Retaking Tests

By: Kayla Kelsey

Sparta High School staff tries to decide if allowing students to retake tests is really helping them or just hurting them in the long run. Not only are some teachers allowing students to retake their test, they are also letting them retake it as many times as they want.

Throughout the school day, students can have multiple tests in different classes, so it gets to be a little overwhelming. "The goal in doing well on a test is to prepare," states Sparta High School's Principal, Sam Russ, he continues with saying, "students need to balance their tests like a paper, you prepare, edit, and have someone else edit it."

All teachers have their own teaching methods, but they all have the same goal which is to teach the students the learning material that they are required to know for that certain course. Maureen Young, one of Sparta High School's English department teachers, has different methods of test taking, depending on what class it is that she is teaching. Two of the many courses that Young taught last year were Spanish One and Intermediate Composition. Young thinks that these were two classes that she believed their tests should be done differently. She said, "Depends on the class," she backed this up by arguing, "I allowed my spanish one class to retake their tests because the tests were based on building vocabulary base, but not many took the advantage of the retake." On the other hand, she did not allow her intermediate composition class to retake their tests, "I believe that the tests in that class are based on mastering materials," she continues with saying, "anyone could do this with many tries."

Not only does retaking tests help to better the students' grades but it gives them a better understanding of what they are learning.

John Blaha, a science teacher a Sparta High School, allows his students in all of his classes to retake their tests as many times as they would like. "My goal is for the students to learn the material," says Blaha, "students learn at different rates, so it differentiates through pace."

Cramming is what most teachers dislike. Tests are for them to see how students are progressing and it's also a self evaluation to see how well they are actually teaching the material.

Young states that, "students rose to the challenge," referring to letting them only take tests once. "Yes, I think that it helps students, they all tried harder!" Unlike Young, Russ thinks that retaking tests can be an advantage. Russ thought that allowing students to retake tests was helping them. "Yes, retaking tests helps students for knowledge standpoint," he said. Russ also agreed that it can have its disadvantages. "There will always be the ones who take advantage of the situation, the ones that want to be lazy," stated Russ.

"Retaking tests has its advantages," argues Russ, he continues with saying, "it depends on what the students are getting out of it."