What Is The Effectiveness Of Academic Performance?

Not only can ACT score make or break your admission but it also impact the amount of scholarship being received. According to Peterson’s staff on its website perterson.com states, “Test scores are just one of a number of factors that are taken into account when you apply to college. That being said, schools wouldn 't ask to see them if they didn 't matter. Put some time into getting ready because they will have an impact on the admissions decision”! With looking at standardized test score colleges can not see how well rounded the student is so they must look at other aspects. Another major area that is critical to college applications is an individual’s grade point average (G.P.A.). A G.P.A. is number representing an average of the accumulated grades an individual acquires over time. A G.P.A let’s colleges know that the student was or was not committed to their school work. It also shows the challenging classes and how well a student performed in the harder classes. Not only do college care about academics they also want to make sure individuals maintain a balance of academics and extracurricular activities. Colleges think that it is important that students show they can focus on multiple things at once and help the college add more diverse groups and clubs to its campus. College look at so many college applications a year they must set a guideline to what makes people automatically accepted and what disqualifies

A lot of colleges and Universities believe the score of a student’s SAT and ACT will help them make better

The ACT is the only fair way to compare students from all across the country that come from different educational backgrounds. The ACT shows how you rank among other students, however, if you are a bad test taker, this will not be an accurate ranking. The ACT is the single most important thing that colleges look at before giving acceptance, but why is that, when studies have shown that GPA is a better indicator of how successful students can be in college?

One of the main reasons colleges use a student’s standardized test scores is to determine how ready they are for college and how they will perform in their freshman year (“Do Standardized Test” par 10). However, in reality these standardized tests do not properly predict a student’s first year college performance. Throughout the years, multiple studies have shown that a student’s GPA is a much more accurate representation of their future performance in college than their standardized test results. One of these studies for example, states that “The ACT regularly underestimates the abilities of females, who earn higher grades than males in college, despite lower ACT scores.” (“The ACT: Biased” par 10)

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.

Since 2001, studies performed by the Princeton Review “show persistent… race bias in both the SAT and the ACT… The SAT favors white males, who tend to score better than all other groups, except Asian American males” (Zwick). Across the US, race bias is being displayed by the SAT and ACT tests. The SAT tends to cater to white males, while minorities and women are left with lower schools. Herman Aguinis along with being a professor at George Washington University and a chairman in The Kelley School of Business is also a researcher and professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. Aguinis and his colleagues took a closer look at approximately 1,368 SAT takers who enroll in college annually. Their result show that 221,697 students attend colleges where a bias toward men and women based on the math component of the SAT is present (Unfair Bias in Standardized Tests?). Minorities and women are most likely not to submit test scores when given the option (Straws). Rebecca Zwick, professor in the Department of Education at the Gevirtz School states that “A 1994 College Board study found that there were on average, under predictions [of College GPAs] for Asian American students (and to a lesser extent white students) and over predictions for American Indian, black, and hispanic students” (Zwick). Predictions of college success for minority groups, such as Asian, American Indian, black, and Hispanic students, are unreliable. SAT scores were predicting higher or lower college GPAs than what was actually being acquired by these minority groups. The NACAC report of the commission on the use of standardized tests in undergraduate admission express concern that admissions test scores “calcify differences based on class, race/ethnicity, and parental educational attainment” (Rizzo). This prejudice towards minorities

                Our school system has taught us that we should be good at test taking, answering multiple questions, and how to write essays. For a lot of students during their high school career SAT or ACT was a really important part in their life. Many students rely on their test scores

“The research shows that compared to the national standardized tests, the SAT and ACT, a high school GPA is much better at predicting a student's cumulative GPA in college and a student's chances at completing college,” says Wendy Lecker, journalist of Stamford Advocate. She agrees that standardized tests should not determine a student’s future based on how well they scored. Because of this, some colleges have even started making the tests optional to

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”).

In an interview with Purdue undergraduate Devin Wolfe, he expressed several beliefs and personal findings about the use of standardized tests in indicating college readiness. One such belief is the notion that these modern tests, such as the SAT and ACT, cannot accurately assess a student’s readiness for the challenges of college life and should therefore not be used to dictate college admittance. As Wolfe described the situation, he believes that there is no “reasonable way to universally indicate college success,” meaning that no exam should be able to determine the academic capabilities and endurance that a person will put forth while in college (Wolfe). If a student’s abilities are seen simply as numbers, according to Wolfe, this would overlook any unique qualities and characteristics that cannot be shown by any sort of standardized

Asian-Americans must score 140 points higher on their SATs than white students, 270 points higher than a Hispanic student, and 450 points higher than a black student. One study measured the considerable difference in SAT and ACT scores within highly-selective universities and examined what factors allow certain low-scoring people to get into these colleges. Findings reveal that it is equally likely that a black student who scored 27 on the ACT and a white student who scored 30.8 would get accepted. By contrast, they found that an Asian scoring 27 on the ACT would have as much chance of acceptance as a black student who scored 23.6.

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

Although the ACT tests for college readiness, it mainly shows a student’s knowledge. When a college receives the ACT score they only see what the student knows, not what they have participated in or accomplished in high school. It is an important trait to be smart in school, but it is equally important to be involved as well. The standardized test is effective because it

Most people think that the SAT shows college readiness but does it really? Why SAT scores are meaningless: because the words

The SAT was originally devised to test a person's aptitude or underlying biological potential. Many colleges use that score to predict how the student will do their first year. However, not everyone agrees that the SAT can predict a student’s future success. Psychologist such as Claude Steele have found that the test only measures about eighteen percent of what it takes for a person to do well in school. Studies have also found that the SAT is a bad predictor of freshman year grades as it either over predict or under predicts them to a certain extend. Instead GPA is a better measure of future success. Many people also believe that too much importance has been put on these