Shannon Nichols - Proficiency

Evan Frank

Eng. 111-114

Response #1

Sept 1, 2016

Title

In Shannon Nichols, “Proficiency,” she describes her experience with standardized testing. Nichols was confident in her writing ability. She took the standardize test and failed the test. For Nichols, failing this standard test lowered her self-steamed in her writing ability. After failing multiple times, the writer barely passes the twelfth grade proficiency test and was place in developmental writing in college. Like Shannon Nichols, I was in a similar situation with reading and writing.

My early experience with reading and writing was when I attended high school in Texas. Secondary education in southeast Texas required a state standardized test that focus on math, reading and writing. Unlike the writer I was already struggling in reading and writing. I relate to Nichols because like her, the outcome of my performance on the test would affect my confidence. Not only did it effect my confidence but also how I would begin to view reading and writing from a negative prespective. Over the years my view has changed for the better.

The month before the test my school had a practice test. During this test I could not focus on the reading, my mind was wondering. After the reading portion of the exam was completed, the writing exam followed. By that time, I just want to leave the testing site. I did not know what to expect or how to prepare for the exam. The result came in from that practice test and as I expected, I did horrible. The bright side about that pretest is I now know what to expect and how to prepare for the exam.

Over the next few weeks my English teacher prepped the class for the reading and writing portion of the test. I soaped up every information that I could. By the time the actual state test came, my confidence level was high and I felt prepared. I took the test with a different mindset, a mindset of confidence. This time I expect to receive a higher score than my pretest. Months later the score came in, and once again like the writer, I was very disappointed with my score. I barely past the standard of the state test. The hard work that I put into it didn’t pay off like I thought it would and lowered my confidence with my reading and writing skills. Since that day, my view on my reading and writing capability has been low.

I had a lot of similarities with author Shannon Nichols, and her book “Proficiency.” We both had high expectation on our testing score. We both had our confidence lowered after receiving low scores. For years my confidence was low with my reading and writing. I felt like reading and writing was a waste of time for me. But, over the years my confidence a d interest in reading and writing is increasing.