It's Time for Education Reform My sentence is still being executed, and as such, I'm still gathering a lot of hard evidence on the subject. I hope to be able to compose a meaningful – perhaps even persuasive – critique of the system. There's quite a bit of red tape and compliance to jump through. The education system is deeply biased, and this is the second time I have encountered its most significant problem: placement and grading. Most educators place too much value on rigid systems for identifying appropriate places for students and assessing their understanding of the material; there are many factors that can help or hinder a student's performance on such tests. However, justifying low test scores is also not my main intention. During much of my education I felt extremely boring and "excelled" at all "academics" (however ill-defined they were), which made me quite excited about the prospect of going to college soon. I thought that MASMC, by focusing on (personal) and academic challenges, should provide the extra stimulus and opportunity to let me “fly.” I have come to understand the harder compliance of lower level courses. In high school I had precalculus (which actually ended in limits!) and chemistry, and I considered my entry into calculus and chemistry (advanced/secondary) almost guaranteed in college. I found out about the placement tests the night before I took them (best I can remember), but still felt confident after completing them. I found out shortly before going to the academy that I would be put back into precalculus and chemistry. After talking to some "authorities" I found out there was another test I could take. Without even looking at the IC I received on the first precalculus test (mostly algebra and some trigonometry), I took another one. Once again, I got a C and felt pretty bad. I spoke to Dr. Malm to figure out what I had done wrong. After re-reading the test I felt a little worse: the mistakes I made were not due to a real lack of understanding, but were "stupid mistakes" due to inattention, drowsiness and some misinterpretation. I was assured that the college precalculus course would “fill the gaps” in my precalculus education. I doubted it, and I was right: I learned, in fact, nothing about precalculus while I spent hours (and taxpayer money) listening to the same material and doing (unnecessary - not last year and not doing homework there) homework I have done). it didn't hurt my placement test score).