Melody Cheung, 16, St Paul's Secondary School
Open your eyes and look around. Tests are usually standardised. As a student, you will have taken many academic, sports and music tests.
Academic exams measure a wide range of abilities, including critical thinking and language skills. They are quantitative evaluations, in which students receive scores that indicate the level of ability. Because everyone is evaluated according to the same scale, the results can be compared.
The score of a standardised test reflects a student's ability if the student takes the test seriously. Otherwise, the score might be low if a student is not prepared, or it might be extraordinarily high if a student happens to be lucky at guessing on multiple-choice questions.
However, some skills cannot be quantified, such as art and creativity. If creativity cannot be interpreted into a score, it is difficult to standardise. Still, such skills make up only a small proportion of subjects.
In most situations, standardised tests do reflect ability. But, frankly, test scores should not be the only factor in judging someone's competence. Other performance indicators should also play a role in determining actual ability. Standardised test scores and subjective reviews should be combined to evaluate a student.