My Source of Happiness

Oh, how we love standardized testing. Honestly, the whole process of just studying, taking 3-hour long practice tests daily, running out of time on every section, finding out that you got half the questions wrong when checking, going back and trying to figure out the right answer even though you can’t, having mild anxiety attacks due to the pressure of getting into a good college, paying $60 just to take a test you don’t even want to take, waking up super early when your brain isn’t even functioning on the day of the exam, and getting your score back just to reconfirm your fricking illiteracy makes me so incredibly happy. On another note, getting a mediocre score on the SAT means being comforted by everyone around you, telling you that you can and will do better next time. They don’t judge you or make an inference about your intelligence level at all! On top of that, you keep retaking the test, paying $60 to the government each and every time, while the government spends this money on producing more of these accurate, intelligence-determining tests. The cycle is never ending. Your individuality and creativity really shine through to college administrators when they look at your score. For example if some random guy, say Pablo Picasso, received a 700 on the SAT, college administrators would say “…hmm not such a creative individual” and place his application in the REJECT pile. Seems pretty fair to me. I mean, Picasso wasn’t some world-renowned artist or anything after all.  


Standardized testing is unfair because it doesn't showcase one's true abilities. The gruesome process of taking these tests adds to the already mountain-sized pile of stress of high-school students. 

What I stated in the second paragraph "registers no irony" (Williams) unlike the first paragraph. This illustrates that society is more likely to act on these important issues if the topic is conveyed in a light-hearted tone.