As a long-time educator, I would say that this depends very much on the test and most tests do have fatal flaws that they reward rote memorization of facts, for

As a long-time educator, I would say that this depends very much on the test and most tests do have fatal flaws that they reward rote memorization of facts, formula, or process. (Needless to say, I am also against that kind of tests.) I have looked at some PISA questions and they seem to be well-designed. In addition, some questions require written answers. Many PISA questions contextualize academic knowledge in real-world scenarios such as questions about purchasing apartment or intravenous drip rate in medical infusions. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisa2012-2006-rel-items-maths-ENG.pdf https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisa2012-2006-rel-ite... A question in reading test is about the effect of the word 'free' in making purchasing decisions: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/PISA%20for%20Schools%20sample%20test%20items.pdf http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/PISA%20for%20Schools%20sa... A question on bee colony collapse disorder in Science test: https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/PISA2015-Released-FT-Cognitive-Items.pdf https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/PISA2015-Released-FT-... No test can substitute for one-on-one evaluation, but one-on-one evaluation is also subject to (different) biases. As far as standardized tests go, these are pretty good ones. More importantly, I believe the results would likely correlate relatively well with how well the students apply knowledge in real-world settings.