We as students have all grown accustomed to the ritual of being tested on what you have learned. Having the required material crammed into our confused minds, period after period on a daily basis. As I sit in the classroom I begin to wonder: “When did all of this actually happen? When did an education become based on your test scores as opposed to what you have actually learned?”

When I was a kid growing up in Europe, the main focus of my learning experience was to learn, to comprehend the subjects, matters and issues that you were posed with. As a result, I believe that I have a really relaxed attitude towards testing. But most of that changed when I came to the United States about 5 years ago. I was suddenly confronted with the test driven atmosphere that has plagued American youth for years.

As I became more familiar with the American school system, I realized that we were not learning for the sake of learning. As students, we were constantly preparing for one test or another, resulting in us mindlessly memorizing specific facts for a day or two, knowing that we only needed them for the class exams, state and AP exams. When confronted with such an atmosphere of learning, it is no surprise that younger adults only remember a fraction of what they learned at school.

One major indication of the “test-craze” is the SAT; many students spend years preparing for the one exam that may make or break their college prospects. I’m not saying that the SAT serves no purpose, but I do think that most colleges have become too reliant on the exam as a means to evaluate a student’s capabilities. Although most colleges claim to base their decisions on various factors, most people are aware of the important role the SAT plays in the complex admissions process.

In addition to the constant preparation for the SAT’s, Act’s, AP’s and Regents exams, most students now have to endure an ever-increasing test-based education. For instance, for the past three years I had had a very well paced schedule for my final examinations, having certain days assigned to certain subjects over the period of a week. But this year, I had to endure a rigorous 3-day period of testing on nearly all my subjects. This was nearly too much for me to handle.

When faced with all of these conditions, I am at least happy that we don’t have the most test-driven education in the world. Many Asian countries such as Japan have such intense educational demands that many of them attend “cram schools” that are specifically made for studying towards what else? TESTS! But in all of this I simply hope that future educational leaders realize the importance in learning for the sake of learning and not for the sake of test preparation.