History Main / AchievementTestOfDestiny

* ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'': Onizuka is required to get the highest score in the country on the National Scholastic Aptitude Test to keep his job. Fuyutsuki becomes a temporary EducationMama and his students try to come up with a way to help him cheat, but he ends up passing fair and square ([[CrazyAwesome after saving a girl from the yakuza and getting shot multiple times]], which made him only have an hour left to take it).

-->--''Film/TheThinning''

->'''Mr. Glass:''' You have two hours to complete the test. No talking. Keep your eyes on your own tablet. This is a standardized test that will determine your aptitude, as you know; all grades are final.

* Medieval China had an extensive meritocratic bureaucracy. In order to get a comfortable high-class position in the bureaucracy, one had to take an extremely long and time-consuming set of exams. These exams cover everything from philosophy to math to civil administration to military strategy to law to poetry (Confucians valued breadth over depth). Each candidate was strip searched and locked into a special isolation room for the duration of the three day long test in order to prevent them from cheating. These tests were serious business; people have been known to die from stress while writing the test. And although the exams were in theory open to anyone in the nation, only the sons of the very rich could afford to be tutored (over many years) in the sheer breadth of knowledge that the exam demanded.

In fiction (and in real life) Standardized Exams are SeriousBusiness. Students will do anything to succeed. They might go to CramSchool at the urging of their well-intentioned EducationMama. They might plot an elaborate scheme to cheat, but those who do likely CantGetAwayWithNuthin. They might take (either with or without permission) their friend's ADHD medication to aid those all-night cram sessions. They might literally [[DrivenToMadness go insane]]. They might undergo stress to the point of [[WhatYouAreInTheDark doing things they'd never realize they'd do]]. And if you get saddled with [[TheBGrade a less-than-perfect]] score? Your only options are a job at the local BurgerFool or [[DrivenToSuicide death]].

Even the [[NerdsLoveToughSchoolwork smartest kids in school]] might [[EveryoneHasStandards blanch at the thought of taking this test]]. There may be protests everywhere condemning how unfair it is and how a mere test score doesn't indicate everything about a person's character. The bane of many a scholar's existence. Most cases of this may use the Real Life SAT test, which many colleges have a minimum cutoff score to determine which students they will accept, though fictional and non-college-based exams can also apply.

* ''Literature/HiveMind'''s futuristic society has the Lottery. You take it at 18, it lasts four days, and when you're done it tells you what job you'll have for the rest of your life. It is, however, designed to take personality and desires into account; only a few jobs are so essential that the Lottery will assign you to them against your wishes, and those come with great perks to keep the people in them happy. Most people seem reasonably happy with their results.

** The Assassins' Guild final exam, presented in ''{{Discworld/Pyramids}}'' as a parody of the British driving test.
** The Unseen University final exam plays a part in ''Discworld/MovingPictures''. The pass mark is 88%; student wizard Victor Tugelbend has a generous allowance from his uncle for as long as he remains a student, provided he does not score less than 80%. So he takes great care to score exactly 84% and keeps this up year after year until the plot gets going...
** The exams set by the Agatean Empire in ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'' as an entry requirement for pretty well everything (a parody of the real-world Chinese exams noted in the "Real Life" section below), which stunt the country's technological development by ensuring that, for instance, engineers are selected on the basis of their ability to write irrelevant poems about lotus blossoms while requiring no actual engineering knowledge whatsoever.

* The film ''Film/{{Accepted}}'' has this with one of its own characters. In addition to characters who aren't going to college because they goofed around and didn't pick a school (main character Bartleby), only picked ''one'' school and didn't get in (Rory, who only applied to Yale and ''nowhere else''), the best example of this is Glen, who got a ''0'' on the SAT.

* A lot of people feel this way when they have to gear up for any standardized test. The SAT, ACT, PMAT, MCAT, you name it. The score one earns on this test is an indicator that determines whether or not a student can attend a college or career program of their choice.
** It is a common misconception ([[SourGrapesTropes especially popular amongst those who do poorly on said exams]], or who oppose such testing for ideological reasons) that these tests don't well predict success, and their use is often decried. This is false, which is hardly surprising; colleges wouldn't use SAT scores if they didn't find them useful. While it is true that they ''appear'' to only account for 10-20% of variation in college GPA, the cause of this is that people who do poorly on the SAT [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias don't get to GO to said colleges in the first place]]. Indeed, most colleges only admit students with a narrow range of SAT scores, because those who do better can get into better schools. The wider the range of SAT scores that a school has, the better a predictor SAT scores are of their college [=GPAs=]; when you're thrown in with a bunch of geniuses, being a genius is the baseline expectation. This is known as the [[http://changethis.com/manifesto/100.03.SuccessEquation/pdf/100.03.SuccessEquation.pdf paradox of skill]]; the more skilled everyone is, the more other factors tend to come into play, not because skill doesn't matter, but because you've already eliminated all of the unskilled people.
* Medieval China had an extensive meritocratic bureaucracy. In order to get a comfortable high-class position in the bureaucracy, one had to take an extremely long and time-consuming set of exams. These exams cover everything from philosophy to math to civil administration to military strategy to law to poetry (Confucians valued breadth over depth). Each candidate was strip searched and locked into a special isolation room for the duration of the three day long test in order to prevent them from cheating. These tests were serious business; people have been known to die from stress while writing the test.

Even the [[NerdsLoveToughSchoolwork smartest kids in school]] might blanch at the thought of taking this test. There may be protests everywhere condemning how unfair it is and how a mere test score doesn't indicate everything about a person's character. The bane of many a scholar's existence. Most cases of this may use the Real Life SAT test, which many colleges have a minimum cutoff score to determine which students they will accept, though fictional and non-college-based exams can also apply.

* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', Miss Finster seems to treat the Arkansas Standardized Achievement Test like it's a big deal. However, Miss Grotke tells the kids that it's not for a grade.

[[folder:AnimeAndManga]]

* ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' opens with Miaka attending CramSchool and studying for the entrance exams to the prestigious Jonan High School. She envies her best friend [[spoiler: and later mortal enemy]] Yui, because she knows that Yui would be able to pass that test in her sleep. Miaka doesn't even really ''want'' to go to Jonan; she's only trying to get in to please her [[EducationMama mother]], although the chance to attend HighSchool with Yui does help sweeten the deal. [[spoiler: In a twist, it's revealed that Miaka passed the test with flying colors, but decided to go to another school, and Yui ''failed'' the test for Jonan but got into the school Miaka decided to go to instead.]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder: Film]]

* The film ''{{Film/Accepted}}'' has this with one of its own characters. In addition to characters who aren't going to college because they goofed around and didn't pick a school (main character Bartleby), only picked ''one'' school and didn't get in (Rory, who only applied to Yale and ''nowhere else''), the best example of this is Glen, who got a ''0'' on the SAT.

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Literature/JackBlank'' features a PMAP: the Potential Mapping Test, which Ross Calhoun declares beyond reproach as it shows everything worthwhile about a child and decides their futures. Jack is less than excited when his test score amounts to "Toilet Brush Cleaner". Later on, Jonas Smart forces Jack and his other classmates in his superhero training program to take a 4-hour comprehensive, custom-made Total Personality Test that could single-handedly psychoanalyze anyone and had questions on every possible subject, complete with multiple rude questions implying Jack to be allied with the Rüstov. Smart is shocked when Jack's test comes back with the result "NEEDS MORE INPUT" and blames Jack for messing with the form.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has two such exams in the Hogwarts curriculum: the Ordinary Wizarding Levels (OWL) and the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test (NEWT). OWL determines whether or not one is qualified to continue an education in a given subject at the NEWT level, and NEWT is there to prove full competency in that subject. Different forms of cheating (including [[AllNaturalSnakeOil potentially lethal fraudulent intelligence potions such as doxy droppings]]) and self-correcting quills are passed around and banned for these tests. Mrs. Weasley gets very upset that her sons Fred and George got dismal OWL scores and dropped out before completing the NEWT, and Harry's also concerned because his chosen career path requires a NEWT in potions and he learns Professor Snape won't accept any NEWT students who didn't get anything less than top marks on the OWL in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' (luckily, Snape's successor Professor Slughorn is happy to accept students who get Exceeds Expectations).
* In ''Literature/FuturetrackFive'', the E-Levels, which determine whether you get to be part of the Establishment, or get sent through the Wire live a nasty, brutish and short life among the underclass.
* ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'': several examples...

* ''Literature/HiveMind'''s futuristic society has the Lottery. You take it at 18, it lasts four days, and when you're done it tells you what job you'll have for the rest of your life. It is, however, designed to take personality and desires into account; only a few jobs are so essential that the Lottery will assign you to them against your wishes, and those come with great perks to keep the people in them happy. Most people seem reasonably happy with their results.

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

* Eric on ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' was so worried about failing his UsefulNotes/SATs that he willingly made himself an indentured servant to his neighbor and teacher Mr. Feeny so Feeny would tell him the secrets to acing it. Feeny just strings him along, and reveals at the end that Eric should just get a good night's sleep and a good breakfast before taking it. Eric then says he no longer has to be Feeny's slave anymore, but Feeny adds that he only told two of the three secrets.
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' warned his little brother Dewey about acing a particular achievement test. Dewey had the same potential to be classified as a genius as Malcolm, but Malcolm didn't want Dewey to be cursed with the same fate of being a socially-outcast Krelboyne if he aced. Instead, he offered that their much dumber brother Reese take the test for Dewey, which landed Dewey in a class for children they treated as mentally slow.
* A mid-1960s series had an episode featuring a working class girl desperate to pass The Exam so she could get a scholarship and go to a good college. She was warned about studying to excess and was put in a taxi to take her home. She convinced the driver to divert to the library where she pulled an all-nighter. Naturally, when she finally took the test she'd forgotten everything and just covered her answer sheet with smears and blots.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' with the [=PXJTs=]. Gandhi blows them off but is subtly prepared for them by a [[TricksterMentor friendly, if creepy, trucker who may be a ghost]]. Abe helps Cleo study for them, ironically causing him to miss out on sleep and do poorly on the test himself.
* Subverted in an episode of WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}, Miss Finster seems to treat the Arkansas Standardized Achievement Test like it's a big deal. However, Miss Grotke tells the kids that it's not for a grade.

[[folder: Real Life]]

* Subverted in an episode of WesternAnimation/''Recess'', Miss Finster seems to treat the Arkansas Standardized Achievement Test like it's a big deal. However, Miss Grotke tells the kids that it's not for a grade.

* Subverted in an episode of WesternAnimation/Recess, Miss Finster seems to treat the Arkansas Standardized Achievement Test like it's a big deal. However, Miss Grotke tells the kids that it's not for a grade.

* ''Literature/WayOfChoices'' doubles down on this in the Grand Examination Arc. First, Chen must pass an entry exam into one of the six Ivy Schools of Cultivation, because only as a student can he participate in the Grand Examination. The forty-three highest tiered students will gain access to the Mausoleum of Books and priceless books, but only the absolute winner is allowed into the Lingxu Pavillion, where the rarest books are held that describe how to escape fate. Since changing his fate of young death is the entire point, the test really is life-or-death for Chen, but only because of circumstances beyond the test or it's design.

* The American education system has been making standardized tests the standard in many states for nearly two decades now. However, not only is this method unpopular with students, it's also unpopular with many ''teachers'', who often feel that they can't teach properly when confined to a curriculum of what is on the test and nothing else.

* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' warned his little brother Dewey about acing a particular achievement test. Dewey had the same potential to be classified as a genius as Malcolm, but Malcolm didn't want Dewey to be cursed with the same fate of being a socially-outcast Krelboyne if he aced. Instead, he offered that their much dumber brother Reese take the test for Dewey, which landed Dewey in a class for children they treated as mentally retarded.

* The film ''Film/Accepted'' has this with one of its own characters. In addition to characters who aren't going to college because they goofed around and didn't pick a school (main character Bartleby), only picked ''one'' school and didn't get in (Rory, who only applied to Yale and ''nowhere else''), the best example of this is Glen, who got a ''0'' on the SAT.

In fiction (and in real life) Standardized Exams are SeriousBusiness. Students will do anything to succeed. They might go to CramSchool at the urging of their well-intentioned EducationMama. They might plot an elaborate scheme to cheat, but those who do likely CantGetAwayWithNuthin. They might undergo stress to the point of [[WhatYouAreInTheDark doing things they'd never realize they'd do]]. And if you get saddled with [[TheBGrade a less-than-perfect]] score? Your only options are a job at the local BurgerFool or [[DrivenToSuicide death]].

* The [=YouTube=] Red original film ''Film/TheThinning'' shows a dystopia, where the US has adopted a form of PopulationControl that executes children, who don't pass the annual test. [[spoiler:Naturally, the rich and powerful use their influence to keep their own kids from ending up in the gas chamber, while throwing the poorer kids under the bus. The Governor of Texas even has his son's girlfriend, who he doesn't approve of, deliberately fail the test.]]