Testing, testing..can you hear me?

We are in the midst of "practice" tests for our annual state testing. Basically, it means that between circulating around the room glancing at tests to make sure students are not skipping sections, I sit around and watch a room full of preteens alternately guess or stress...

This is supposed to measure their ability to retain the information that I've killed myself teaching all year? Something is just not quite right about that.