Take a moment and imagine it – the grip on your pencil is so hard it’s leaving marks. You’re sweating slightly from the pressure crushing down on your brain. You glance at the people beside you, who are in similar states of mind. This is the Colorado Student Assessment Program [CSAP], the test that can influence the rest of your life. Not that anyone cares, of course.

Student opinion on CSAP is generally negative, with most saying that it’s useless, and in some aspects it is. Colleges are far more likely to look at one’s ACT or SAT scores when applying to two or four year schools. So what’s the point of CSAP’s?

A major reason is, of course, money. CSAP scores are used by the District to determine whether or not a school is doing a good job of preparing students for college. As such, schools with higher test scores are given more money, while schools with lower test scores are pressured to raise test scores, or have the school switched over to a charter school.

Teachers, whatever you may think, are also affected by CSAP. School Administrators use individual class CSAP scores to determine whether or not a teacher is doing a good job. If scores are low, a teacher can (and probably will) be fired if scores are low enough from their classes. It even affects who will be in their class next year – your individual CSAP scores also determine whether or not you need extra help in classes. So instead of getting into an auto mechanics class, you get put into an extra math or science class because you blew off the CSAP as being “useless”.

All of these things combine to affect people more than they know. If you were in a remedial math class in high school, colleges will see that and it will affect your chances of getting into a decent school. If you come from a charter school, college recruiters will, however unfairly, make a biased judgment and pass you over for getting into their school.

So despite whatever you think you know, or do know, of the dreaded Colorado Student Assessment Program, keep in mind that your parents, your teachers, and whoever else has said this cliché to you was right – what you do in high school will affect you the rest of your life.