Matt Damon's speech to teachers

[AGDee]

Sometimes you slam your car door on your leg the morning you are taking the ACT and take the test in extreme pain only to find out later that you have a chipped bone from it.

Oh wait, that's probably rare (and I did pretty well in spite of the circumstance!).

Some kids just aren't good test takers. I have always been pretty lucky that I'm a fast test taker and do well on tests. I had friends who knew their stuff but didn't do as well as I did on standardized tests. I think it was usually test anxiety that hung them up.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Some kids just aren't good test takers. I have always been pretty lucky that I'm a fast test taker and do well on tests. I had friends who knew their stuff but didn't do as well as I did on standardized tests. I think it was usually test anxiety that hung them up.

Exactly. My high school best friend was in National Honor Society (I think her overall was something like 3.8, and this was before the days of grade inflation, and she was in the college prep course) but I don't think she even broke 900 combined on her SATs. She wasn't stupid, obviously - just a really bad and really nervous standardized test taker.

[aggieAXO]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Some kids just aren't good test takers. I have always been pretty lucky that I'm a fast test taker and do well on tests. I had friends who knew their stuff but didn't do as well as I did on standardized tests. I think it was usually test anxiety that hung them up.

So true. I went to college with 3 of my best friends, 2 of them being national merit scholars (for having a high score on the SAT-not sure if merit scholars still exist these days?), one of those having a full scholarship to A&M. I won't mention what I got on the SAT here as it was embarrassingly low, but I can say I was in the top 5% of my highschool and had only made 1 B over those 4 years. Anyways, by our sophomore year, both merit scholars were on academic probation, my friends full ride was gone. Meanwhile, I continued to do very well and was accepted to vet school a year early.

I did not do well on standardized testing but this did not impact my performance in college. It did hold me back from receiving several scholarships and from being in the honors program.

My friends could take a 4 hour test and do well, but when it came to studying, attending class and even classroom testing-they did not do well. I am still a bit bitter over the SAT (also substitute the GRE for the SAT I had to take for vet school-again I did awful but my grades saved me)