One difference between a third world country and a developed country is an education gap. With a disparity between Nepal and the United States, it is easy to judge which country has information retention during middle and high school. However, when it comes time to measure average domestic core curriculum intelligence retention among children, the situation becomes exponentially harder. As society becomes more and more advanced, it tends to quantify people into numbers; SAT's and ACT's are all just ways that society wants us to focus towards preparing us for the higher education that comes after these tests. However, focusing on these standardized tests cannot be ultimate way to becoming better people. To explore the subject more in-depth, we must divulge into the origins of the standardized test in a developed nation such as the United States.
In Eric Boese's "Standardized Tests: Shouldn't we be Helping our Students?"", Boese uses empirical data and logos to express that contrary to what the test scores are showing, "students aren't getting any smarter, just better test takers." "(Boese) The main purpose of this article is to express (however outdated) the banes of standardized testing. While Boese agrees that the empirical data shows an increase in test scores, he disagrees later in several aspects. The first point he notes is that "improvements on the TAAS are not correlated to improvements on other standardized tests", moreover, "teachers were teaching them how to take the exam "(Boese). While test taking skills are important, it is pointless to spend "eight to ten hours a week in test-preparation drills."" (Boese). Boese's second point is that "the number of exemptions increased during the years that the test was administered."" (Boese) Boese appeals to logos and shows that even holding the non-exempt scores constant, the data would show a higher percentage passing the test. Boese extends his argument by noting that "if used differently the exams could be much more effective in meeting students' needs" "(Boese).
