SAT Scores Alone Should Not Predict College Success

There has been an SAT optional movement in which many liberal arts colleges in the US decided not to require SAT or ACT scores as they thought it had outlived its usefulness.

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.

How can it be that a student’s ACT score is more important than their GPA? Is it possible that a four-hour test can hold more weight than four years of high school grades? Would it not be great if students could get the same amount of money for a high GPA that they can get for a high ACT score? GPA can show hard work, strength, self-discipline, consistency, intelligence and personal accomplishments. Scholarships should not be awarded based primarily on ACT scores but on a student’s GPA. Scholarships should be awarded for keeping a high grade point average throughout high school. It is just as difficult or more to keep high grades throughout four years of high school as it is to go take four-hour test and achieve a high score.

Colleges have a plethora of ways to judge if a student is going to be successful in their establishment. Bryant University, Holy Cross, and the University of Texas at Austin represent a minute group of schools that have an optional SAT admission, with a thriving student population (Turner 1). These colleges focus on the application,

“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.

It is not easy for a student to know everything on the ACT or SAT. It takes years of dedication starting at a time which a lot students do not even know what the ACT or SAT is yet. Students who are struggling to study begin to memorize possible answers instead of learning the actual concepts and information. Too much cramming could lead to an information

Even though I have worked with high school and college age youth for the past 20 years, I have very little experience with the SAT and ACT. This may, in part, be due to the group of youth I have worked with, foster youth. There are many bright, driven and successful foster youth, but unfortunately, many of them have also had such an inconsistent high school experience that they aren’t even thinking about taking college entrance exams; they are just trying to make sure (hoping) they complete all the credits they need to graduate. Many of their lives are complicated by issues outside of school that interfere with making college plans. I applaud the test administrators for trying to make the tests available to all students and their encouragement of all students taking the exam, but some of the most vulnerable students are

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.

This is in fact not the case, there are an abundant number of alternatives to standardized assessments. Alternatives to determined how a school performs according to "Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students' Abilities" are "high school graduation rates and number of dropouts, enrollments in advanced placement and other college prep courses, college acceptance rate, and college remediation rates for recent high school graduates" (6). As previously mentioned by the research the Hampshire College performed there are also alternatives for accepting students into colleges that are not test scores. Some possible choices are essays and interviews, recommendations from mentors, and assess factors such as their community engagement and entrepreneurism. The main point is that these standardized tests can be replaced with better options of where to place schools and students on the overall

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

Colleges and universities such as Iowa State need ways to evaluate applying students which really show their potential as college students. A three hour-long test cannot reveal many traits of successful students. Qualities like good study habits, a positive self-concept, the ability to set goals, and real world knowledge are not shown in a test like the SAT (Fairness). Another problem with the SAT is that today so many preparation methods exist; the tests aren’t really a true showing of what a student knows. There are many companies who claim their product can be that miracle teacher that boosts a student’s score and get them into the college of their dreams. Should colleges really be base this large decision on knowledge that can be just "picked up" in four short weeks or an entire twelve-year education?

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.

Standardized tests decide who gets into college nowadays. Standardized tests have more emphasis now then do GPA, class rank, and the students achievements. If Colleges were to get rid of this requirement, many more students would apply. Colleges should not put a lot of stock in standardized testing because it does not evaluate true knowledge, the tests cannot predict college readiness, and students with test anxiety will not perform at their best.

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.

One of the biggest tests the students in high school need to face is the SAT. Although research states that “only 42% of the 1.7 million high school students who took the SAT in 2015 were determined to be “college ready”, it’s been proven that most students study consistently for the major exam (CNN.com). So why are so many kids not deemed college ready? I believe this is because schools make it seem as though the SAT is an extremely difficult test and therefore students get too overwhelmed. But with the new changes done to the test, kids should have a higher chance at doing much better than before.