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Tests for nothing

From a set of guidelines provided by The Princeton Review to writers preparing practice versions of standardized tests.

Topics to avoid in passages, items, and art

Violence (including guns, other weapons, and graphic animal violence)

Natural disasters

National tragedies (terrorist attacks, death of a president, etc.)

War, dying, death, disease

Drugs (including prescription drugs)

Alcohol

Tobacco and smoking

Individuals who may be associated with drug use or with advertising of substances such as cigarettes or alcohol

Name brands, trademarked names

Junk food

Fad diets

Abuse, poverty, running away

Divorce

Socioeconomic advantages (e.g., video games, swimming pools, computers in the home, expensive vacations)

Sex, including age-inappropriate stories about marriage, engagement, and having children

Belching/burping, farting, spitting, etc.

Religion

Slavery (We can include slavery in history/social-studies materials if the state curriculum standards cover slavery. Avoid it in reading passages. The term "enslaved people" is preferable to "slaves.")

Rap music, rock concerts

Complex discussions of esoteric topics

Extrasensory perception, witchcraft

Fortune-telling, superstition

Dice and games involving dice (For math questions, use the term "number cubes" instead of "dice.")

Halloween, religious holidays

Aliens and UFOs

Anything disrespectful, demeaning, moralistic, chauvinistic

Anything depicting racial or cultural stereotypes (e.g., Native American in headdress and war paint)

Anything depicting sexual stereotypes (e.g., girls shopping, a mother cooking dinner for a working father, girls overly concerned with dating or what boys think of them, anything accepting of a boy's aggressive behavior)

Children coping with adult situations or decisions; young people challenging or questioning authority

Losing a job, being fired

Rats, roaches, lice, spiders

Dieting, other concerns with self-image

Evolution, prehistoric times, age of solar system, dinosaurs (We can include these topics in history and science materials if the state curriculum standards cover them. Avoid them in reading passages.)

Any topic that is likely to upset students and affect their performance on the rest of the test

Topics to avoid because of overuse

People:

Johnny Appleseed

James Smithson (Smithsonian Institution)

John Muir

John James Audubon

Phillis Wheatley

Roberto Clemente

Alexander Graham Bell

Helen Keller

Harriet Tubman

Louis Armstrong

Jane Goodall

Marie Curie

Jacques Cousteau

Amelia Earhart

Places and Things:

cardiovascular exercise

sports

fad or extreme diets

Galapagos Islands

Inca civilization, Machu Picchu

NASA

Themes:

Child moves to new town

Child starts new school

Child gets new pet

Child ends story by saying, "That wasn't so bad after all!"

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SEE ALSO: Educational tests and measurements; Political correctness; Princeton

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