Imagine the difference in time between one day and 4 years; there's no doubt it is drastic. But most colleges around the U.S, take standardized test scores as much into account as a student's whole academic career as a high schooler. A standardized test score that only covers 3 topics and can easily be increased with expensive tutoring. Because of the limited range of topics covered and unfairness to lower-income families, standardized testing should not be as important as other factors, such as GPA and participation extracurricular activities.
Standardized testing continuously tests the same topics; ones that can be taught by ACT/SAT tutors and ACT/SAT Prep books. These tutors know what topics, types of questions and test-taking strategies the standardized tests use. While this information is not confidential, it is not accessible for everyone, especially for students from a lower income family. Even though many
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Many forms of intelligence aren’t taken into account with these tests. Teamwork, innovativeness, work ethic are important in college, and even more so in the workforce after college. But instead of channeling these qualities, schools push the importance of SAT scores. A student’s G.P.A gives a much broader view of a students intelligence by seeing the grades they get in every class, not just three broad categories like in the test. Along with showing the academics strengths of a student, “a student’s consistent "A" grades may be coupled with evidence of curiosity and learning across disciplines, as well as leadership in civic or social causes”(Lash). All which are things the SAT ignores, while they are very good characteristics for a college-bound student to have. Rather than using a test that merely takes three hours, colleges should use a test that overall represents student as a whole; the four years of work that they put in to get their