Tests are often used in our education system; they aren’t only used to tell how much we’ve learned but also to decide which schools we can attend. Testing has become one of students’ daily tasks and concerns.

Many commentators claim that by taking so many tests students only learn things are put into tests, so they don’t have to study everything. Though it seems to reduce the amount of work, what students learn is just ways to answer questions.

Students shouldn’t be learning techniques to finish a test, we should be using the knowledge we’ve learned to find the answer. Just knowing how to do a lot of tests makes us no different from a machine.

Our society tells students that it’s important to do well on tests. Sometimes it’s even thought of as our responsibility. Students are afraid that if their grades are low they will “lose”. Parents send their kids to cram schools hoping their kids will get the highest scores.

As tests grow in importance in students’ everyday lives many kids think the only purpose of studying is grades. Therefore many students can’t put the knowledge they’ve gained into use.

When everyone is focusing on grades and not actual learning, tests become useless and only cause stress. Being stressed out can undermine learning and even lead to severe mental illness.

Testing plays an important role in our lives and influence our points of view. The overuse of tests makes people think the students who do better are “winners” causing unnecessary competition between people.

Actual learning is more important than tests. Being able to get A’s on tests but unable to use what we’ve learned isn’t very smart.