My Worst Assessment Experience

I have had a wide range of experiences when it comes to assessments (My Favorite Assessment, blog post). My worst assessment was my Advanced Placement (AP) Statistics AP Exam during my senior year of high school. My teacher had done a good job preparing me for the test, and even involved fun activities in my learning experiences. However, the test itself was high-stress and did not paint a full picture of my learning journey. Once the test was over, my journey ended, no matter what I scored. I scored a three out of five, which is not terrible, but is not something to brag about to college admissions. Good thing I went to an art school.

A large part as to why the AP stats exam  was such a horrible experience did not actually have anything to do with the test itself. It was a fluke event that distracted me. While sitting on the hallway floor waiting to take the test, I learned the test was starting earlier than I thought. I needed to figure out how I was getting home because I did not have a driver’s license. My attempt to text my mom was made more difficult because mobile devices and cellphones were not allowed in the testing area. Luckily, my friend ignored the no-cellphone rule, and I used their phone to text my mom. In this communication I learned my mom had been in a car wreck but before I could ask any questions, it was time to take my AP Statistics Exam.

With my testing group, I walked into the auditorium and was led to the stage. It was the same stage where I performed middle school concerts and painted sets for musicals. The exam felt like a performance. Desks with pencils and papers had been set up for us to use. The stage had the same, high-stakes, energy as other standardized (Lampland & Star, 2009) tests - only open the book when given permission and limited time to finish each section before moving to the next, multiple choice questions designed to be confusing. However, this also had the additional anxiety of “This is a big scary test that I paid a lot of money to take,” and “I have no idea what is going on with my mom, or how I am going to get home.” It was uncomfortable, the air was stale; I remember being cold and scared. When the test was over and I was allowed to leave school, I ended up walking home. I got into contact with my mom, and learned that she was okay. I was so overwhelmed that I sat on the side of the road on the walk home, called my best friend, and sobbed.

Overall, my AP Statistics Exam was a bad experience. The test itself was already stressful by enforcing behaviorist (Watson, 1905), standardization (Lampland & Star, 2009) practices. The environment was uncomfortable and heavy, like all eyes were on me. And, because life happened, as it does, I had a hard time focusing on the test, instead of my mom’s health. I was not allowed to postpone taking the exam under better circumstances and I was too poor to pay for another exam. Ultimately, the exam left me feeling dejected and even though I enjoyed my AP Statistics class, it soured the entire experience.

References

Lampland, M., and Star, S. L. (2009). Reckoning with standards. In M. Lampland and S. L. Star (Eds.), Standards and their stories: How quantifying, classifying, and formalizing practices shape everyday life, pp. 3-24. Cornell University Press.

Laughter, R. (2017). Red theater curtain photo [Image]. Unsplash.

Watson, J. B. (1905). Contributions to the study of the behavior of lower organisms. Psychological Bulletin, 2(4), 144-145