SAT/ACT are Useless The SAT and ACT are the two main tests that students are taking for their entry into college. Should the SAT and ACT count for admissions into college? Personally, I don’t think they should. These two tests can kill someone’s dreams of going to the college they’ve been wanting since they were little. The SAT and ACT are unfair, racist, and they don’t really show anything except how fast someone can work under pressure. The SAT and ACT shouldn’t be requirements for college admissions because they don’t give a true meaning of what someone really knows. The SAT and ACT are not fair tests to show what someone knows. Making someone take a test in a certain amount of time is not showing what someone really knows. Some students …show more content…
“When it comes to bias in the SAT, the higher the income, the higher the score, an unacceptable trend in a test that boasts equality for all high school students.” (Chan) These students with “rich” parents can afford to hire tutors to make sure that they make the best score they possibly can. Students that can’t afford this, should have help as well. It’s not fair for someone to get more help than someone just because there parents have higher incomes than they do. Students can also purchase books to help them prepare for the tests, but not all students can afford these books. High schools should offer every student a book for free if they want every student to make the best they possibly can. Many colleges are now turning to test optional or not requiring the SAT and ACT. Some colleges are also requiring essays instead. I believe that grade point average or class rank is more important on letting someone into college. A lot of colleges are turning towards looking at grade point averages and class ranks instead of SAT and ACT scores. “Over 815 four-year colleges and universities across the U.S., acting on the belief that "test scores do not equal merit." (FairTest) Colleges are also starting to look at the types of classes that students took and that will be a way of
In the article, Gregory Mantsio reveals a chart based on the test results of 1,465,744 SAT takers in the year of 2006. The chart given, displays the amount of the family income and how it affects the scores of those who had taken the SAT. The facts given, indicates that the more money the family has, income that the family receives, the higher the scores are. For example, if you had a job or career that allowed you to be able to bring in more than $100,000, then your child is more likely to receive a median score of approximately 1,100. But the question is, how can this be so? One reason is quite simple: The children born into a higher class has much more access to educational resources, are exposed to vocabulary and spoken language in their early childhood, and experience less stress than those who are in a lower class. Which in the long run, gives the children in the higher class a better chance when it comes to succeeding in life. Compared to those in a lower class whose scores are below the approximated amount of 1,100 due to their family
Students should not have to take a test just to enter in to college because students are more than a test score, they are people too. Why are students compared with a test score that – more often than not - does not reflect their academic ability? These tests are biased because people write the questions and, therefore, they can make the question wordy and choose which ones to omit (Pollard). These test do not measure a person’s intelligence; rather, their test taking ability. As proof, the ACT science portion of the test do not pertain to science knowledge at all; rather, it ...
Since this test has been devised, the number one question everybody is asking is, “ isn’t it unfair to base a student’s entire future on one test, when he or she simply could have had a bad day when taking the test”? The president Kirk T. Schroder of the Virginia Board of Education, answer this question by saying, “First of all, these tests are untimed, so no student is under arbitrary time pressure in taking the test.
Kat Cohen, the college admissions counselor regarded earlier, once stated, “Today, there are more than 900 test-optional schools — schools that place less, or no, emphasis on test scores when evaluating college applications” (Cohen par. 15). Basically what Cohen is implying is that test-optional schools are on the rise. Valerie Strauss, a reporter for The Washington Post, stated in article that, “With almost 123,000 students at 33 widely differing institutions, the differences between submitters and non-submitters are five one-hundredths of a GPA point, and six-tenths of one percent in graduation rates. By any standard, these are trivial differences” (Strauss par. 3). What Strauss is saying is that the differences in GPA between those who choose to submit their test scores with those who choose not to is very small, which can as well be applied to their graduate
... a tedious process, but the change can have immense, positive effects for the future college student. The ACT and SAT that supposedly measure a student's learning potential through multiple-choice questions should be replaced by a test of a student's desire to learn determined through the analysis of essays, recommendation letters, and school or community involvement. This change can result in a more academically motivated freshman class. Standardized testing in its current form does not accurately measure most students' learning potential. It does not allow for diversity and creates a huge hurdle for many potential academic achievers. An adjustment to a diverse, open testing format of the ACT or SAT and a stress on the student's other academic accomplishments can accurately measure the student's desire to learn, therefore measuring the student's learning potential.
A study conducted by Charles Rooney a member of the National Center for Fair and Open testing states that, "[More than 275 colleges and universities across the United States, acting on the belief that "test scores do not equal merit," do not use the SAT or the ACT to make admissions decisions about some part or all of their freshmen.]"
The SAT's have sometimes been the deciding factor when determining a student's admission to a certain college, but recently colleges have stopped regarding SAT scores as the most important factor, and in some cases, colleges are now not even requiring applicants to submit their scores. This change in significance of the SAT's is due to recent controversy over the fairness of the test. According to Fair Test (2001) three hundred and eighty-eight schools do not require applicants to submit their SAT scores, and hundreds more do not place much emphasis on the scores. Because of the recent controversy and the number of schools not looking at or de-emphasizing the SAT's, the College Board, (the company in charge of designing, administering, and grading the test), has decided to make several changes to the format of the SAT's (which was just revised in 1994). These changes will take effect in the year 2005.
However, in March 2014, College Board announced that the SAT will be redesigned in 2016. The College Board describes this change as “expanding its outreach to low income students and shifting from testing abstract-reasoning skills to evidence based reading, writing and mathematical skills acquired in high school.” Some believe that this is a positive change in higher education. Randolf Arguelles, conversely, is not one of them. As the title of his article suggests, in “The New SAT Will Widen the Education Gap; Everyone Who Takes the Test is Measured against the Same Yardstick. That 's Not True of High School Grades," Arguelles writes that “the new SAT will widen, not narrow, the education gap in the United States.” He explains that with the old SAT, what was important was if you had a strong vocabulary, could make inferences, and apply math concepts, not whether you had excellent teachers or not throughout the years. I agree. Although the new test is being designed in hopes of reliving tension by eliminating costly test preparation and focusing on concepts that should be learned over the course of high school, that may not be the case. The key phrase in the last sentence is “should be learned.” Teaching styles and learning styles vary all throughout the world; they often clash among
Mr. Caperton who is the current president of the College Board who officiates the SAT states the SAT provides tools for college admissions to compare student (Caperton). The Ex-Governor of West Virginia also suggests that the test does not discriminate against minorities, he argues that colleges who make the SAT optional do it to enhance their status and not in the best interest of the students (Caperton). Alternative solutions exist. The test is going to have a major reform starting in 2016. Article from USA Today by Zoroya discusses the changes the test will have starting in the spring of 2016. According to the article by Zoroya officials from college board announced specific changes such as the test will become harder but questions will be more direct and practical, shortened duration of the test. The major change will be the change of high score from 2400 to 1600. I disagree with those who argue the SAT provides an equal playing field for all. There are studies that show the correlation between high SAT scores and high-income student. This date shows the inequality the SAT brings. Therefore all colleges should make the test as optional. I realize that the SAT gives students with bad grades the opportunity to attend good college with great SAT
"Former Bates College Dean of Admissions, William Hiss, said that intelligence is so complex, varied, and multifaceted that “no standardized testing system can be expected to capture it”(Westlund). Throughout the years standardized testing has changed its purpose and not for the better. In the late 1930s, the goal of taking standardized test was to award scholarships to "diamond in the rough" students (Westlund). Currently, the whole idea of taking the SAT or ACT is getting admitted into a college. Standardized test should not be a deciding factor of being admitted into a college.
Standardized tests are biased to certain students whether it is race, or even how much money the parent(s) earn. According to Standardized Testing and Its Victims by Alfie Kohn, the tests are a lot easier for children coming from richer communities like Dublin for example, then Cleveland where funding is scarce (Kohn, 2000). It is not just a rich and poor battle it also is a battle with students and regional or language barriers. According to Uyen Zimmerman, my former math instructor from Dublin Coffman, explained English as a second language students interpret asked questions phrased strangely to them differently than a student whose primary language is English. For example, she said there was a question on the ACT that asked a question about folding pizza and an ESL student thought that it meant putting pizza into a folder. Another example is asking students about black ice when students in states such as Hawaii and Louisiana, have never seen or heard of black ice (Zimmerman, 2014). I agree with her completely. All standardized tests are playing with what the creators of the test think is a “standard” and testing all students across America with the exact same questions.
Almost every person who has graduated from high school has taken the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), which is generally used for college admissions. We all remember the stress of taking a test that could affect our future educational plans. Now due to the “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001, this kind of test is now being administered to children from the 3rd to 8th grades as a way to determine if the school or teachers are educating them properly. High-stakes standardized tests of this nature should not be used to determine the educational abilities of either schools or the teachers.
Thousands of students around the country and around the world will be preparing for the SAT and ACT tests while trying to maintain a high GPA. These tests will potentially have a significant impact on students' lives. Some will be taking these tests for the second or even third time to get that 1500 out of 1600 or that 33 out of 36, that they long desire. These flawed tests are not truly able to measure how well students will perform in college as they are supposedly used to predict. A single test that students have to wake up for at six, seven in the morning on a Saturday and travel to some random location to take a difficult test should not impact the student's chance of getting into college, let alone predict how well they will do in college.
Why is standardized testing part of the college admission process? Some of us might still remember taking the SAT or ACT when we were applying for college; however few of us question why we have to take such a test. Millions of dollars are spent on prep materials all so we can achieve a decent score and hope colleges will be impressed. The College Board claims a high SAT or ACT score correlates to college success which is defined as a good GPA throughout college. However if you stop and ask yourself what the SAT or ACT has to do with college success, most of us will arrive at the conclusion that these tests have almost have nothing to do with college success. Some of the questions are simply on these tests are simply ridiculous and will never
...for everybody, especially black people. Therefore, this can decrease an enrollment of black people in taking the SAT, and the SAT will seem biased. Third, the SAT scores can be incorrect (happened in October 2005), which means that the other tests, whose the scores are never incorrect, are better than the SAT. And the last, the SAT scores do not show people's futures. People can be successful even though they score low on their SATs. All in all, universities and colleges should not use the SAT to make a selection for their incoming students; they need another test which is fair for everybody. They also need to look at students' GPAs because GPA shows how well the students have done in high school. In other words, they also need to look at students' GPAs because students have done much more time and many more tests for their GPAs than they have done for their SATs.