I have always hated standardized tests. Sure, there are many different types of standardized tests. The SAT, the ACT that are given to all students and the numerous AP exams that are prepared with a more "exclusive" audience in mind. But they're all fundamentally flawed. The point of a standardized test, as near as I can figure it out, is to give colleges, government officials, and prospective employers an idea of what sort of person …showed first 75 words of 717 total…

…showed last 75 words of 717 total…focused on how to analyze a piece of prose in a preordained manner so that you get a higher number next to your name, a paper credential that means ultimately nothing, that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and that all the standardized tests in the world cannot measure true knowledge and beauty and truth, nor reveal the satisfaction that comes with learning something well, for its sake, and your own.