Davis High School

KAYSVILLE — This week has been ordained as the sophomore appreciation week as juniors and seniors sleep in while those new to high school get to take the fabled UBSCT test.

The Utah Basic Skills Competency Test has been the monotonous ring of fire that high school kids jump through every year, and students and teachers alike are beginning to tire of this competency carousel. The strange fact of the matter is that most kids aren’t seriously upset about taking the test, it’s the level of difficulty that’s grinding their gears — and not in the way you would think.

“A brick could pass that test,” grumbles Hayden Holm, a sophomore at Davis High. “At least give us something to shoot for, something that stimulates some brain activity.”

This sentiment is shared by all those taking the test and the veterans of this featureless feat. The problem of this standardized test can be quite clear, it’s just too easy. Student after student leaving the testing rooms walk out wondering how the UBSCT is going to help measure the intelligence of the student body when it’s simple enough that everyone can pass it.

“I think it needs to be harder because they need to challenge us so we can learn more…if that’s all I need to pass high school, I mean, that’s it?” questioned Kyra Bell, senior at Davis High.

There’s no doubt about it, the UBSCT has been accepted as a test that isn’t going away for a while, but maybe — just maybe — we could try to make something out of this stale state test.

Perhaps upping the difficulty, just a tad, in order to get some recognition and pride behind it as an actual rite of passage would be a good idea, and who knows? Maybe one day we’ll be able to mark this standardized nightmare as a local equal to the ACT— a fair fetched feat, I know, but one not impossible.

But for now it seems the sophomores will be spending this test year beating their heads against their desks. “It’s all right, sometimes you just got to get it done, no matter what it is,” replied Terri Hall, English teacher at Davis High, “You just gotta jump through their hoops and get it over with, and then just enjoy sleeping in next year.”