Standardized Testing: The SAT and the ACT Essay

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.

It also serves as a way for colleges to determine if a student is qualified to be admitted to the school. This test is a multiple-choice test that covers four areas: Math, Reading, English, and Science.

In classrooms all across America, students sit perched over their desks in the process of taking standardized tests. As the students take the tests, teachers pace nervously up and down the rows of their classroom, hoping and praying that their students can recall the information which they have presented. Some children sit relaxed at their desks, calmly filling in the bubbles and answering essay questions. These children are well prepared and equipped to handle their tests. Other children, however, sit hunched over their desks, pondering over questions, trying to guess an answer. They struggle to recall information that has been covered many times in class, but they can’t.

High School juniors and seniors are frequently asked what they plan to do for their college education. While discussing their future in college, many relevant topics come into the conversation. One may talk about their grades and classes, paying for school, and their test scores. All of these have a very important impact on what a student will do for the next few years of their life. Unfortunately, in our society, test scores are an extremely important factor in the college admissions process. Students are highly encouraged to put forth a serious effort in order to achieve the best possible score. “To this day, most four-year colleges require applicants to take one or more of a number of standardized tests for admission, and

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

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

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

The College Board and ACT nonprofit organizations, known for developing and administering the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) assessment respectively, represents higher education’s widely accepted college readiness determinant for prospective students. These examinations empirically measure a student’s grasp of reading, writing, and mathematics – subjects taught every day in high school classrooms. As a result, they typically constitute a significant proportion of the total entrance requirements for prospective students to relevant institutions of higher learning and denote a serious endeavor unto itself. Students commonly take one or both of these examinations during their junior or senior year of high school as dictated by an institution’s administrative guidelines, although most colleges now allow either test as part of their proprietary admission formulas. And since it turns out there exists subtle differences in the tests themselves, students should review research concluding certain individuals may be better candidates for maximizing performance on one examination versus another.

Based on the first school of thought, scholars argue that racial inequality plays a significant role in the SAT. Many scholars expand on the idea that SAT testing limits racial diversity and builds a racial gap. (Brookings) Among many studies, Saul Geiser found that the most influential factor in account to testing variation is based on race. According to his findings, he has determined that “race has now become more influential than either family income or parental education as a determinant of test performance”. (Geiser, 2015) Other scholars state that although the SAT scores can predict student success in higher education institutions, the SAT score also reflects racial inequalities. (Shaw, 2015). Initially, the need for standardized 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.

When asked why institutions rely on test scores from the SAT or ACT as a part of the admission process, they provide two answers (The ACT). First, the exams provide a common measuring tool when evaluating students. However, the exams do not show skills and character traits that are key to success, such as creativity, collaboration, and self-discipline. Moreover, the four sections tested on the ACT may not be applicable for a student’s higher education aspirations or career goals; for example, a lawyer will most likely never have to use trigonometry. Secondly, due to the high variance of the quality of secondary education, individuals argue the extreme difficulty it is for admission officers to judge the level or rigor of high school curriculum by examining a student’s transcript (The ACT). Though GPA is not a standard measure across schools, admission officers can understand how to value a GPA from a certain school because they have access to annual school reports about class size, GPA distribution, courses offered, etc. (Page). Therefore, a lack of standardized testing scores would not leave admission officers with insufficient information about the

Like the SAT, the ACT is also a standardized test that is used for college admissions. Before 1959, the SAT used to be the only standardized test that could be taken nationally. The ACT is labeled as the alternative to the SAT since 1959 and is defined as the “assessment of college readiness, “a curriculum and standards-based educational and career planning tool that assesses students’ academic readiness for college.” Everett Franklin Lindquist, an education professor at the University of Iowa, created the ACT to compete with the

When students are applying for college there are certain criteria that they must meet. At the top of the list of requirements are the scores for the students standardized test, these tests being the ACT and or the SAT. Each college has different requirements for the results on these tests. The way that the students perform on said tests have an enormous affect on their chances of getting into the school they want. All students excel in their own way, whether that be in a creative way or in an intellectual way. For the students who perform in a creative way there abilities are not tested in these standardized tests. The ACT and the SAT measure the knowledge that students have retained through their high school careers. However this means that

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”).

What’s your ACT score? Students are branded with their ACT and SAT scores in society. Today’s education is heavily leaning on standardized tests. An average students takes over one hundred standardized tests in his or her school years. Standardized tests are used to measure and test the knowledge of students in a particular subject in a quick and easy way. These tests are also used to see the extend and skill of students for qualifications of certain colleges and scholarships. Some of these standardized tests include the ACT and the SAT. But do these test fully measure the strength of knowledge these students have practiced for their whole lives? Standardized testing does not allow students to fully and completely show their strength in education and instead results in breaking down students mentally and physically.