Gee, in my day (the FIFTYS) we didn't have "pre-test" . We either knew it or we repeated the grade...

I believe they were teaching us something called - THINKING!!!!!

I do think that when you need to have tests and a teaching program just designed to prep kids for a test, things have gone terribly wrong. Instead of saying "The tests are causing issues, we should rethink them." They say "The students are having issues with the tests, so we need to teach them to take the tests better." That is the tale wagging the dog and an example of much that is wrong with modern education assessment.

As a parent of students taking these tests, I can verify that they are very useful. Hearing various criticism of standardized testing in the media, I was somewhat skeptical of the testing. But I have now looked closely at the tests and they seem very well designed and test an amazing array of knowledge and critical thinking.

The pre-testing is also a very good and practical exercise. When my kids do the pre-test and get something wrong, we discuss the question and possible answers. We look at their answer and why they chose it. We look at what is the correct answer and discuss what the test makers are trying to test -- what knowledge or critical thinking is involved in finding the right answer.

As an example from doing this yesterday with my 3rd grader. One question asked what numbers are involved if the product is 750 (I don't remember the exact wording). My son got it wrong because he did not know that 'product' is the result of multiplication. He was unfamiliar with the terminology, though he could do the multiplication involved easily. After our discussion of the problem, he now knows what 'product' and 'quotient' mean and he was reminded that when he sees unfamiliar words, he should ask. As a result of the pre-testing, he increased his mathematical vocabulary and learned a lesson about learning -- ask questions.

This is not a waste of time or "teaching to the test" -- this is essential knowledge, problem solving, and learning how to learn.

Don't know where you grew up, but where I grew up, the teachers would give us a quiz, which actually IS a pre-test. It helped us to understand what the test would be like - what we could expect.
Same type of thing.

However, now, students need to learn how to bubble. It is atually a weird concept for kids. Soon, they will start teaching THAT in preschool.

I would 'third' Kevin and Rem. Standardized testing has some use (the US Army has been using it since WWI) and these versions of the state STAR tests are reasonable practice tests. It is called "formative testing". Test their understanding as students form their understanding. QUIZ is a good analogy. These are the QUIZs for the STAR. It is very hard for classroom teachers, on their own, to make tests that look and feel like the STAR.
Kevin's experience with his own 3rd grade son also brings up a problem. How much of this 're-teach' is being done in the classroom? For us Stanford, Cal, San Jose State etc. parents - parent help is fine. What about the less educated families in out district? This is where the community efforts (and pleads) to volunteer at the "south side" schools is so vital.
Rem, as a second-career teacher - I also found it weird to teach "bubbling", but second grade needs it for the STARS, so introduce it at 1st. They catch on pretty fast!