Apart from death and taxes, pretests are one of life’s certainties. Every year, we take them to help teachers gauge our abilities. But are they really necessary? Let’s be honest, we probably don’t know the material: that’s why we’re taking the class. Being told that teachers need to know who needs extra help doesn’t justify pretests either. Have you ever seen a teacher focus more on other students because of their results on pretests? I know I haven’t. Besides, it is a flawed process. Even the smartest among us might seem ‘dumb’ based off of a pretest. Teachers have a curriculum that they have to stick to, and they aren’t going to change that because a few people know or don’t know what they’re about to learn.