Standardized Tests

             Tests can be stressful for many students. According to the American Test Anxieties Association, 16-20 percent of students suffer from high test anxiety. When the time comes to take a test for these students, they end up spacing out on tests, and tend to score half a letter grade lower than their peers. This is a big problem, as smart and bright students can also half test taking anxiety, and can end up performing terribly. We must change up standardized tests in a way that does not make students nervous, whether that be by removing a time limit, changing the questions on the test, or by putting the students in a different environment to help the feel more comfortable as they take the test. We need to change up standardized tests, otherwise bright students won't perform well, and will not make it through school.

Endings and Beginnings

          The end of a chapter is the beginning of a new one. This rule can apply with books and life. I am about to finish a chapter in my life, and that chapter is middle school. It certainly was a well written chapter, where I experienced many feelings of joy, and many feelings of pain. I saw and felt new things, and my attitude and behavior changed a lot, from a silent boy from elementary school, to a slightly older and louder boy with high ambitions in life, and the resources to tackle these ambitions. Leaving middle school may be a sad chapter for me, but I won't have time to mourn that I completed this chapter. Instead, I should rejoice at having completed middle school, be happy with what I felt, and also be ready for what lays ahead of me in high school. So I shall be happy when I open up the next chapter, and the next, and the next. The end of one is the beginning of another, and all these chapters will make up a book, the book of life.