Testing Teachers

This past Saturday, I completed two of my teacher certification tests.  The LAST and the ATSW.  Yes, yes, I probably should have taken them last year, but hey...I tend to procrastinate.  It has been a long time since I took a standardized test.  Returning to the world of scantrons and prescripted instructions read over a loud speaker was rather unsettling.  I had flashbacks to my first scantron test in kindergarten.  My teacher made such a big deal of describing how to properly fill in all of the little answer circles.  I distinctly remember falling behind on the test because I was more concerned with the art of filling the circles in just right than the test itself.  Sigh...who knows what impact those original misguided scores had on my academic career?  Anyhow, I was pretty taken aback my some of the general testing strategies implemented on Saturday.  Over 30 minutes were spent on instructing us on how to properly fill out the front page of the test, which was generally rather self explanatory.  Most of this time was however filled with reminders that the possession of a cell phone or anything with an on-off feature would result in the voiding of our scores.  If they were so incredibly concerned with that, why didn't they just do a quick inspection of bags upon entry?  I understand the need to reiterate the rule, but does it really require a 30 minute lecture?  I think not.

In addition to the never-ending lecture, I felt a lot of small details were overlooked.  There was no clock visible anywhere in the testing facility (thank goodness I had a watch, but many others didn't)  No announcements were made regarding the time, or time remaining in the test.  Even at the very end, they simply just announced "The test is now complete.  Immediately put down your pencils or your scores will be void"  I was on the last word of my essay when a disgruntled test administrator hissed at me to stop or she'd void my scores.  If this test is designed for teachers, then perhaps they should reconsider a few of their policies based on educational best practices.  Giving test takers updates about time and a short 1 minute warning before the end of the test are very simple ways to allow people to pace themselves and wrap up their work in a timely manner.  No hissing or horrible lectures required...