Aptitude For Colleges And Sats Essay

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.

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.

Standardized testing has been around since the early 1900’s. Today, it determines a high school student’s future. Every year juniors in high school start to prepare months in advance for the SAT’s and ACT’s. Along with the test itself, comes stress that is not necessary. The debate of standardized tests defining a student’s academic ability or not has become a recent popular controversial topic. Many colleges and universities are starting to have test optional applications because they are realizing that a single test score does not demonstrate the knowledge of a student. There is more value in a student that should rule an acceptance or rejection. In the article, “SAT Scores Help Colleges Make Better Decisions” Capterton states, “The SAT has proven to be valid, fair, and a reliable data tool for college admission” (Capterton). Capterton, president of the College Board, believes that the SAT’s and ACT’s should be used to determine a student’s acceptance because it is an accurate measure. What Capterton and deans of admissions of colleges and universities don’t know is the abundant amount of resources upper class families have for preparation, the creative talents a student has outside of taking tests, and the amount of stress they put on a 17 year old.

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.

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.

While SAT participation rates vary widely from state to state these comparisons are misleading. In states where their colleges and university do not require students to take the SAT and rely more on the ACT, the SAT test takers population is smaller. For states where colleges and universities that require the SAT exam for admission, more students take the SAT hence showing an unbalance in states where the test is not widely used. States with the higher averages, will also be states that have less test-takers. The lower scoring states will have a higher number of test-takers. Comparing states with a lower number of test-takers, to states with a higher number of test-takers is unfair and

Most top-tier universities use SAT and/or ACT test scores as an important factor when considering students for admissions. A perfect score is a great aid in helping an applicate standout in a highly competitive arena. Because the test scores are so important, many students begin preparation in the 8th or 9th grade and continue it throughout their high school years. Today, that prep is even more significant due to redesigned SAT, which many consider a harder test than its predecessor.

Creativity is necessary in the world. Creative thinkers are what help push the world forward. Scientists, artists, journalists, are all creative thinkers, yet today’s standardized tests don’t accurately reflect the creativity that students possess. In fact, standardized tests such as ISTEP, ECAs, PSATs, ACTs and SATs, drive students to the breaking point. College requirements are getting stricter, so high school students are forced to buckle down and work harder. But what if you are very creative but yet a poor test taker? Some colleges only accept students based on how well they did on their SAT scores. This rising issue stresses high school students out every year. Colleges need to use various admission criteria other than standardized tests to determine whether or not to accept students.

The two common college admissions exams in the United States are the Standard Achievement Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). They are nationally standardized tests used for college admissions (“Socio-Economic Bias in SAT and ACT May Be Leading to Scoring Disparities”). Most colleges require either the SAT or the ACT for admission (“SAT Officials Hope to Score Points on Eliminating Bias”).

It is very important to consider the fact that standardized tests will have a lasting effect on many lives, determining which college students will attend, and essentially, the job and success they will have later in life. The SAT has changed greatly from the first time it was taken, first asking about Latin constructions while making sure it was an aptitude test, rather than an achievement test “because [be doing this, people] think [they] can give poor boys the best chance to take away the advantage of rich boys“. In the past, it was very difficult to develop tests that weren’t achievement tests because all the rich boys had a much better education where they were, giving them an unfair advantage. Standardized tests play a very important part in the lives of students and determine whether or not they get into college and where, although “Research [has] found that the SAT was a relatively poor predictor of college success compared to high school grades as well as curriculum-based achievement

High schools require their students to take college entrance exams such as the ACT or the SAT, and “one goal of these policies [is] to increase college enrollment based on the belief that requiring students to take these exams would make students more likely to consider college as a viable option” (Klasik). Based on their ACT or SAT score students can be offered scholarships from colleges around the nation, which could hopefully be a way to motivate students to do well on these standardized test. However, “college entrance exams such as the ACT or SAT are required or recommended for admission to nearly all of the nations 4-year colleges and universities and are likewise used in the admissions process at many 2-year colleges” (Klasik). So, high schools that require their students to take the ACT or SAT are doing their students a huge favor by helping the gain more college options and opportunities for scholarships. There are several questions college think about before accepting students into their school. One of those questions being “how can we identify the students most likely to succeed” (Moore 106)? Colleges look at incoming students current GPA, class rank, and testing scores, which both provide insight as to how the student may perform academically. According to a study on “…how students’ ACT Aptitude Ratings [AAR] are associated with their subsequent

An argument of this nature is described by Jeffrey Penn, a reporter for the New York Academy of Sciences, who states, “Despite some limitations and the intense criticism by opponents of standardized testing, colleges and universities can reliably use admissions tests to screen applicants”. He continues this argument by arguing that tests like the SAT are good predictors of how well a student will do in college. Though there may be correlation between the two, test scores are no nearly the only factor in college admission or success. There are a vast number of college courses in existence and success in many of them have nothing to do with how high a student scores on the SAT. On top of that, these tests are not always accurate for a number of reasons. Diane Andrews, an individual chosen to represent the organization FairTest, points out that, “An individual's score may vary from day to day due to testing conditions or the test-taker's mental or emotional state”. A strong student who works hard in school could be dealing with something personally or just have a small fluke and have their test score cause colleges to turn them away. So much emphasis should not be placed on standardized tests such as

Have you ever thought about what college you want to go to after high school? In order to get into that college, you must be accepted. Colleges look for a numerous amount of criteria in order for you to get accepted, and one of those things colleges look for is your standardized test score. The standardized test is a test administered and scored in a consistent, or “standard”, way (edglossary.org). Seeing that you must get a high enough score on the test in order for your dream college to accept you, the tests are difficult, but are very worth it at the end. Colleges have been accepting students into their school with standardized test scores for more than 50 years, and with that being said, it has seemed to work pretty well (content.time.com). In the end, standardized test scores show that you deserve to go to that college, and is also a way of showing that you’ve worked hard for so long to accomplish something huge.

For admissions purposes, most universities in the United States require completion of the college preparatory curriculum and some form of standardized testing. The two types of standardized tests used for admissions are the American College Test (ACT) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test, better known as the SAT. In a world where so many factors are considered when trying to gain admission to a particular university, these standardized tests are losing their relevance and should not be so heavily relied on during the admissions process.

While critics beg to differ, these are words from a college counselor. These two types of standardized tests scores are taken into consideration, but much to one's disbelief their acceptance does not rely strongly upon their test scores. It is believed that there is more to the individual than a number (the score). We should not dismiss the fact that there is still some sort of emphasis placed on these test scores, though, because in order for an individual to be considered their test score needs to be around the average SAT or ACT score that the school requires. Rest assured that colleges greatly take into consideration an individual’s grades throughout their four year high school career much more than they do for a test that was taken over a four hour time