Section C
Directions: In this section, you will heara passagethree times. When the passage is read for the first time, you shouldlisten carefully for itsgeneral idea. When the passage is read for the secondtime, you are required to fill in the blankswith the exact words you have justheard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time,you should checkwhat you have written.
Now listen to the passage.
Tests may be the most unpopular part ofacademic life. Students hate them because theyproduce fear and anxiety aboutbeing evaluated, and focus on grades instead of learning forlearning’s sake.
But tests are also valuable. Awell-constructed test identifies what you know and what you stillneed tolearn. Tests help you see how your performance compares to that of others.Andknowing that you’ll be tested on a body of material is certainly likely tomotivate you to learnthe material more thoroughly.
However, there’s another reason you mightdislike tests: You may assume that tests have thepower to define your worth asa person. If you do badly on a test, you may be tempted tobelieve that you’vereceived some fundamental information about yourself from the professor,informationthat says you’re a failure in some significant way.
This is a dangerous—andwrong-headed—assumption. If you do badly on a test, it doesn’tmean you are abad person or stupid. Or that you’ll never do better again, and that your lifeisruined. If you don’t do well on a test, you’re the same person you werebefore you took the test— no better, no worse. You just did badly on a test.That’s it.
In short, tests are not a measure of yourvalue as an individual — they are a measure only ofhow well and how much youstudied. Tests are tools; they are indirect and imperfect measuresof what weknow.
