By Kylie Walker
As we enter the fourth quarter, the testing season is fast approaching. And despite this unconventional school year, standardized tests are anything but cancelled. Preparation for the bombardment of final exams is already overwhelming for most of us, but even more so on top of virtual learning caused by the pandemic. Experiences with juggling both online learning and exam preparation have varied between students. For some, studying is much more difficult now due to less direct interaction between teachers and students. Others have adapted well to these changes. In addition, exams including the FSA and EOC will be required to be taken at school this year, which has been fueling much debate over whether or not they should proceed like usual. Overall, there is one thing that is very clear: this year’s testing season is going to look very different.
Online learning has affected the ways that students have prepared for final exams. This is especially true for LaunchEd students who have had difficulty picking up information from online sessions. One major deviation from your typical testing season is that students are much more reliant on independent studying. “I can usually go to school, and go to tutoring and ask for extra help,” said freshman Tatum Burrows, who has been online for most of the year. “But at home, it’s harder to schedule appointments; to be with teachers and ask for help.” To communicate with their teachers, LaunchEd students are now reliant on BigBlueButton, Microsoft Teams, Remind, and email to ask a question to their teacher. And for some, the lack of face-to-face interaction makes it more difficult to learn and retain information for the upcoming exam. With less access to their teachers, more students are dependent on notes, Powerpoint presentations and assignments for study purposes. Teachers are holding fewer tutoring sessions, a loss for students who need them to explain the information in order to fully grasp it. In other words, students are pushing even harder to learn the material they need for their final exams. Studying through virtual methods has proven to be a challenge for some, and an already stressful time of the school year is made even more demanding.
Despite the unusual changes made during this school year, some students have adapted to the new learning and testing formats. One such student is freshman John Ruiz, who has been a LaunchEd student from the beginning of the school year and plans to remain in LaunchEd for the fourth quarter. He has handled virtual learning rather well. “I can pretty much concentrate the same amount I do during school,” he said. There are plenty of ways that online learning has actually been easier for some students. First off, there is now greater access to informational materials than ever before. Teachers can post presentations and information onto Canvas that can be easily referenced at any time instead of just seeing it during a class lecture. In addition, some students may feel more comfortable asking a teacher a question through a private chat in BigBlueButton than having to raise their hand in class and attract attention. And overall, some students minds’ just operate better when reading digital material versus material in a physical textbook. All of these introduced learning techniques show why some students might perform just as well, if not better with the switch to digital studying.
If it is not clear already, standardized tests have returned for the 2020-2021 school year and their comeback has been controversial. As mentioned above, most final exams are still required to be taken at school without many at-home options. Many argue that the tests should have been cancelled or optional. Some parents and students fear that returning to school to sit in a classroom with other students for two hours may put them at risk of catching the virus. Not to mention the fact that they will have to repeat this seven times in only a few weeks. Students with vulnerable family members at home might feel uncomfortable with this, and want to opt out. Burrows believes that the tests should be optional because some students are confident because they learned the material well while others are concerned about spreading the virus to their families or struggled with online school. On the other hand, some argue that the choice to retain testing this year was the right one. Not only are they important, but they might be even more crucial this year compared to previous years. Statistics from the exams show how well students perform on state standards and whether they are doing better or worse than usual, In other words, the tests can show the effect virtual learning has had on students and whether or not students are benefiting from the new style of education.
Overall, the shift to virtual learning has brought many changes to how students study for and take their end-of-year exams. Depending on the student, these changes have been highly beneficial or detrimental for their learning and test-taking abilities. Additional changes to this year’s testing environment has also had a variety of effects on students. With the rollout of the vaccine, the world is becoming safer and more students are coming back to school. Hopefully, our lives will soon be back to the normal and so will the testing season that we’re all familiar with.
