Out the Window

I've been teaching in high schools now for 15 years. A perpetual concern among my students each year is standardized testing--SAT and ACT. Today, two of my 12th graders were nervous about tomorrow's SAT. I told them, "You are successful on the test if you don't go out the window."

When I was an English teacher, one of my students told me a story of his experience taking the SAT. He testing in a first floor classroom of a local high school. After a break during the test, the students resumed some difficult section of testing. Another student in the room stood up, said something to the effect that the test was too hard and climbed out the window.*

Since hearing this story, I have told many of my nervous SAT-takers about the young man who went out the window. I let my students know that true success on the test isn't really the score; it's whether or not you finish the test or climb out the window during testing.

*I usually get asked why the kid didn't just get up and walk out the door. I think he used the window to make a dramatic point about the SAT.