I can sympathize with your feelings. A year or two back I took the placement exam at the local community college, while I was considering taking classes there during high school. I had, for the last four or five years been placed two years ahead in math and had done fairly well, but when I took this assessment, I placed into remedial pre-algebra (a non-credit class). I promptly retook the test and the math scores went off the charts. Just goes to show you how accurate those are.

I don't get it. why do you have to take an assessment test? don't your grades from school count as credits towards college courses?

@Taw- I'm not sure if you're referring this question to me, but I'll answer it anyways.

Where I go to school here, there are a couple different programs that blend high school and college together.

First off, and most common is the Advanced Placement (AP) system, in which students take advanced high school courses that are considered to be college level. They then pay a colossal fee to a private monopoly to take an exam to prove their proficiency in a given subject. The exam results are forwarded to colleges, which may choose to accept the exam for credit in lieu of taking the actual class. I've done several of these courses.

The second program doesn't exist everywhere, and is called 'Running Start.' I did a year of this. This program allows high school students to attend a community college (tuition free) and earn college credits that also give high school credit at the same time: effectively the old addage about two birds and one stone. Running Start students must qualify for the program with the college's standard placement exam, which as I've noted above, is absolutely worthless.

i love tests - i hate sitting in class for hours on end reviewing for those tests though. imo student's should never have advance knowledge of tests unless its an entrance exam(obviously) - why? because if you do your job as a student, and pay attention to everything there isn't any reason you should need a pre-test-day review (or, as i call it a test-rehersal) or any warning. besides that, tests create a lot of stress for people and some will just tend to fail all of them, simply because they stay up late studying and worrying and miss the test the next day.

if tests were really tests, and not a sadomasochistic hazing ritual, that's how they would be administered - instead, k-12 kids must spend half or more of their year studying for tests that could potentially put their school in the poor house, while learning nothing of substance except testing strategies - which is just how to pass a test without knowing the correct answers

Ahh... Cold_Void. You speak of the WASL. How true your words are.

@taw: No, because I didn't take any college-level classes during high school. I was struggling through high school, so I opted not to take any. If I took college-level classes during high school, then yeah, they would count. At UVSC which is the Utah Valley State College, every new student has to take the new student assessment test anyway. Not every college or university is going to do that. I just happened to pick a college that did. Honestly, I really don't mind. I just got my financial aid into place, the classes that I need to take, and the schedule. I'm ready to start school next Wednesday. I'm finally doing something with my life right now, so I'm not complaining.

Bravo.

You have a valuable asset in that you are focused because you have a goal that has been shaped by real life experience.

Best of luck to you.

Edited by - Indy11 on 8/18/2006 7:44:36 PM

@Indy: Thanks, man. I've never been this excited about going back to school. My schedule's awesome. It's mostly 12 noon to 3:50 in the afternoon. I only have two classes on Fridays. Two of my classes are located in the same building, just on different floors, one class is in a building about 15 feet away. The only class that I'll have to really walk to is located in our Liberal Arts building, which is on the other side of the campus. Thankfully, I've got about an hour to get there, so I get plenty of time.

Congrats on your successful entrance. College really isn't as hard as it sounds. Best of luck!

CV raise a very valid point. In England too (which surrounds Tawakalnistan in it's entirety) there is a most unsatisfactory testing regime wherein the primary motivating factor has become "league tables" and each schools relative position theirin, which takes no account of geographical location, demographic, pupil ethinicty and corresponding ratio of ethnic teachers, socio-economic environment, nothing. All that's seen are test results which naturally favour schools in well-off middle-class areas.

And again rightly, there's more to school than just being tested all the time. It creates a false environment and I think ill-prepares children for the real world, and it largely emasculates the teaching process too. The National Curriculum, tied in with the SATs, is too rigid and severely lacking in several key respects, and has bound teachers into parrotting NC material in increasingly desperate attempts to ensure that the NC is "covered" - regardless as to whether any pupils actually understood it or not.

Needless to say, our current bonkers system was imported from the United States, successive British Govts being in love with all things American; yet, with classic British hypocrisy and incompetence, the Govt subverts its own system with "City Technology Colleges" which are vastly resourced, at the expense of other schools, yet continually fail to perform and are always to be found in the lower ranks of the "league tables."

We opted out of the state school system years ago; both my children attend a private school, where the emphasis is on learning and development, not testing or league tables. And the benefit can be plainly seen; I'd have preferred them to go to a state school because I don't actually believe in the divisiveness of private education and also it costs me a packet - but the state school system is a disaster, quite honestly; although there are still good state schools, there are none round here. So what choice do I have if I want my children to have a good education?