Act Score Vs Gpa Essay

This previous information illustrates the ability college credits have to eliminate the need to pay for tuition or other costs. Exceeding data that was collected to organize information on how some colleges can benefit students and their families financially is due to certain colleges who target low-income families (Chen). The reason particular colleges target people such as the ones mentioned is because they may want to somewhat allow a “promising” way for students to be successful (Burd). Another reason is because the college sees potential or a form of success for a student, therefore they try to give a student the opportunity to acknowledge the world with their seen gift or intelligence. On the other hand scholarships can be helpful to push out into the college life successfully with financial aid. One may play a sport and want to receive a scholarship from his/her sport. This can be debated between taking AP courses rather than scholarships because for many people who participate in sports, one must typically pay for equipment and gear. On top of the financial disadvantages, generally a GPA level must be maintained along with the great ability to play the sport one may be playing to receive their scholarship. As for AP courses are just the typical class schedule courses but harder because they’re at a higher level. AP courses don’t typically need some form of funding to participate in, as for sports,

Throughout high school and college we will go through a vast amount of testing but why? Testing is used to show a person’s amount of knowledge on a particular subject. Usually it’s for one specific subject and not a majority of them, the standardized tests include all testable subjects as in English, math, science, writing, and reading. However, before we can all begin our college careers we have to take one of two tests, the ACT or the SAT. These two tests determine the college you get into, the amount of scholarships you will receive, and even whether or not your will be accepted into any college.

Growing up I have always been told that my grades are important. School is my first priority and I believe that my grades along with other factors determine my future. Although my grades are not perfect, the mistakes that I have made on tests and in class have taught me to push myself to new heights because I am capable of achieving whatever challenges are thrown at me. If my friends invited me to go out on a school night, I wouldn’t go because I know that if I stay up late it would affect my ability to learn. Instead of going out, I would complete my homework and study for any upcoming tests. Besides grades, the SAT and the ACT are major contributors to my future. When I took the PSAT, I made sure that I went to bed early and was on time for the test because even though it was a practice exam, it showed what I needed to improve on for the real test. When I received my results I began preparing for the SAT that I’m taking in October. I purchased books that are full of practice exams and I have been tutored because I was not completely satisfied with my scores from the PSAT. Scholarship is extremely crucial because it shows not only how smart a person is, but also their work ethic.

Anyone who has ever taken the ACT or the SAT knows how stressful and difficult the tests are. Students are forever judged because of the scores the receive by colleges and peers. The ACT/SAT are standardized tests that are meant to calculate what students have learned in previous years of high school. Colleges then use this score to determine whether a student will succeed in college. Specific problems with this process include the fact that high schoolers are extremely busy and may have other things on their minds, the tests require brutal test prep, the test can cause stress and anxiety, and the tests do not accurately gage a student’s college success. For these main reasons, students should not be required to take the ACT/SAT to get into college.

A lot of colleges and Universities believe the score of a student’s SAT and ACT will help them make better

A young girl is excited about graduating high school and attending her first year at college. She tries hard at school and receives above-average grades. She is an active student involved in student council, band, the drama team, and peer tutoring, but her ACT scores are extremely low, disqualifying her from many universities. The young girl represents many students who are not successful at taking standardized tests because they have not developed the advanced skills required to take a test like the ACT or SAT. An academically motivated and responsible student should not be prevented from attending college because a "standard" test is not his or her standard. The current methods of testing for the ACT or SAT should be abolished and

One of the main reasons colleges use a student’s standardized test scores is to determine how ready they are for college and how they will perform in their freshman year (“Do Standardized Test” par 10). However, in reality these standardized tests do not properly predict a student’s first year college performance. Throughout the years, multiple studies have shown that a student’s GPA is a much more accurate representation of their future performance in college than their standardized test results. One of these studies for example, states that “The ACT regularly underestimates the abilities of females, who earn higher grades than males in college, despite lower ACT scores.” (“The ACT: Biased” par 10)

Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Likewise, if a poor test-taker is judged by their SAT score, they could be forced to attend an inadequate institute of higher education. For decades, the SAT has been “the test” that makes or breaks a student's chances of getting into their top college. Generally, the privileged populace do well, but minorities and women do not come out as strong and are therefore limited to college choice. The SAT has proven to be an unsuitable, biased method for predicting success of students in college.

“The sale of a whole range of screening, intelligence, readiness, and other tests generates in excess of $100 million in revenues in the U.S. (Meaghan and Casas 44)”. Companies that administer these tests like the ACT are making hundreds of millions of dollars to make these tests. These are large corporations that are making money from distributing the test and then once again making more money from grading it. Governments look into ways to save money with education so why don’t they focus on abolishing standardized tests and just focus on a student’s grade point average. A student’s high school transcript gives a college enough information for them to make their selection, doing this may take them longer to choose their potential students. However, the students that they do administer would be better represented because they would have that student’s record of the past four years. Showing how they did in certain classes and even what they struggled in.

For students to get accepted into most institutes, they must pass the admissions requirements that school has placed. Most likely having a decent SAT/ACT score and a good standing GPA is required, along with recommendations and sometimes an essay. However, should colleges really rely on standardized test scores to determine a student’s success in college? One single test should not determine how well a student would do in college or determine whether they should get accepted into that college. Instead, they should remove the requirement for SAT/ACT scores and rely on the student’s high school grade point average. Students build their GPA within four years, and that can determine their effort, focuses, and diligence, as stated by Jada Bah, “SAT/ACT Scores Alone Should Not Predict College Success.” A four-hour test should override a four-year grade.

Alternatively, some may argue that universities offer scholarships that allow theses increasing tuition rates to be affordable to all classes of the economy. However, everyone is not fortunate enough to be granted a scholarship, so many students are left without help. Many people do not possess the needed skills, grades, or social standards that these scholarships require. Everyone is not born with the talent to score touch downs or earn a high ACT score. Correspondingly, there are only a certain amount of scholarships that can be granted, and there are millions of people that are applying for that same

The ACT and SAT were created to accurately measure the knowledge of our children and make sure they are prepared for college, yet often times it seems to have the opposite effect. Due to the tests, some students are deciding not to go to college just to avoid paying so much money when they do not think they can do well in college courses. Even if students do decide to go to college, they may avoid taking classes with large tests due to test phobia developed from the ACT or SAT (Paul 42). Seeing such low scores in certain subjects can lower a student’s confidence and willingness to take those classes in college. By not taking certain classes, a student is limiting what major they can complete which will lowering their career options (Paul 42). We can’t let this happen to our students! We can’t let one stupid test destroy the careers and futures of hundreds of teenagers. The long term effects of the trauma created by the ACT and SAT are detrimental to today’s students.

If this is true and GPA and school activity involvement are more important, then why is the SAT even considered? Brandon Busteed, an executive director of Gallup Education, ran a study including 2,586 superintendents around his area. According to his results, “...Only six percent of superintendents strongly agree that SAT and ACT scores are the best predictors of college success” (Brandon Busteed).  This shows that even educators feel that the SAT lacks a true purpose. How can any college determine a student's study habits, work ethic, or community involvement through a number? Jennifer Finney Boylan, a professor at Colby College, states, “The only way to measure students’ potential is to look at the complex portrait of their lives; what their schools are like; how they’ve done in their courses; what they’ve chosen to study; what progress they’ve made over time; how they’ve reacted to adversity” (Hambrick & Chabris). Although other factors are not ignored, including involvement and high school GPA, there is still immense pressure to do well on the SATs. Busteed states, “We’re not just overinvesting in standardized testing, we’re actually testing standardization. That is to say, most standardized tests are designed to have students come up with the same answers. We’re teaching them how to be similar, not different” (2015). This shows the negative effects that the SAT has on

Should or should not grade point average determine whether who is allowed to attend any Ivy League college? Grade point averages, also known as GPA, start in high school. Everyone knows a 4.0 is the perfect GPA. A good decent standard GPA is either a 2.25 or a 2.5. Those GPA’s are the minimum of what most colleges accept and other high-ranking colleges accept 3.0 GPA’s a minimum or higher. Some students attend class every day and do the work but sometimes not always get the best grade because some people aren’t very good with certain subjects and that will lower your GPA and ruin your chances into getting into a good college. Not saying every college isn’t a good college, but a lot of students want to get into big universities such as, Texas

Since when does efficiency replace rationality? The idea of GPA and SAT defining an individual, isn’t effective in identifying their place in society, and shouldn’t be heavily weighted as the exact truth of that person. At most GPA tests someone’s effectiveness in memorizing and repeating information, rather their ability to think and challenge for themselves. In another case, SAT only manages to plug in the test takers controlled problem tricks, which requires no sense of understanding other than the automatic detection of unconsciously using that same technique to a similarly formatted problem, rather than taking the time to use realistic situation logic. This is not sufficient enough to prepare our generation to progress the world, and only creates another set of copies.