P.lace S.hit A.t T.eens S.ociety (PSAT's)

Hey Ladies and Gents (I really dislike that word "gents" lets go with gentlemen), 

So you may have guessed from the lovely title I am speaking of the PSAT's and standardized testing. So here comes the rant...

(Also I just want to address that if you disagree with me it's awesome I would love to hear your side!! Please just put it nicely in the comments, and know that I am not trying to offend anyone whatsoever!) 

:)  

So on Wednesday I got the lovely pleasure of taking the PSAT's (in this cute outfit soon to be blogged about). Now look I'm just going to put it out there that the PSAT's suck ass. Like seriously though. Okay I mean I don't mind taking them, they are good...IF YOU'RE IN THE TOP 1%. What the hell. If you are in that top percent and you get a scholarship holy cows congrats!!! For me...not so much. Now this has absolutely nothing to do with if I like school or not (I actually really love school) I just don't support standardized testing. 

I'm actually very lucky. I attend a school where we don't receive grades, instead when other schools get their report cards we get evaluations. They're sort of the same thing, I mean your parents see them and stuff and if your not doing well you might get in trouble. But the difference is that the teacher will write about a page (for each class) on how you're doing in that class. They mainly base these off your class participation, effort, contribution to the class, and how hard you push yourself. It pretty much is grading you as a person in the class and not on just what appears on the top of your tests. 

So this is awesome in my opinion. The plus sides are you don't have to rely on your tests to show how you are as a student (we don't really have to many tests anyway). But on the other side (which I love but not all people do) is that you do have to work your ass off 24/7 and you have to try and care. 

So how this goes with the PSAT's here we go: they are just judging you on how well you can memorize shit. It's not about how well you can compare presidents and how well they dealt with international matters. It's not about how you can dissect a reading or how you find a new way to set up a physics lab. It's not about the passion you have for music, or how well you can run the track. It's about how well you can sit in a room and fill in correct circles. If your good at that stuff then I am in no means insulting you; holy shit thats amazing for you! I just want to put my opinion out there that if you don't do well - hey it's not the end of the world, I promise. Now if you were doing it to get a scholarship and there's no other way for you to fund for college then fuck I'm really sorry. But don't feel like shit about it. 

The PSAT's are testing you on something you aren't meant to truly do to your brain. Sure most schools teach each class towards doing well on a final test; and you know what I say to that kind of teaching: BULLSHIT. If a teacher is teaching to make you just do a test and then forget it you aren't truly learning the subject. Your temporarily memorizing it. And you know the real thing that sucks? It's that we all are stuck in the cycle that we must learn for a test. That's how schools are taught. It is rare to find that one teacher that will run around the room, jumping for joy to teach you a new equation in math. And it's rare for you to take that equation home and teach yourself a whole new branch of math on your own. Living to learn seems lost. 

So I may not be quite sure where that rant led, but I hope it makes you think or recognize something that maybe you hadn't thought of before :) 

This was my prize when I got home :P 

~Love Miki