“These tests are so stupid!” is a frequent statement heard in high school hallways while a student may be walking to class. “Make Tests Smarter” is an article written by Laura Hamilton and Brian Stecher that strives to eliminate this statement. The article gives an opinion that may be hard to contradict, yet it contradicts itself. Laura and Brian also do not use any evidence to back up their opinion. Evidence is lacking in the idea that these authors use pathos and only rely on the emotional appeal. “Make Tests Smarter” is an ineffective article written to provide insight on how to improve testing from kindergarten to high school. Logical fallacies are not the easiest of things to avoid while writing a paper. The opinion of Laura and Brian falls victim to the use of contrary premises. Their first contention in the paper is about the time tests take and how they take away from other educational opportunities. This contention is quickly contradicted in the same paragraph when they say, “A short test that emphasizes low-level skills can do more harm to student learning …show more content…
That seems like a simple task, but how could a simple solution come about seems very complex. A solution that changes testing should have evidence to support that it may or will work; yet there is no evidence to support the four contentions of “Make Tests Smarter.” Throughout the article, the two authors fail to bring up or cite and evidence that supports their theories. This hurts the credibility of the authors as they could be making any of their contentions up from no logical information. Examples of this occur when the authors bring up the idea that there is a lack of unpredictability in tests. They have no facts showing that the tests stay the same or have similar questions. Even if the article included examples of this happening, they would have no concrete evidence that the predictability of a test relates to the studying of the test and how teachers are teaching the