With finals rapidly approaching, I think it is time to recognize the unsung hero of finals week, the silent workhorse which enables almost 1000 students to be tested on multiple subjects daily. This grand facilitator of final exams is the much beloved Scantron.
Scantron Corporation was founded in 1972 in Eagan, Minnesota. With their revolutionary system for tabulating multiple choice answers, in this commentator’s opinion, they have truly fulfilled their corporate tagline “The Bridge to Knowledge.”
For those few still unacquainted with the technology, it consists of a green sheet of paper with 50 rows of answer bubbles on each side, surrounded by an assortment of mysterious markings that are only understood by the Scantron reader. The reader is a small machine (located next to the copiers at JHS) which will automatically grade tests taken on the Scantron sheets.
You may be wondering what it is that makes the Scantron such a fantastic invention. There are many reasons. For one thing, the Scantron enables teachers to pay even less attention to students’ answers. In fact, by separating the answers from the actual questions, the teacher could be theoretically removed from the equation entirely!
Due to its format, the Scantron also encourages teachers to give more multiple choice questions. Needless to say, the ability to guess correctly from five options is the ultimate demonstration of conceptual mastery.
The only thing Scantrons lack is a certain degree of user friendliness. It is true that the rows of identical bubbles are visually confusing, and it is also true that if one misses a line, all of the other answers will be wrong, just as it is true that the whole system could fail if markings are made in problematic locations. Nevertheless, what they lack in user friendliness they make up for in raw efficiency.
“Scantrons speed up my test taking time by 37.4%,” said senior Jacob Roth. “I even have time to fill out the short answer section on the back!”
Indeed, the pedagogical advantages of the Scantron are immense. So, as you are taking your finals next week, take a moment to appreciate everyone’s favorite multiple choice tabulation system, the Scantron. When your eyes begin to water with exertion as you struggle to distinguish the little green bubble marked “a” from the little light green bubble marked “b,” just remember how much worse it would be if you were writing your answers directly on the test, like we used to in more primitive days.