Utilization Of Standardized Tests Essay

With college admissions relying so highly on these tests many bright and capable students are getting left with little options (Sternberg 7). These students are facing this because the ACT and SAT primary focus on a narrow segment of skills that are needed to become a person that makes significant differences to the world (Sternberg 7). College’s argue that the admission test give them a quick glimpse of what the students potential is because they do not have to time to individually evaluate each potential student. This may be true but we need a better way to distinguish a person’s abilities than just a simple score on a test.

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.

Each year high school students from around the country take the SAT or ACT. The ACT and SAT are both standardized test used by colleges to determine the knowledge of a student and predict what their performance will be in their first year of college. An immense amount of pressure is put on student to receive certain scores in order to obtain scholarships and admission into college. Even just one point on a student’s score can determine if they will be accepted into their dream college. However, the results from standardized tests, such as the ACT and SAT, are often inaccurate. Because of this one’s knowledge and academic ability are misrepresented, and they are denied certain opportunities. Standardized tests such as the ACT and the SAT

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 many years, standardized tests have been a pillar of college admissions. Students are persuaded to take the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or the American College Test (ACT) because colleges believe the scores can predict an applicant’s academic success after high school. However, an increasing number of colleges have made reporting test scores optional due to inconsistencies with the tests, many of which have been emphasized by students. These inconsistencies and other problems with test distribution have led to increasing demands for standardized testing to be reformed or become optional in the admissions process. Standardized testing should be eliminated as a criterion for college applicants because the tests have made education less significant, have made scores vary among students with similar academic abilities, and have not contributed a noticeable improvement to children’s intelligence.

In 2011, Jen Wang was finishing up her freshman year at Connecticut College. As a young girl growing up in New Jersey, Jen took her first SAT when she was in the sixth grade, long before other students her age would even start to think about college. Jen said that test preparations for standardized tests, like the SAT, took up most of her free time that could have been used to do other things (Billy). The SAT’s early intent was to open doors of higher education to students without traditional credentials, but now this test is held at high esteem, the biggest indicator of college success (Mulugetta). Although standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT are used to “level the playing field” for students across the country, these tests add little

Many know the stressful feeling of having to take the ACT. The exam room fills slowly with worried faces and remains quiet until the test stars. Students grasp their pencils tightly, their palms sweating with the thought of their future at stake with this single test. In order to get into any college, an ACT or SAT score is required. These required scores for admission vary from school to school which can make it difficult for every student to attend their dream school. A single test will determine who can and cannot attend a certain college. With this system, it can deny students with potential in certain fields a place in a college because they might not test well. College admission should not be based on

Colleges can consider high school GPA as the alternative for test scores. Almost all of the schools during admission completely overlook high school GPA. William C. Hiss, a principal investigator of Defining promise, declares “High school grades matter, and they matter a lot” (Maitre, par.2). It is not fair for many students like Ms. Casimir, a sophomore attending Wake Forest University, who scored 1580 in SAT. This was “an embarrassment” as she graduated high school “with a 4.0” (Simon, par.10). Her dreams to go to “Cornell” and “Davidson” was shattered but yet she was admitted by the “Wake Forest University which gave her full ride without seeing her SAT score and she has 3.2 GPA now” (Simon, par.10). It’s not a miracle as diligence and

Schools should eliminate standardized tests. Standardized testing has many negative effects on the student body. Some of these effects are very noticeable and apparent, and some are not. Standardized testing causes negative things such as stress and anxiety(Too Much Stress). Testing like this is also not reliable 100% of the time(Standardized Tests Don’t Prove Anything). Tests also limit the imagination, creativity, and the way a student learns(11 Problems With Testing).

The average high school student takes at least one standardized test each school year. Standardized tests are all scored the same way and test takers are given the same questions. The scores students receive play a big part in whether or not they will be accepted to the colleges they apply to. Standardized test scores are one of the most important things colleges look for when reviewing applications. Standardized tests could be successful, in theory. However, they have shown to be less accurate than hoped, to cause copious amounts of stress, and to have little to no correspondence with productive adult lives. Because of their ineffectiveness, colleges should place less importance in them when admitting new students.

High school students across the United States stand by their mailboxes, waiting anxiously for the envelope containing the score that will seal their academic fate. College admission hinges on how well students perform in standardized testing. However, standardized testing has long-standing problems of bias, inaccuracy, coachability, and misuse. Because of these flaws, the college admission process places too much value on standardized test scores, such as the ACT and SAT, and are therefore insufficient predictors of a student’s potential and future success.

Firstly, a child’s future should not be based on one score. Colleges today, especially the more prestigious ones, highly stress the need for good scores on tests like the ACT or SAT. This puts more pressure on our students. It basically lets them know that if they do not do well on a test, then they can’t go to a good college and their future won’t be as successful as those who do well on that test. We tell our

In the United States, striving for perfection and a great education for the students becomes a necessity. With all the other pressures found in society, high expectations of a standard education among students prevail, specifically hindering the chances of getting accepted into the dream college. Nowadays, most colleges use the grades from multiple standardized tests, such as the SAT’s or ACT’s, as a way to evaluate an individual's knowledge against other students. Although usually mandatory, standardized tests overwhelm students with distressing outcomes, rather than beneficial effects, creating a standard system of unreliable measurements of a student’s performance and unfair discrimination against the non English speaking or students with

Standardized tests are one of major steps that helps students get admitted to college. For more than 50 years in the United States, standardized testing has been a “scourge to student life” and pressured students to do their best. Questions that are designed for standardized tests are based on finding an individual’s aptitude to determine how they can solve problems in the real world. With lurking opinions of whether standardized testing should continue to be enforced or abolished, standardized testing has made an impact to students around the country by setting an educational background.

Forty hours… that’s almost two entire days. That is about the total amount of time a student uses to take standardized tests. On top of that, the amount of total time taken to study for those forty hours of exams is unimaginable, not to mention the amount of stress and pressure students have on them to do well. Standardized tests are extreme in many cases, and should be stopped.