In this article, the implicit assumption that tests are a neutral tool for measuring an individual’s learning achievement is challenged. Instead, testing is explored as a social practice which becomes part of children’s conduct of everyday life. The theoretical foundation for the analysis is Danish–German critical psychology. This approach offers a dialectically developed set of concepts and hereby another basis for understanding school testing than the one implicit in the technology of testing. The analysis is primarily based on a case consisting of an observation conducted in a second grade class at a low socio-economic school in Denmark. The analysis focuses on children looking for signs of assessment in the test situation. The discussion focuses on similarities between testing and computer gaming strategies. The article concludes by suggesting that we learn powerful lessons on assessment by taking the children’s perspectives seriously.
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