A monster haunting students throughout the semester lurks in the next week, waiting to fry brains and claw averages down with no hope of recovery. Yes, the summer reading test; one grade which can put a permanent dent in our average for a whole semester. This test should not have such a lasting impact.

Summer reading does not even fulfill purpose. Designed to keep our brains occupied during the summer and prepare us for the AP English test reading list, it fails at both of these goals. At least for most students we know, the books have little value beyond getting an “A” on the summer reading test. They don’t start reading until the last week of summer. Some don’t until school actually starts. This defeats the purpose of even assigning it during the summer, especially when reading it earlier puts students at a disadvantage, since it won’t be fresh until test day.

 A few students choose to Spark Note  the books or watch movie versions of them instead of reading the actual novel. While discouraged by teachers, it is the only way to get through the dullness inherent to most of the books. Let’s look at some examples. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens : this super small print 500+ page behemoth tracks the life of a poor lonely peasant boy through Victorian era England, where he inherits a great fortune, falls in love, then loses his money and doesn’t get the girl in the end. Why would anyone trudge through hundreds of pages just to find out that it ends exactly how it started?

Example number two: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck : A furiously difficult to read story of the Great Depression where exactly nothing good or exciting happens to the Joad family for 400+ pages. And there’s a chapter about a turtle crossing the road. This is the kind of book that makes students turn to regular English classes.

 If spending a few weeks going over boring material to pass one test (the fire and forget method) sounds familiar, there’s a reason for it. Ever heard of the TAKS test? The test is lamented by teachers for wasting time that could be spent doing something more useful. This feeling is mirrored by students in regard to summer reading.

Most of the problems with summer reading could be solved by assigning  fun books the majority of people like to read. There are plenty of classics not on the reading list preferable to the current choices. The College Board should augment the list with more interesting titles, so reading can be enjoyed and retained instead of dreaded and forgotten. And the district should change the grading system so the test only stays with students for the first six weeks, instead of the whole semester.