It's Crunch Time: The Pressure for Students to Achieve High Test Scores

Pencils frantically scratch across the marble-smooth milky surface, leaving trails of perfectly circular ebony bubbles. Beads of perspiration cling to the clammy palms that curl curl tightly around the shiny, golden writing utensils. Within the utterly silent test room, a whirlpool of tension seems to drain the oxygen from the air, leaving the room's occupants with the ashes of what had once been bright dreams and glistening hopes.

Unfortunately for today's teens, such a scenario is no longer part of a horrific nightmare. This terrible ordeal that has drowned countless innocent victims is portrayed in perfect clarity through the window that author Mariah Fredericks paints in her novel Crunch Time. Through the eyes of the novel's lead characters Max, Jane, Daisy, and Leo, Fredericks is able to push ajar the door to the minds of today's teens and reveal the inner turmoil and chaos that results from the stress caused by standardized testing, family, friends, and most importantly, from society itself, No longer is youth clothed in its golden glory, and with the aid of novelist Fredericks, the reader journeys deep into the hearts of modern teens, and witnesses the naked fear and uncertainty that lay beneath the beguiling cover.

A substantial portion of this fear is the result of the "test craze" that has taken the nation by storm. Each year, numerous students across the world are forced to take standardized proficiency tests while burdened with the apprehension and dread that their test scores may determine their entire future. In the case of Max, Jane, Daisy, and Leo, that seemingly omniscient exam is the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). In the novel, the four characters are able to witness the tension and pressure hanging above everyone at Dewey High School and they're able to sense the tight atmosphere that's turned sour by the SAT's. "In the hallway, the classroom, the bathrooms, the cafeteria, it's college...SAT's...college...SAT's." While the setting of this scenario may be fictional, the reality and horror of the proficiency tests could not be more palpable. "Kids are throwing up in the middle of tests," says one school counselor. "They cry. They have to be removed. The stress is so much on the test that they can't handle it." The significance of the tests is blown so out of proportion that it almost seems like a verdict of certain doom that terrorizes students. "They stress the tests too much, they scare the kids," comments one parent. Another parent notes that her child is experiencing an inferiority complex due to the accentuation placed on the exams. She hears her daughter crying inside her bedroom, "she was saying, 'I Know I'm going to fail...I'm so dumb'". This characteristic of lowered self-esteem is often exhibited in many students who have lower test scores but have outstanding records in other areas. For example, the character Daisy from the novel is an exceptional basketball player and has a dynamic personality. However, because of her low test scores, she often worries about overburdening her parents with the financial responsibility that comes with college and sometimes a feeling of inferiority seeps in. "Let's face it, I'm average."

Furthermore, the SATs and other standardized tests have promoted an unusual amount of unhealthy competition among students who are seeking to attend the best universities in the nation. "'Harvard takes one or two' students from certain public high schools...'so what they're doing, early on, is pitting kids against each other,' " Jeff Maher from Acalenes High School comments. This type of tension and antagonism is not at all uncommon. In fact, Max, Jane, Daisy, and Leo encounter it almost every day at Dewey High School where everyone is struggling to enter the most outstanding schools in the nation. There's even a Twenty-Four Hundred Club where the students who receive perfect SAT scores can converse and socialize. Furthermore, no longer is a high score "good enough," perfection has become the new benchmark. Not even 2300 is good enough for Leo Thayer, another character from the novel, who craves and yearns for the perfect numbers. "With one finger I stab out my number...and there it is. Not perfect. High. Fine. But not perfect. Crap." However, Leo is certainly not the only person who considers a perfect score the new standard. Students all across the nation are racing to bag the flawless numbers. Jeff "Maher recently scored a perfect 800 in the SAT-2 writing test; his friend got a 790. 'She was pondering studying for it all over again,' Maher says."

However, not only do students feel pressure from the intense competition ignited by their fellow peers, they also feel an overburdening amount of stress and strain from their parents and other adults. John Holt once stated, "Adults destroy the intellectual and creative capacity of children...above all by making them afraid, afraid of not doing what other people want, of not pleasing, of making mistakes, of failing, of being wrong." Max's father from within the novel fits this cache perfectly. When Max announces his score to his father, he desperately hopes that his father would be satisfied with the numbers, yet that satisfaction does not come. "How much would I give not to have to do better next time? How much, to be able to say, 'I did great. I won't have to do better next time...' A whole, whole, lot." Today, parents stress more than ever about their children's proficiency test scores. Although their intentions are never malignant, the effects of their constant urging and pressure may edge their kids too far toward a perilous cliff. In one instance, a child whose clothing stinks with the putrid smell of a skunk still trudges to school because it is a test day. When the mother is called, she "didn't have the confidence to say 'testing isn't all that important' ". In addition, parental stress and pressure can cause students to make the wrong choices and as a result, take a wrong turn that may destroy their future. The number of events caused by Jane in the novel is one such case. Originally, Jane intends to tell everyone regarding the secret behind her SAT. However, her mother's reaction when she hears Jane's score causes Jane's mind to waver. "Then she gives me this incredible hug. Like I"ve proved something to her, done something she had no idea I could do...that's when I decide I'm not going to tell anybody...I feel so good about my mom and how she's reacting."

Moreover, study shows that due to the over accentuation placed on standardized assessments, more and more parents are enrolling their children into prep programs to help them achieve higher scores. This is clearly evident in the case of Max, Daisy, Jane, and Leo. At the beginning of the novel, all four students are enrolled in the same SAT preparatory program. Max states, "Last year Daisy and I both said prep was elitist and sick, and we swore that we wouldn't do it. Then we got our PSAT scores, and well, I guess things change." Parents across the nation are becoming exceedingly worried about their children's test scores. As a result, they're putting their children in expensive mentoring programs, even when it stresses their current economic situations. For instance, Lisa Tierney of Florida, a single mother who has to raise her three daughters on a meager annual income of $35,000, still manages to squeeze out the money for her daughter Kelly to attend an expensive Sylvan Learning Center program.

However, many students across the nation are discovering the ugly fact that high test scores aren't enough to ensure their acceptance into their dream schools. Elite colleges are expecting their application to have stellar extracurricular records as well. " 'What the district found,' says Superintendent Jim Christensen, is 'that they have higher expectations and more expectations than just the test scores' ". Not even the character Leo from the novel, who has exceptional tests scores as well as an impressive academic record, is well-rounded enough according to his guidance counselor Crowley. "The one gap I can see in your resume, Leo, is the extracurricular...I think it would be ideal if you could do some things this year. Participate in a few events, write articles for the paper, do community work." In our current society, many students are succumbing to the extreme pressure that results from high benchmarks that are set for them. "Everybody has raised the bar on their expectations for these kids for everything, and it's very difficult to strike a balance."

In a final analysis, the ideals and values established by the current society are making the teenage years more hectic and chaotic than ever. The trials and tribulations Daisy, Max, Leo, and Jane experienced throughout the novel Crunch Time by Mariah Fredericks further enforces the hideous truth that the bars and standards of this society are constantly being raised the description "good" is no longer enough. Society is unceasingly laboring teens with more and more impractical goals, benchmarks, and sky high expectations. The criterion set by parents, peers, and society have caused youths to experience an overabundant amount of anxiety and stress. As psychologist Irwin Hyman states, "What we're doing is taking some of our brightest students and some of the most motivated and putting them through a complete pressure cooker."