SOLs are stressful for every student, but the real stress falls on the teachers. Some teachers don’t agree with how the tests are written,

“I don’t like how the SOL exam is written. I don’t think that it is a judge of content knowledge at many times. I wish we could edit the exam and improve the exam,” said biology teacher Jenna Koltz said.

Other teachers have thought about how they would change the SOL if they had the chance.

“I support the idea of standardized tests but I would recommend the test be written at half the grade level of the student taking it not and not above their grade level. People should be trained specifically on writing the multiple choice questions,” biology teacher Caroline Gergel said.

Although many classes focus on the SOL all year round and gear their curriculum towards it, many teachers would rather teach at their own pace.

“We have to align what we’re teaching with the SOL. We don’t teach the test, but we want to make sure we teach everything that is covered [in the SOL],” Koltz said. “In an ideal world, yeah I would teach my own interests, but obviously I can’t, so I’m always trying to find a balance.”

Although a lot of teachers ‘over prepare’ their students for SOLs by giving them too many J-Labs and practice SOLs, Gergel doesn’t.  

“If the student is correctly placed in the right class than i should be able to teach them throughout the year and they will be ready for the SOL,” Gergel said.