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The Pros And Cons Of The SAT Standards

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Most students in the United States are being intellectually scored based on a three-hour test that determines their future for further education; this system is infamously known as the SAT. The SAT and ACT not only require a child to sit in a classroom for hours writing and answering questions, it requires the mental strength of a genius to score a perfect grade. These assessments are thought to determine students academic success on a 0-1600 and 1-36 point scale. More and more colleges and universities are becoming test optional meaning that they do not require applicants to attach their test scores with their application. Over eight hundred public and private colleges are now test optional. Some students are spending hundreds of dollars …show more content…

For example, supporters of these test believe that an honors english class taken on the east coast at a small high school is different than one taken on the west coast at a big school. The curriculum and grading may be different from school to school. A 4.0 at one school may be easier to achieve than at another, thus making the SAT a good way to even the playing ground. Although students grade point averages may not be based off of the same criteria, one thing is the same. Two students from different schools could take the same level classes and do the same amount of extracurriculars but one may have a lower test score than the other due to the fact they came from different income households. Hypothetically, one of the students is wealthier than the other making it easier to practice and prepare for the SAT. Both students worked equally as hard but just because one is able to afford tutoring does not mean he or she should get accepted over a student with identical criteria. The SAT limits students from attending top schools. Another argument test supporters make is that standardized testing makes for good preparation for test in the future. Whether it may be the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, or MCAT, advocates believe that it is good preparation for these big exams graduates must take to earn their degree. Preparing for tests such as the SAT and ACT give students better test preparation strategies to use in the future. Although standardized testing may prepare students for these test, not all majors require these exams. Throughout four years of high school and four plus years of college education, students learn study strategies to use to prepare for these graduate tests. After years of college or graduate school, a student is very unlikely to remember the study skills from a high school exam.

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Over time, the SAT’s format has changed to better measure a student’s ability and potential. Excessive stress is put on students to do well on the SAT’s, and causes them unnecessary strain. As college admissions become more and more competitive, the need for higher test scores has increased, despite fatal flaws in the SAT test itself. Although the SAT is used by thousands of colleges and taken by millions of students, many students' scores do not reflect their true abilities, and therefore the SAT test is useless.

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The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is an impelling test to get admission in most of the U.S colleges. All high school seniors during the time of December are actively preparing for victory against the four hour strenuous exam, the SAT. The reason is that SAT score determines the fate and dreams of students. Standardized test scores play a crucial role in student’s future as it is believed to address student’s ability to think, reason, and act so that they can be successful in college life. However, SAT is a huge burden to students and is a biased test.

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Standardized Testing: Making College Admissions “Fair” Every year , the daunting prospect of undergoing standardized testing brings anxiety to thousands of high school students, and for good reason: a student’s performance on standardized college admission exams - most importantly, the ACT and SAT - is a major determinant in deciding where they will go to college. For decades, such standardized tests have been universally accepted as part of the admissions process: proponents argue, as Syverson (2007) explains, that such tests are the only way of standardizing college admissions when students from different schools have such widely varying profiles. However, in the past several decades a growing anti-testing movement has begun to poke holes

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The tests only ask for knowledge or facts that the student can barely recall and when taking these tests they are taken on a school day and they take 2-3 hours to complete. Standardized testing began in the 1920s to test students ability but was renamed to Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) (Livia). The American College Testing (ACT) and the SAT are both used in the United States for college admission. However Swope and Miner believe that, “Standardized tests will never answer the questions of what our children need to learn to be leaders and informed citizens in a multicultural, ever-changing world” (Cole, Hulley and Quarles 19).

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A major factor in a student’s future is his or hers ability to perform well on arbitrary standardized tests. This is the “tree” they must climb in order to achieve future success. Although standardized tests like the SAT have been a way of gauging a student’s ability to learn and retain information for years, they are an inaccurate measurement. Being created over 100 years ago, reconsidering the policy of issuing the SATs is crucial.

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Standardized tests do not work because of inaccuracy, bias, and student misunderstanding. The ACT and SAT tests are used as college entrance exams all over the US. Most schools require you to take one or both of these tests and get a minimum score in order to be accepted to that school. The SAT and ACT have been proven to be fairly accurate at predicting a student’s average performance for their freshman year in college.

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Students that take the SAT/ACT are young, nervous and anxiety ridden. They know this test determines their future, and that scares them (Raines). There is definitely too much weight on standardized test scores, but some families are able to handle it with test preparation. Because there is so much stress on the SAT/ACT, there is now an industry of test training that takes time and money out of the lives of students and their families (Tiefenthaler 25). This time could be going towards studying for classes and doing well in school, but because students are so worried about their test scores, preparation for the tests are a large part of many people’s lives.

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The ACT stands for American College Testing; the test measures the students’ abilities to preform well on four subjects: Math, Reading, Science, and English. Similarly, the SAT stands for Scholastic Aptitude Test; it measures students’ abilities to perform well Reading, English, and Math. However, how accurately do these tests measure student’s performance in college? Are they good predictors of student’s future? Some researchers argue that these assessments do not measure the capability of a student.

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This method will prevent students from gaining the knowledge they seek and will not work to their advantage later on in the future. Most high school classes are teaching students how to take tests rather than teaching them how to skilfully answer them and master them. This causes students to enter college and university unprepared as they develop little skill-making abilities. High-stake standardized testing, such as the SAT, is burdensome for students. The standardized test scores that a student receives determine which university a student can attend and this greatly impacts his or her future.

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