Standardized testing. These ominous words float in the back of students’ minds as the year progresses. Standardized tests are embedded within a student’s junior and senior year of high school. Students typically prepare for them and take the tests on their own time. This task of trying to balance these tests and schoolwork causes many students to stress out, but the questions to be considered are whether this stress is harmful to the student’s quality of work and whether it will prevent them from performing well.

Students are drawn towards taking standardized tests because many colleges look at them as major factors for admission, along with essays and other criteria. This makes the pressure of excelling on standardized testing greater for some, so it has formed a bad reputation over the past decades.

“Not everyone has the same GPA, but when they look at your SAT, your ACT,your PSAT, or any of those standardized tests, it is at a national level. It’s how you rank against the kids of this country, or even other countries because even international kids take these standardized tests,” Isha Sahasrabudhe (11) said.

The stress is not purely because of the standardized tests themselves. Teachers typically do not refrain from assigning normal amounts of homework to accommodate for time students are spending preparing for standardized tests. Not all stress is bad, though. It can act as a motivating factor for some students. Every student handles stress differently.

“I think I have gotten to this state where I am in constant pressure,” Sahasrabudhe said,“It’s like I am in the eye of the storm. Everything is calm. Everything is serene.”

Standardized tests present benefits as well. They allow students to have comparable results at a national level. They also help students manage their time and apply basic concepts, but these factors are not considered when testing is mentioned. Most people think about the stress involved or how the testing is ridiculous and unnecessary, questioning what it really measures.

“The ACT is basically a waste of your time. It’s not testing anything except your basic ability to apply what you learn in school,” Sahasrabudhe said.

Testing stress, if not received properly, can cause serious problems for students ranging from depression to physical ailments.

According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association, “Teens report that their stress level during the school year far exceeds what they believe to be healthy (5.8 versus 3.9 on a 10-point scale) and tops adults’ average reported stress levels (5.8 for teens versus 5.1 for adults).”

Juniors are usually the ones who take the brunt of this stress. All tests are generally administered to juniors, and the multiple tests piled upon them at once is too much to handle. The solutions to this problem are still unclear.  High schoolers should keep an open mind about standardized testing and understand what it entails when preparing for the exams. Students who seem to be susceptible to stress should look into universities that evaluate applications holistically.