To Be Prepared or To Not Be Prepared

Are there really only two paths?

By: Emma Rayburn

    The transition from high school to college was something that scared me. Now, I know that it wasn’t a new thing for someone to feel, but I think why I felt that way was quite different than the sources of the fear for others. Most of the time it’s because you are leaving home and becoming independent, you are now paying for the school that you’re going to, and college classes can be more rigorous and harder. These ideas were in my mind while going into college, but I was already quite independent, good at managing my money, I am social, so I wasn’t afraid of making friends and relationships. My biggest fear was that I didn’t think high school, and my teachers prepared me for the academics of college. 

    This fear was sourced from many practices my high school and my teachers practiced. We were allowed to retake any test, make corrections on whatever we needed to, and resubmissions were always accepted. As a student at the time, this was great, because I was motivated to get good grades, and the practices made it quite easy. Yet, it also decreased my motivation to study, and fully prepare myself for assessments because I knew that I could redo anything I needed to after the fact. Can someone say, “bad habit?”

    After 3 years of college preparing me for my future career of being a teacher, I have found that the fear I had motivated me to work even harder before assessments to prepare myself. Yet, every person or student is different and the path my high school took may not be the best for every or most students. My experience as a student and my education on my path to be a teacher make me interested and worried. Were my high school teachers right with the methods they used? Were they wrong?  I have been told by so many teachers, professors, and students that learning is a process. Is there a happy medium in this scenario?

The New Path to Preparedness

I had to look into both sides' points of view. On one side they argue that it is more important to take steps to subject mastery, rather than punish students with bad grades. On the other side, they want to instill responsibility in students to help them realize that in life there are not regular opportunities for second chances. Yet, most teachers agree that the opportunity for retakes should not be taken away, but certain things should be implemented so students get the most out of the content. Such things as partial credit, making parents aware, keeping the rest of the class on track, not giving the same test, and relearning requirements. So, maybe there is a happy medium.

Merrill, S. (2019, April 25). Allowing test retakes-without getting gamed. Retrieved February 25, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/allowing-test-retakes-without-getting-gamed