"Teaching to the test" is the colloquial phrase describing the practice of teaching "a narrow subset of skills that will increase test performance rather than focus on deeper understanding that can readily be transferred to similar problems", and is a common criticism levelled at SATs, the standardised testing used in state schools in England. The result is the ability to quickly answer superficial questions that do not require real thought or measure the ability to think or create in any field, and a narrowed curriculum.