Tests may be the most unpopular part of academic life.
考试可能是学习生活中最不受人欢迎的一部分。
Students hate them because they produce fear and anxiety about being evaluated,
学生们很讨厌各种考试，因为他们会因被评估而产生恐惧和不安的心理，
and a focus on grades instead of learning for learning's sake.
并且将注意力从学习本身转移到分数上面去。
But tests are also valuable.
但是考试又是很有价值的。
A well-constructed test identifies what you know and what you still need to learn.
一场精心布置的考试会让你分辨出什么是你掌握的，什么是你需要继续学习的。
Tests help you see how your performance compares to that of others.
考试也会帮助你看到和其他人相比，你的表现是怎样的。
And knowing that you'll be tested on a body of material is certainly likely to motivate you to learn the material more thoroughly.
认识到这些之后，那些你将会被考到的大量的知识，也当然会激励你更彻底地去学习。
However, there's another reason you might dislike tests.
然而，还有另外一个原因你会不喜欢考试。
You may assume that tests have the power to define your worth as a person.
你可能会错误地认为考试有权定义你自身的价值。
If you do badly on a test, you may be tempted to believe that
如果你考试发挥得很差，你也许会被诱使自己相信
you've received some fundamental information about yourself from the professor
你已经从老师的一些话中得到了一些关于你自己的基本信息--
information that says you are a failure in some significant way.
那些认为你是个失败者的信息，
This is a dangerous and wrong-headed assumption.
这是一个很危险又很错误的假想。
If you do badly on a test, it doesn't mean you are a bad person or stupid.
如果你考试发挥的不好，这并不意味着你就是个差劲或者愚蠢的人。
Or that you'll never do better again and that your life is ruined.
否则，你将不会振作起来，你的生活也就被摧毁掉了。
If you don't do well on a test, you're the same person you were before you took the test.
即使你在考试中没有做好，你也还是那个参加考试之前的那个你。
No better, no worse. You just did badly on a test. That's it!
不会更好，当然也不会更差。你只是在考试中没发挥好而已，仅此而已！
In short, tests are not a measure of your value as an individual.
总之，考试不是衡量你自身价值的唯一评判。
They're a measure only of how well and how much you studied.
他们只能衡量出你学习的情况和多少。
Tests are tools. They are indirect and imperfect measures of what we know.
考试只是一种工具。他们也是间接的、不完善的评判标准。