Standardized Test Takers

Standardized testing has been ruling over the lives of students, making or breaking them in their education without fair judgement. Tests like the SAT and the ACT count for way too much when applying to colleges, which in turn limits the student 's capabilities to thrive in an environment that would benefit them. There are many problems within a standardized test that deems them to be unreliable as a true test of knowledge. Although designed to test groups of students on intelligence, standardized testing neglects to fairly acknowledge the abilities of each unique student which reflect their true capabilities.

Imagine a test capable of making or breaking a student's chances of getting into his or her dream college. Imagine a test score that can be easily influenced, but only through thousands of dollars worth of coaching. Now imagine that same test but biased towards certain crowds of students while also being incapable of accurately predicting their futures. Is this the test you want for colleges to use in order to distinguish students? This is the SAT—famous for the unnecessary pressure it presents to students as well as the unfair disadvantages it presents to many others. Since these SAT scores are extremely artificial, SAT tests are not an accurate predictor for future success.

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.

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.

“‘Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid’”(Baskerville). This is a quote that is theorized to have been said by Albert Einstein and can easily be applied to standardized testing in our schooling system. Although some think that standardized testing is the best way to measure students intelligence levels, research suggests that it is ineffective due to factors such as not testing over all subjects, changing how schools teach, discrimination, and the mindset that it creates, therefore colleges should not use them in their admission process.

This causes an endless cycle of stress between studying for one test, waiting for scores, and then studying for the next test. Not only are these hard working students stressed because of standardized testing, but their teachers are too. These teachers spend valuable class time drilling the basic fundamentals involved with standardized testing into their students, because they are necessary for success on standardized tests. However, the fundamentals can only help so much on these tests, and the rest of the work is up to the student. Teachers are often then evaluated based on their students’ performances, causing them to be stressed.

However, just because the test is popular and widely used doesn’t indicate that it is a valid predictor of college success (Atkinson). The excessive utilization of standardized tests in no manner implies or suggests a higher accomplishment. The essentials of this debate are easily comprehensible: Standardized tests are not a high-quality predictor of college success.

Does it seem fair to judge students on a test that cannot be studied for? Every year students are forced to take the dreaded SAT test to strengthen their college resume`. Those who do well stand out to colleges, but those with average or below average scores have a tougher time getting accepted by colleges. Doing bad on an SAT test can be so demoralizing for a person especially if they are hard-working. One may not realize it at first, but this test is very significant to our futures. It determines what college we want to get into, the type of education we will get, and how our resume` will look for jobs in the future; it is all a domino effect. This is why it is unfair for colleges to base the bulk of their acceptance rate

In recent years Florida’s standardized testing program has taken a turn for the worst. After doing away with the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) the debate has only grown due to flood of new tests being created such as the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) or End of Course Exam (EOC). These tests are administered to test students’ abilities at the end of the school year. In spring of 2015, with only two months of testing between the EOC’s and the FSA, Florida’s legislature implemented the FSA. The main reason the testing was delayed was because the new tests had to be administered on a computer, so that scores could be calculated faster. Though most of the recent issues make it seem that testing is useless, there are still positives. Administering these tests allows the state to measure the level of improvement in the education students are receiving and it keeps the teachers adhering to the curriculum plan. The positive and negative points about testing bring up the question: Should standardized testing in Florida be eliminated or changed?

Tests should not determine if you’re smart enough or capable of doing something. For example the SAT and ACT are tests that determine what university you’re capable of getting into. Most students don’t do well in tests but are very intelligent that means they’re book smart. Standardized testing affects the future of many people, for example if they’re smart and have a 4.0 gpa but get less than 1000 in the SAT, that means the student won’t get into a great

Education is saturated with standardized testing. Standardized testing is throughout your whole educational career, starting with the MAP test and ending with an ACT or SAT test. The curriculum in the classroom is molded to fit test taken by each student while teachers teach to the test. According to Council of Great City Schools, “as of 2016, the average student in America takes a staggering 112 mandatory standardized tests before graduating high school.” Standardized testing is defined as same test student take under similar conditions with criteria for multiple choice or short answer questions. College are examining on test score to decide student’s future in education. “Unfortunately we cannot accept you due to your lack of testing ability” is the last thing any college student wants to hear. High School students, who already have responsible for choosing a college, a career, and focussing on school work, have to focus on one more thing that should not even be factored to college, standardized test like the ACT or SAT. If you score high enough on the MAP test, you have opportunities to achieve in advanced classes in future classes that could help for college. If

I sometimes do somewhat okay on standardized tests because I almost never prepare for the tests but whenever I do prepare for it I feel like I did really good because I study what we did the entire semester or school year. I consider myself an okay test taker because I rarely study for them but sometimes I do, I know that's not going to be a good thing in college or for the rest of high school. I used to be an excellent test taker in middle school and elementary school but I just think that I've been slugging off in high school and I haven't completed all of my work so whenever we have tests I never know what the answers are so I almost always fail them. I mostly always forget about tests, so the night before every test I'm unaware that there

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.

Colleges don’t seem to see it that way though all they see is numbers. They look at your ACT/SAT score and your GPA and make a judgement about you based on some numbers. Junior year is the year of the ACT and I took my first ACT going totally blind into like it was some simple math test that everyone gets an A on. Big mistake, because after taking that test it was clear that I should start applying to work at McDonalds for the rest of my life. See my problem is that the ACT could not be the hardest test ever if maybe we were taught how to take this test. From grade 2 we have been taking this test so why do most people still suck at them, are we just stupid? Well, maybe some people are, but I think if teachers actually enforced the importance of those four hour tests we take then maybe we could be scoring a little higher. Honestly I don't know why you wouldn’t want to enforce standardized test. If we teach kids at a young age how to take this test, then we can have kids, be successful on this test and then they can go to big colleges and waste their parent’s money. I think that's a win win for

Standardized tests are annoying little things that students in schools all across the nation have to take every year. Though, if all the facts are taken into consideration, they do not really seem worth it, do they? Many people speculate whether or not they are actually measuring a student’s intelligence or anything like that. It seems that students do not necessarily have to learn the material, only memorize it for a short period of time. The question has to be raised, though-- what exactly qualifies a test to be a standardized test? Well, as described by The Glossary of Education Reform, there are two main things that make a test standardized. The first being that the test “...requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or