Agree or disagree with the following statement: Standardized tests like the TOEFL provide sufficient information to determine whether students should be admitted to a college or university.

Standardized tests like the TOEFL are used widely in different fields and for different purposes. these tests provide a quantifiable criteria in the form of a score for employers and other decision-makers to base their judgment upon. However, some people argue that standard test are not necessarily one size-fits-all, as each person has capabilities and experiences unique to themselves, thus undermining the tests ability to correctly judge the test-takers true capacity. a common metaphor used to describe this point is that if you judge a fish by its tree-climbing abilities, it'll spend its whole life thinking it's worthless and incapable. Keeping the point above in mind, I believe standard tests like the TOEFL are necessary, but not sufficient on their own. Without these tests, developing a general and just idea of one's knowledge in a field, i.e. their english-speaking level, could be close to impossible. without an standard test the judgment would fall to subjective, personal perceptions of an examiner, interviewer or observer, and since the variables are too great and out of control, the results could turn out just as inaccurate and random. As a result, my personal idea of the best way to judge a person's performance is to supplement a standard test with either an interview, a practical test or both. The standard test would ideally "weed out" the people who are truly subpar in the field concerning the test, and maybe even put people in general categories of capability based on their results. The interview or the practical test would then daignose the odd case who has acquired a grade above their actual knowledge, sort out the people who did worse than what they are in fact capable of, and fine tune the results where they are equal between different people. In conclusion, my opinion of standard tests are much like that of Sir Winston Churchill regarding democracy: "It is the worst system ever tried by man, after all the other ones that have been tried and tested previously."