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Joseph Glenn Professor Suzanne Ingram English 1101 18 July 2013

Is Educational Testing truly accurate?

Educational test are a huge genre in todays society. There are many reasons why people may take a test. For example, in order to get a promotion at a university, or even to just get a decent grade in math class. This is one genre that in the past I have never been too familiar with because Im not a good test taker. Tests are used to analyze what you have learned either in a short or long period of time. The target audience for this genre is anyone and everyone who goes to an institution. Usually people would say that if you didnt do well on the test you didnt study enough. The problem with this statement is that this may not be the case for everyone and for many people its either test anxiety or a focusing disorder. The people who write the tests may be thinking of a normal classroom and not of the reality that people may not test well. Many people who have test anxiety have feelings of dread or just have panic attacks. If you tell a person with test anxiety to answer a couple of questions and give it back to you, they would probably score better than normal. Tests are indeed a good way to figure out who understood the material the most, but it doesnt really account for people who cheated, who crammed, or was just having a bad day. Dr. Smiths global connections test was tough, the reason was not only because I dont know how to study well for tests, but also because I was very nervous when I took it and my mind went blank. The grade I received also told the same thing. The community is basically anyone associated with the test, whether they are making the test or taking it. Usually what tests convey about the author is his degree of education, certain tests for example,

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advanced chemistry, and only professors with certain degrees can make these kinds of tests. On the other hand there are test for pre-school children that are given out by teachers who have much experience with children in order to maximize their learning and testing ability. One other genre that I am very adamant about right now is Reader Response. The target audience can be the authors, other readers, and even the writers of the response themselves. The reader response was made in order to help the author with writing. It gives the author a better idea of what the reader is thinking, and in turn helps the author to have an open mind about his topic. It also helps the reader to understand what the writer is trying to convey. It strengthens the readers ability to analyze what they just read, and ask question or make a comment about what the writer talked about. When it comes to the people who read the analysis without reading the text, they can figure out without reading the piece what the author was trying to tell the reader. Personally, I like reader responses because I feel like when I write Im actually talking to the author and I feel less nervous. One example is the chapter in the book called Dont tell me how to write. I agreed mostly with the writer because not only do I believe its true, but the statistics speak for themselves. I also wrote what I thought and I had some points to support my argument. If another person read my response and then read the article they would see that it went perfectly together. The author would be able to understand what I was writing about mostly, although he may disagree with a couple of the points. The writer of the response, who in this case would be me, may later see a flaw in what I wrote and correct it if desired.