For some students, the computer has replaced special pencils for the tests. The computer scores the test instantly, while those tests taken with No. 2 pencils are scored in seconds. I had my own strategy for these machine-scored tests. I used to think that it was more important to discover some secret pattern with the multiple guess answers than to answer the questions correctly.
My test-taking strategy was not designed to for doing well on the test. I would reason that since the answer had not been option "C" for some time that the answer must be "C" for the current item.Somehow life to me was symmetrical, and that meant that objective tests should be symmetrical, too. There would be as many "true" answers as "false" in my ideal world. In reality, the computer usually chooses the test items on standardized tests, and the computer doesn't care how many true and false answers there are.
Time limits make the tests difficult for some students. They puzzle for a long time on one problem only to leave 10 others untried when time runs out. Some will answer randomly for the last half minute of the test in an effort to get a few questions luckily correct to compensate for those on which too much time was spent.
These tests are standardized so that students in different schools and even different states can be compared. Standardized means that each student who takes the test is given the same instructions, asked the same questions, and allowed the same time to complete the test.
Although standardized tests provide for helpful comparisons of students and schools, they don't seem to mirror the real tests and real questions of life. Life's tests are not standardized. Some people get harder tests than others. Some must take the tests under more adverse conditions. The tests of life are more difficult for some as a result of where they were born, or their ethnic origin, or the economic status of their families.
Not only are the testing conditions different for each person's life, the questions are certainly not standardized. The real questions in life are not multiple choice or true false. They are far more complex.
The problem is made even more difficult by the fact that not all questions have answers. Those that seem to have answers may have more than one answer or answers that change. Sometimes there are different correct answers for different people and sometimes the right answers changes as we age a bit. Often the most difficult questions seem to be the ones we must answer as a society and not as individuals.
Currently the questions we are asking about our environment and wilderness in Utah are not simple. Can we enjoy the standard of living we wish and still preserve the earth for future generations? How much of our state should we preserve as wilderness, and what does wilderness mean? Questions about our system of criminal justice are difficult. What is the worth of a human if that human commits a crime against another and even takes a life? Does it make a difference if the criminal is young? Does taking the life of a murderer really compensate for the murders in any fundamental way? Should society assume that anyone who kills is insane and lock them away to protect others, or is some retribution necessary? Is there any middle ground between the Right to Life people and the Free Choice people? Do these very labels get in the way of answering difficult questions about this moral issue? These real questions are not standardized. There may be different answers for different people in different situations.
These real questions are not multiple choice or true false. Some may not have answers now. Some may require answers that change with the development of society or as new discoveries are made. Some answers may depend on an attitude change with society.
Perhaps in our schools we should take more time to ask the questions that are not standardized along with giving tests that are. It has occurred to many great teachers that this can be done by working with the students to develop the questions rather than the teachers prescribing the exact content and the exact questions of the course.
It means not teaching as though a course consisted of intellectual bullion cubes to be swallowed and regurgitated to satisfy a standardized examination. It means more investigation and less memorization. It means prompting students with important basic information that will help them frame the questions. It means living with a bit of ambiguity and seeing objective tests in a different but still very useful context.
The search for answers to life's most difficult questions should begin with our youngest students in the school system. These questions may take longer than a lifetime to solve, so students can't begin to work on them too soon.