As senior Tanner Mackey sits down to take the AP World exam, he finds himself with a surplus of time and a lack of knowledge of the prompt on his desk.

“I wrote an essay about zombieAbraham Lincoln because I had no idea what the Caribbean was like in the 1800s,” said Mackey.

Mackey wrote the essay not because it wouldn’t count for him, but because it wouldn’t count against him.  Mackey went on to make a 3 on the exam.

Attitudes towards standardized tests vary among students, as it affects the large population of students in different ways.

“I think standardized testing is kind of stupid because some people stress about taking a standardized test and they might not perform their best while taking the test as when they work really hard and get really good grades and bomb the test.  That’s not how it should work,” said senior Monica Zamacona.

For sophomore Ethan Jackson, standardized testing is a double-edged sword.

“It cuts both ways, as people say,” said Jackson.  “I think standardized testing is helpful for the teaching and students as a whole, but think about the kids that are in advanced classes.  There is no way to measure intelligence levels when the test is standard level.”

Senior Shannan Gutierrez was selected to take the High Schools at Work test.  Because Gutierrez did not know why she was selected to take the test, she didn’t see why she needed to take it.

“They didn’t call me on the Friday that everybody else got a call, so I didn’t know that I even had to take it until that Monday.  I felt like I didn’t have to do it.  A lot of people didn’t want to take it, but if we have to, I guess we have to,” said Gutierrez.

Standardized tests are taken for several different reasons.

“It really depends on what it’s for.  If it’s just to judge us on how we’re doing, I don’t think we should have to take it because it’s not really our faults that we didn’t learn what we were supposed to learn.  It’s really just the teacher’s fault,” said Gutierrez.

Some students feel the method of standardized testing is more harmful than helpful.

“Students don’t want their future to be monitored off of a test.  Anxiety and heartache combine and make a huge stressful headache and you lack performance,” said junior Tristan Mantovani.  “It is a waste of time and does not truly show how smart a certain child is.  We need to regulate this in a different manner and maybe change the program.”