when in that room staring at those pages struggling to stay awake and keep reading and writing. I remember my brain felt like my leg muscles the day after running a marathon. My head was one big sore muscle.

I hate reading and despise the reading section of any test. Tests over books or passages just bother me. I do not know why I hate reading so much. I think that roughly half of the books read and tested over in high school should be self-picked. How are students supposed to enjoy reading when forced to read the most boring, excessively drawn-out books ever made? I used to love reading until I had to read books like Great Expectations and The Scarlet Letter. I understand that these books are classic and need to be read, but I would still enjoy reading if I could also test over good books.

All in all, I think the TAAS test was horrifying, but also necessary. I additionally believe that teachers need to encourage reading by granting freedom over choosing books while still enforcing the classics.

18-343

The TAAS test was way too easy. Although we spent years preparing for it, we did not need that much preparation. I think the test is designed so that everyone can pass it. It is all basic reading and mathematics skills, the stuff you learn in elementary. I think the test should be looked at and made more challenging for the students in the years to come.

18-344

The TAAS test wasn’t something that I felt was extremely useful. I feel like my teachers should have taught me better. My educational experienc itself was horrible. It wasn’t fun for me and I didn’t apply myself. My teachers didn’t really care about what we did or didn’t learn. They did just whatever they had to do to get by according to state regulations, or automatically assumed that my previous teachers had already taught it to us. I think that the TAAS was just an easy way out for them. They didn’t have to worry about making a test up or grade it. For me the tests were easy, very easy. I was given the impression that as long as I knew what was on the test I was set for what’s to come in the later years and I successfully completed what was necessary for me to pass high school. When it came time to having to take the SAT or ACT I was completely lost. Those tests were difficult for me and helped me to understand what exactly I should’ve known by the time I left high school. I felt and still feel cheated out of an education. TAAS didn’t do anything for me and neither did the teachers. I went in thinking that I was going to be doomed, that I would completely fail and when I was handed the test I thought it was a joke. I didn’t know whether to be offended, because it was so easy, or that I was just that really well prepared. That wasn’t right for sure, I was so lost whenever it came to anything else. It’s like they taught us only what would be on the test and if we passed then they did a job well done.

18-345

The TAAS test, wow whoever came up with this test should be made to take it every year! This is the easiest test, yet we as students are robbed from our sophomore year of learning to learn stupid standardized test questions. Our whole sophomore year, starting with the moment we stepped into English class revolved around TAAS, my sophomore year the previous students had not done so well, so they gave us incentives to do better! We were given ice cream, sodas, and lunch breaks, more time to goof off! 1 FREE yes FREE trip to Fiesta Texas and the State Baseball tournament! We were told that it was up to us to get this school out of a rut and that we could do it! So day in day out we lived TAAS, and closer to TAAS time we were divided up into groups taking classes, and then we would have to come in the morning and have tutoring, or they would have other students tutor you! It was completely insane! I remember one time in Jr. High, I was absent from the Writing part, because of my asthma, and my principle called me and asked me if I felt well enough to go up to the school, and write a three page story. He would come and pick me up and then bring back home but that he had to have that test score! My mother was furious! She felt that he was more concerned with this stupid test then with my health. But many teachers get like this! Because they feel that this test is a test over their teaching skills! I feel that the TAAS test should be eliminated, because of the craziness of the feelings of it.

18-346

The TAAS testing experience seemed too much like a burden. Much time, perhaps too much, was devoted to preparation for the test, when maybe more time could have been devoted to learning at more applicable topics, such as the necessary curriculum for the class. The TAAS was built up and made to be this monumental, difficult thing, when it was in fact a very elementary, rehashing of things we had learned and gone over again and again for years. It was more of a burden than a learning experience. Standardized testing is a hassle.

18-347

The TAAS testing experience was okay when I was in high school and I always did well. However, I don’t think that these tests are an adequate assessment of how smart you are and how good of a writer you are. Some people are not good test takers or can not write as well to the type of prompt given. For example, some students are much better at writing a persuasive paper than an informative one.

I think that having classes in order to prepare us for the TAAS exam and many others is ridiculous because you shouldn’t have to be taught something just for the purpose of testing. I never used the skills I have learned in my TAAS classes. In college, they are teaching MLA and APA and all TAAS taught me was to split my paper into five paragraphs of sorted information. In my opinion they should teach and present the test in the way that you will have to write in college. Even students that are not planning to attend college will graduate more prepared for the work force by learning better techniques of writing and not just how to format everything into five paragraphs.

Overall, I guess it was a satisfactory educational experience, but I also felt like it didn’t teach to many useful skills. I think the testing process could be beneficial if there were improvements. However, the TAAS testing at the present time is pointless and unnecessary.

18-348

The taas testing that I had to take was a complete waste of time and I didnt learn anything that was useful for me. At my high school we studied for months for this test and people still failed, because this information was boring so people would not pay attention. The taas test is not a useful test and did not challenge my knowledge.

18-349

The TAAS testing was not a pleasant experience at all. We did a lot of practice TAAS my freshman year. Reading passages then answering the question, they always made us go back and underline where we found it in the passage too. We also worked on grammar and had examples just like the ones in the test. My sophomore year I took pre-AP and it was totally different. I don’t really remember studying much for the test. Instead I remember learning new and very difficult words out of this other test book. We also concentrated on reading actual stories out of the literature book, and the assigned summer reading. In my pre-AP class they thought we were already prepared enough, which was true. In my freshman regular class we studied for it too much and we didn’t get to even go over Greek mythology like all the upper level classes.

18-350

The TAAS tests are no stranger to me. I have been taking TAAS tests since way back in the first grade. We were always told that how well we did on the test was irrelevant and that it’s only purpose was to decide which teacher we would get for the next year. Every year they would give us the exact same test as the previous year and it didn’t take long to figure out how to pass. I can still remember the story that we had to read in each test, every year, about a girl catching a fish and making a print of it. By the eighth grade I could go through the questions to the story and answer them correctly without reading it, because I remembered it from the past seven years.

Finally, in high school, it all changed. It was still eighth grade material, but it seemed that the school finally got new, different copies. The picture of the elephant shown in the first few pages was gone! Its purpose was no longer to choose our teachers for us, but that was all we were told. As far as we, the students, knew, passing meant that we could skip out on all TAAS preparation classes for the next year. In my junior year of high school we had to take it, like always, but this time, if we passed we would never have to take it again. Ninety-four percent of the junior class passed and it was all over, the other six percent just had to try again their senior year…after TAAS preparation classes. To this day I was never told what the purpose of the test really was, I had always just accepted the fact that we had to take it because it was always there.

The TAAS preparation classes were not always based on whether you passed or not. Sometimes they were mandatory and the entire school had to suffer through them. We were given thick packets of TAAS questions that we had to answer, but the teachers focused on the essay portion. To help us we were taught to write the “five paragraph essay,” which we were told would work for college as well. This has turned out to be one of the many lies told to us by public schools. After we had learned the format, we were basically taught how to BS our way to earning a three or four by telling the graders what they wanted to hear, something that, again, we must be untaught.

We were taught how to take the test, but no one bothered teaching us about the material it covered. It worked really well. We had high percentages pass and it was never really hard, especially in high school doing eighth grade problems. However for some reason, no matter how easy the rest was, the essay part caused the most problems until we learned how to write in a style that was wanted.

18-351

The TAAS tests were very boring and time consuming like every other test. It was a very helpful test, in that it helped get you prepared for all the other tests like SAT, or TASP. I believe I took it in my sophmore year so I don’t really recall the exact materials or conditions of the test. Taking the TAAS is good for the student’s and the school district so that it shows the academic progress of the student’s and what they have been learning, or if they have been learning at all.

18-352

The TAAS to me, kinda seemed like a joke. sure, it was a state organized test, but it was for a person with the education level of a person three years younger than i. i didnt really see the benifits of the TAAS. it was just “another one of those tests’ i dont see that in any way that test helped me to prepare for all or any of the tests to come. for example, the ACT, SAT, and the TASP. those were taken two years after the TAAS. you can learn alot in two years, even a year. my writing habbits, and skills, change dramatically. my outlook on writing was changed enormously. i dont really remember “preparing” for the test either! if we did, im sure it was just a couple of writings that had i had done many time before. so overall, i dont think that this test was much of a help to me. maybe making it a bit more difficult, or changing when and where you take it. and to me, maybe even droping the test, only because i saw that it was redundant.

18-353

The TAAS was a boring test that we had to study for all my softmore year. We did things on this all the time. We had no time to do other things in class. It is a long test that is time consuming. I think my school prepared us for this exam well though. So all in all the test help but is a very boring process.

18-354

The TAAS was a complete waste of my time. While my teachers should have been teaching me to think critically, I was learning haw to write for a TAAS prompt. This basic skills test was what I had to pass to graduate. If that was the only requirement, I could have graduated in eighth grade. I feel sorry far teachers because I know there are subjects they would like to teach instead of doing TAAS training. It might be nice to test children in middle school to see if they have been learning what they are supposed to learn, but in high school there are more important things than correcting sentences and knowing haw to add marbles. Higher level thinking is almost shunned in public schools because there is such a focus to became “recognized” by the state of Texas for getting all students to pass a test of basic skills for non-thinkers. Because I was in the class that took the TAAS every year from third grade until tenth grade. I knew some people who wouldn’t even try to score well because it was such a waste of their time. The TAAS doesn’t test anything but the ability to spit out information. Real education has been replaced by regurgitation.

18-355

The TAAS was a test that made us stress over. We had to pass the TAAS in order to graduate. In our English classes, they stressed the five paragraph essay. In the introduction was where the thesis was stated and it was at the end with three details. The next three paragraphs were going to be about the details described in the thesis statement. And they wanted a sentence at the end of the paragraph to tie in the paragraphs altogether. They also wanted us to have a topic sentence at the beginning of every paragraph. The essay had to run smoothly meaning that every-thing had to tie in together and make sense to the reader. Our English teachers always focused on the five paragraph essays. They wanted everything to be perfect; for when the big day of the TAAS came. But then to come find out, the essay was about us expressing our opinion on art issue. In this type of situation you could use a five paragraph essay but it would be nice just to express your differences in one paragraph and your similarities in another. To me, the five paragraph essay is not a good writing tool because sometimes your writing can not be separated into five paragraphs. Sometimes you just want to write freely. Many people have difficulty trying to figure out a thesis and there paper begins to get behind because they do not know how to start it.

18-356

The TAAS was a very boring experience. It was more a common sense test rather than a test of things you had learned over the years. I only took the TAAS test twice. I lucked out on taking the test year after year. Every year them seemed to move the test to different grades, so it only caught me once. The next time I took the test was in high school. I passed easily.

18-357

The Taas was a very easy test. As a student in my english class we did exercises every day to prepare us for the exit exam to graduate from high school. I felt that it was unessasery to do exercises every day. I think they should hand out booklets with practice taases in them so everybody doesn’t have to suffer from doing the exercises. I did acceptionally well on the taas though and I do give some thanks to the exercises done in class, but for the most part I believe that the test could’ve been a little harder.

18-358

The TAAS was a waste of time for me every year. Every year since the elementary school, I’ve had to take tests, practice tests, and quizes related to TAAS. If our school prepared us so much for other things than TAAS, then we could have accomplished much more than we did. I believe our school district put too much emphasis on the TAAS. As a result, many of us students were burned out about school quickly. I am just glad that I don’t have to waste my time and take it anymore. Maybe if it was worthwhile, or a little harder of a test, I would actually worry about it.

18-359

The TAAS was basicaly a joke at my high school. When I took the TAAS my sophomore other students and I would just put any anwsers as fast as we could so we could leave. After each student finished he or she was allowed to leave and go and get free food! I was not prepared by the English department at my high school in any way because my teachers only made us complete the worksheets and would not take the grade. I always looked forward to the TAAS just because it was a given that we would have a week of nothing to do! I passed the TAAS with high scores and I was exempt from the TASP due to the high scores from my TAAS. I guess I learned from my many years of TAAS practice!

18-360

The TAAS was extremely annoying in my eyes. Ever since I was in the second grade, the TAAS was beaten in our heads. It was stressed that if we did not pass it, then we couldn’t graduate highschool. That was scary, because I wanted to get out of highschool and on to college. It hurt my education because the teachers were geared just towards the TAAS, so they were not allowed to teach us anything else. Texas had a good idea for a state wide exam, but it went a little psycho.