The next round of  STAAR exams comes Tuesday. For freshmen, there’s only been one other STAAR exam and that went anything but smoothly as most ninth graders didn’t know what to expect and were stressed out.

The morning of the English STAAR exam was extremely chaotic. All 576 freshman made a line from the gym doors all the way to the rotunda. This completely blocked the art hallways causing those who had first period in those classes to push and shove their way through.  

Also, many students were confused about which row they were in. Some thought that they would sit in the row which was their last initial when it was actually the row next to them. But that dilemma was eventually solved and all the students were in their assigned seats and ready to take their exam.

Teachers have manuals which give them step by step instructions on how to administer the test and the teachers here did a great job of following those protocols. It was a quiet and calm environment. This allowed students to do complete their tests to the best of their abilities. Although there were a few minor hiccups such as the microphones malfunctioning but other than that everything went smoothly until they started dismissing students.

Once students started to leave and head to the auditorium to get their phones everything turned into chaos. While some were sitting down like they were told to, most were standing near the stage, waiting to pick up their phone. All though there was an AP on the stage giving out directions, students payed no heed to them and continued to cluster around the phone baskets which were placed on the edge of the stage grouped by the alphabet.  

Students were rushing around trying to find their friends and exercising their vocal chords after five hours of testing. The AP’s voice was barely heard over the voices of the students making the simple process so much harder. The AP’s tried their very best to get everyone’s phone back and it is solely the student’s’ fault for the catastrophe. The student’s want to be reunited with their phone is completely understandable, but the disobedience caused many unnecessary headaches for those who just wanted to get out and go to class.

The whole testing experience was great with only a few bumps that could have been avoided by student cooperation. Hopefully students have learned their lessons and will apply them Tuesday morning.