At their best, standardized tests allow us to determine a learner's knowledge level more quickly. This is because questions within standardized tests have pre-determined difficulty levels - difficulty levels that have been tested against a large number of learners in order to validate the difficulty level assigned to the question. Depending on whether or not the learner answers that question correctly, the test will offer either a harder or easier question. Using this method requires fewer questions to determine a learner's knowledge level. Because standardized tests also use a very large question bank, when paired with the way in which the test serves up questions based on how the previous question was answered, no two learners have the same set of questions or in the same order. This makes it much more difficult to cheat. But standardized tests also have their limitations. For one, although the test seems fair, they also limit what gets taught as many curricula are dictated by the content of the tests and funding decisions can be made based on a school's performance on these tests. This can make the school experience very rote. Additionally, because standardized tests are all measuring the same thing, they don't map to the reality of the world very well. We're not all the same. We all have different things we're good at. And the world has a huge range of skills that are in demand. Not to mention with globalization and the rapid growth of technology, the skills needed are changing all the time. with the skills in demand sometimes changing within a period as short as 5 years, it's impossible to genuinely be able to use standardized tests to predict how well as student is prepared for the future.