Graduation Speech : High School Students

The common educational path for an american student is to pass elementary school, jr. high, and high school. Putting the student around the age of eighteen upon graduation and receiving their high school diploma. However, due to life challenges or family obligations not all students complete this path. That student has the opportunity to take the G.E.D, also know as the general educational development, allowing them to receive a certificate stating they are at a high school education level. The G.E.D and the high school diploma have similar worth and criteria, but their time required to complete, age requirement to take the test, and the use after high school sets them distinctly apart.

The education of students has transitioned from learning crucial lessons to preparing for yearly tests. Meanwhile, differences in students’ comfort of taking such tests and learning styles have affected the scores of students of equal academic merit. The tests also have not helped younger students to accelerate the education process that, theoretically, should result from increased

Most students think that it is pointless to take these exams when they could be learning other stuff and they also have other import projects to worry about. “I think they are too much. Students have enough homework, projects, quizzes and other tests to worry about, and they don’t need to be pressured to take a test that contains things that they might’ve forgotten” (Ferroni). “Schools now teach their students only on what they think will be on the tests. It’s not fair to our education. We should be learning for ourselves, not for others” (Ferroni). These students show how it’s important to them and others about learning, rather than to be tested on subjects every single

With the high pressure placed on students to meet the standards of the tests, there may be outside forces that hinder the student’s ability to perform high on one of these tests. The US Department of Education argues: "Although testing may be stressful for some students, testing is a normal and expected way of assessing what students have learned” (Testing: Frequently Asked Questions). However, this type of testing has only become normal because students are expected to participate in such tests. Students have grown accustomed to routinely assessments.

One expert says, “Confident in our system of public examinations, that is broadly designed to separate those more ‘intelligent’ from the less ‘intelligent’, we can feel content that we are filtering out our most able for higher education and all the opportunities that entails.” Stating that exam issuers are exceptionally confident that those who fail their exams are less intellegent and cannot function at the level that the other students who pass can. This is hardly ever

Standardized testing also generates a massive amount of stress and pressure for students. During the time of the SAT and ACT, students have to study for AP tests and finals, maintain their grades, and balance their homework with studying for tests. Among the millions of teens stressed about the standardized exams, Ankur Singh felt immense pressure and anxiety when College Board asked his French class to participate in a pilot exam. Ankur wrote down all his thoughts and opinions about his “frustration with the way they have interfered with my education.” Students have been under constant pressure and anxiety maintaining their GPA, and standardized tests and its hours of studying only adds stress and can drive students to depression and even suicide. Ankur’s situation is only one of the millions of stories that demonstrate how frustrating these standardized tests can be. After Ankur’s French pilot exam, Ankur was called to the office. However, instead of getting in trouble, to his surprise, his French teacher seemed to be in agreement with Ankur. In fact, Ankur’s French teacher exclaimed that “...she’d rather have us watch French films or travel to a French bakery than to sit and do test prep.” So, not only are

The survey includes 43,000 available questionnaires with 55.1% of the respondents being male and 44.9% female. 57.4% of the respondents consider gaokao unfair in their hometowns, while only 13.8% hold a positive attitudes towards gaokao. And the indexes of fairness in all Chinese cities are below zero, which means that gaokao of these cities is deemed unfair. Students think that gaokao cannot presents their true level and ability and it is not fair to decide their universities by only one exam after so many years’ efforts. No doubt, gaokao is an efficient test considering the huge number of Chinese examinees. But it is necessary to balance the fairness and efficiency in view of individual

Most historians trace the beginning of standardized testing to seventh-century China, when the government began administering written exams to select candidates for the civil service. As part of this exam, applicants were required to display knowledge of Confucian philosophy and to compose poetry. Strenuous testing continues today in China with the Chinese National Higher Education Entrance Examinations, commonly called the Gaokao, or high test. The Gaokao is required to gain admittance to higher education in China. In 2010, ten million Chinese students took this test, competing for 5.7 million college and university placements. Manuela Zoninsein opines in Slate, “It is China’s SAT—if the SAT lasted two days, covered everything learned since kindergarten, and had the power to determine one’s entire professional trajectory.”

In this sense, it can be said that the university exam system is not giving the results that are wanted from it. This current system should be either fixed or replaced by other effective forms of assessment, to produce students who are able to manage their life and handle their own

Traditionally, Chinese education has been measured on the basis of merit. Those who work hard, study the right facts, and pass the test, succeed. The test is China’s National Higher Education Entrance Examination, otherwise known as the Gaokao (高考- direct translation 'high test'). It is similar to the SAT in that it's a standardized test that determines college acceptance. However, the Gaokao is much more difficult than the SAT and is, for the most part, the only determining factor for college acceptance. The pressure adds up when companies in China only hire from the top universities, so scoring well on the Gaokao not only sets the path for college but also for one's entire career. The emphasis on the Gaokao promotes an academic system based on memorization, which means that students

Exams have caused a lack of enthusiasm in the mindset of scholars and encouraged students to have superficial knowledge which doesn’t last long. At the cost of writing exams are many individuals who do not succeed in a certain profession because they performed poorly on a particular exam. A change needs to be made to the system of education by creating a scheme which encourages students to work consistently and enthusiastically, and offers greater opportunity for each and every student to

The national education “No Child Left Behind” considers to be the main reason for the rise of exit exams. No Child Left Behind requires all schools to submit standardize test scores, which views a school performance rates. To better the students for the standardized test scores, many schools use the test the EOCs and graduation test to provide students to practice. A graduation exam is exam is either a project or a test that shows a student overall understanding of their high school experience; an EOC is designed to access a student’s understanding of a class.

Gaokao, which dates back from the Imperial examination system in Qing Dynasty, is the only national college entrance examination held annually in China. According to the statistics conducted by Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, over 94 million people signed up for Gaokao, and 70 million people can be admitted by Chinese universities. In general, the college acceptance rate is around 74.3% (http://www.moe.gov.cn, 2015). Currently, the same examination paper is adopted by ten provinces; the rest still use self-designed test paper. Chinese, Maths, and one foreign language are mandatory subjects for all students. Those concentrated in Liberal Arts take an extra integrative test including Politics, History, and Geography; while those concentrated in Science take test including Biology, Chemistry, and Physics (http://www.moe.gov.cn, 2015). Despite various problems pointed out in this evaluation system, Gaokao acts an essential role in China and has brought considerable benefits to students, colleges and the whole society.

Many Korean university’s acceptance are entirely based on this test. Also, unlike SATs or other standardized tests which can be taken several times, this test can only be taken once a year, which means that a student is delayed a full year if he does not do well on his first test (Park). This pressures the Korean students are thus pressured by the importance of this test and they become heavily immersed in studying since an early age, which leads to stress and discontent. According to a survey released by the Institute for Social Development Studies in Yonsei University, Korean teenagers turned out to be the unhappiest among the countries listed in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, mainly due to exam results and extreme tiredness from studying ("We Don 't Need Quite so Much Education”). Also, in 2009, the suicide rate among young Koreans was 15 per 100,000, which is much larger than 10 in America and 7 in China. Kim Jieun, a Korean student who took the College Scholastic Ability test a few years ago, have narrated that, “I thought of emigrating. I hate the education system so much.” (“The One-shot society”). Living such life, with a fixed routine, is enough to give students unbearable amount of stress.

The result showed that attending ST after school is not rare, but common for the junior middle school students in urban China and the reasons for this “fever” might be various. The most important reason is that in many Asian countries, especially in East Asian, where adopted the examination-oriented education system heavily, there are school entrance examinations which determines students’ qualification in entering to the higher levels of study. And the importance of these examinations maybe sometimes exaggerated by the school teachers, parents and the whole society, which causes substantial pressures to the students (Jayachandran, 2014; Kwok, 2004). The junior middle school students who face the high school entrance examination in China usually have a very heavy burden in learning and exercising with lots of homework given by the teachers, and in order to get the limited places in entering to prestigious schools, they have to compete with their peers in examinations. Meanwhile, given the fact of the examinations’ importance, the majority of the parents in developing countries is less educated to afford children with their own guidance in learning as well as practicing, thus supplementary become popular in these countries such as China (Jayachandran, 2014).