The end of the school year is something that almost every student looks forward to. Except for one little thing: evil state testing. Students from all over the U.S. dread the month of April solely because of this “helpful” assessment. But really, how helpful is this test?

“It’s a waste of time. It uses up to two weeks, and you could use those two weeks to do a lot more than sitting on a computer reading articles and writing essays,” said Eugene T.

Time is not only wasted during the test but afterward as well. Once the test is completed, students can’t do anything useful to avoid the risk of cheating. 

“For two hours a day, you’re sitting there in a very high-pressure environment and stressing out about something you shouldn’t be. Also, after, you can’t even do anything because you get in trouble with your teacher for being too loud. Last year, my teacher told me to put my head down and sleep,” said Eugene T.

In addition to the unproductivity of the state testing period, it gives unnecessary anxiety to students. While state testing does not affect grades, the scores reflect the school and its quality. This can be an immense weight on students’ shoulders.

“My experience was really stressful because if I don’t do well, nothing happens to me. But also if I don’t do well, it’s showing that I’m not learning anything, and I don’t want to make my teachers and school look bad,” said Jordyn P.

State testing is generally pointless seeing that Day Creek Intermediate School already incorporates iReady testing into its curriculum. iReady is an adaptive diagnostic that measures each student’s academic level. In this test’s introductory video, test-takers are expected to get around half of the questions correct. iReady assesses students in the same fields as state testing, so why have both?

“State testing is not necessary because it’s just a test to see where we are at. But we already do iReady, so there’s no point. I would get rid of state testing. Most students don’t like it, and we already take a lot of tests, like the iReady, so it’s just useless,” said Jordyn P.

In place of the time used for state testing, schools could add classes that would help students in the future. The time that is wasted on this pointless test could be used to learn a useful skill that’d be practical in the real world. For instance, people as old as 35 still have no idea how to pay their bills. A class that replaces state testing could solve this dilemma. 

“If I could, I would replace state testing with something that is actually educational – something you would need in the real world, like work experience or learning how to manage finances. Something that students could use in the future when they are older instead of reading an article about plumbing,” said Eugene T.

The bottom line is that state testing needs a strong second look. Almost every student on campus can agree that it’s a significant waste of time.

“Honestly, [state testing] is exhausting and really annoying, too. It’s just another pointless test that we’re forced to do for no reason. I wish they would just get rid of it already,” said Jordyn P.