As college students at the University of Michigan, we all have taken SAT high school. SAT, an abbreviation of Scholastic Assessment Test, is a standardized test widely requested and considered for college admissions in the United States, most prestigious universities are included. My SAT journey started in my junior year with a mandatory PSAT exam. I clearly remembered how badly I was crying on the phone with my parents when I only scored a 120 out of 240. The score on the sheet of my exam, according to my counselor, indicated that I was doing poorly on critical thinking and grammatical questions. Then, a memorable experience of my high school Journey started. Attending SAT prep classes, doing practice exams, memorizing Barron’s 3500-word list, …show more content…
Without the numerous prep classes I attended and many similar practice exams I did, I may never have scored 2200 on my SAT exam. This claim indirectly indicates that it is the testing skills I learned from the prep classes, rather than the improvement of my critical and analytical abilities, which improves my score. Then if I did not improve that much through my preparation for SAT, why should I spend countless hours practicing? Why shouldn’t I spend those hours on doing community service, extracurricular activities, or even schoolwork? Does having 2200 on SAT mean that I have outweighed those students with a lower score? Does higher SAT score forebodes students’ flourishment or success in college campus? All of these questions raise doubts upon standardized college entrance exams but have surprisingly received response and support from nowadays’ college applicants and scholars. In reflection, this sounded inspirational experience of mine is revealing and contemplative of today’s education philosophy. While it is well acknowledged that standardized tests like SAT or Act can be served as indicators of students’ critical thinking skills and analytical abilities, I observe that overemphasizing the importance of standardized exams, which is a popular trend for America’s college application, not only undermines the students’ comprehensive development but also hampers the Universities from choosing the well-fitted students that will flourish on
A scholarly journal written by an anonymous author sheds light on the importance of standardized testing by showing its efficiency in higher level education. This article provides a solid counterargument for the use of standardized tests which is standardized tests being a good source of predicting grades throughout college as well as whether students will stay long enough to graduate. It is also able to establish that the SAT is effective in forecasting a grade-point average through the fourth year as well as predicting students study habits. The
... 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.
Today students go to school from K-12 earning their education and take a standardized test during their junior or senior years (sometimes sophomore year). The SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and other standardized test are used by colleges across the world to determine if a student is ready for college. As a result, there are some individuals that disagree with the use of standardized testi...
So, using these long multiple choice exams are what college’s consider to be a reflection of a student’s grades during their first year at college. The test maker itself explains that grade point averages during high school paint a better picture than their tests ("The ACT: Biased, Inaccurate, and Misused" 1). College’s use these standardized tests as a quick measure of ability. However, a test cannot explo...
At the University of California-Berkeley (Cal State), the minimum SAT score requirements for student-athletes were vastly below the average of regular incoming freshman. It is clear that in all three SAT categories, the scores were a 200 points below the incoming freshman class. Colleges in the United States are not focu...
Today, in the United States, standardized tests are administered every year by states to their Kindergarten-12th grade public school students. Different states place different weight on their standardized testing results where some states differ their funding based on results and annual improvement, whereas other states allow schools to simply gauge where their students are scoring relative to other schools in the state. These tests, however, are only standardized within one state. One of the few tests standardized throughout the entire country is the SAT, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, administered by College Board and required by, “More than 800 of the nation’s colleges and universities,” (Comras, 1984). This test will be the standardized test focused on in this paper. While standardized testing is that, standardized, and enables the comparison of one student to another, the meaning of the score does not equate to a test of intelligence. Therefore, while standardized testing should be applied in the education system, it needs to be more indicative of the material learned in school and should hold less weight than it currently does in the college admissions process.
Since elementary school, students have been sharpening their No. 2 pencils, preparing to fill in the bubbles on their standardized tests. To younger children, these tests aren’t a very big deal. But little do they know that the tests they take in elementary school are practice for the biggest test they will take in their lives. This test is the ACT, or the SAT. These tests are a huge deal. Students’ results on these tests could change their plans for the future, and that’s a lot of pressure. So are these tests really all that they are made out to be? Are they really that important enough to stress about so much? Many people have started to say that standardized tests are hurting American schools, and that they put too much pressure on students.
Have you ever wondered how some athletes have gotten so good at a certain sport? Have you ever thought about what they did in order for them to get this good? For some the answer is simple; workout and train. But for others the answer is different; the use of performance enhancing drugs such as steroids. There are some people that argue that steroids should be legalized and allowed in professional sports. Other people argue that steroids should not be allowed. Today I am going to state my opinion and justify my reason. Steroids should not be allowed in professional sports because it can be very dangerous to the athlete’s health, it is a way to gain and un-fair advantage and it can be dangerous in both social and physical aspects.
Rejection. A word that I despise; and is something that has happened to me so many times in so many different ways. One of those ways was being rejected from one of my many college choices because my SAT scores did not reach their requirements. “Why apply?” you may ask, although my SAT scores did not meet their requirements, everything else on my application was perfect. I had great grades in high school, I volunteered many times; both inside and outside of school, I always helped around in my school administration whenever help was needed, and I always dedicated a month of my summer just to help my school give out the school books to students and sell the school uniforms. Doing all those things and being rejected made me feel like I was nothing; like what I did in my school life was all a waste. After taking all of those things into consideration, I still got rejected because of my SAT scores; which is why I genuinely believe that colleges should admit students using criteria other than their SAT scores.
Colleges use the SAT and ACT aptitude tests to determine a student. These two tests should not be used to determine how good a person is, but other requirements, such as overall high-school GPA and extra-curricular activities, should do so. Because of the weight of these tests on college admittance and scholarship, many students study hard and prepare for a long time to take these tests. This drags the students away from their academic progress and removes any of their remaining free time. Because these tests are placed in such a way that intense preparation is required for succeeding in this test, students from underprivileged families have a difficulty to access prep courses to do well on the exams. Therefore, the SAT and ACT exam scores should not be considered as a criteria for college admissions.
Today, I’m going to discuss why the ACT and SAT exams should no longer be used to evaluate a student’s readiness for college and why they should be abolished from all their purposes.
I should receive a passing grade in this class because I can write now. Not just an exaggeration, but after another semester of English I finally feel confident that can write. Three of the reasons behind my confidence is I learned, I experienced and best of all I repeated. These three values helped prepare me for what is in store in English 1302 and here is why.
Roe v. Wade: the Supreme Court case legalizing a woman's right to choose abortion has been around our entire lives. In 27 years, memories of back alley clinics have faded - the past is past, right? Wrong. It's too soon to start taking reproductive freedoms for granted. The next president will appoint two or three Supreme Court justices, potentially changing the Court's position on this pivotal case. George W. Bush supports the Republican call for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortions; do you think he, if elected, would appoint pro-choice justices? And why is it that while the majority of Americans support choice, the majority of Congress votes anti-choice? Are we supposed to just stand by and watch as the government tries to legislate our bodies?
Based on the Programme for International Student Assessment’s 2012 results (PISA), the United States has ranked 30th in comparison to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) participating countries. The United States, a country that has once held the ideal for educational standards, has now ranked just slightly above other countries that are just being developed. By using high-stakes test statistics to drive America’s educational standards, classrooms are beginning to lose their meaning of helping students to learn and grow as individuals. Because of classrooms just teaching the test are beginning to lose the meaning of helping students to learn and grow as individuals, results of high stakes testing which can be affected by the minutest details, are not a reasonable way to judge overall student competency; a better alternative would be by performance based assessments. “Test developers are obliged to create a series of one-size-fits-all assessments. But, as most of us know from attempting to wear one-size-fits-all garments, sometimes one size really can’t fit all.” (Popham, James W.). High stakes tests are not a reasonable way to judge overall student competency because educators can not expect to have accurate and precise results in just one sitting for 12 years of learning. Although tests pose an important role in education, they should not be given such high stakes of determining if a student should be rejected from a college “based solely on the fact that their score wasn’t high enough” (Stake, Robert.).
The measuring of raw intelligence with tests continues in all areas of education. One of the most famous examples is the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT. The SAT, which analyzes a student's mathematic and grammatical abilities as well as reading comprehension and vocabulary, is used by nearly every college in America to help determine whether a student is qualified to enter that institution. Because it is assumed that the SAT can predict future achievement, certain scores could automatically dictate whether a student was in or out of a prospective program. The SAT program is a wonderful tool to be used to gauge a students aptitude, but it seems that colleges are solely basing acceptance on those criteria. What is a student to think when the first hurdle he or she must jump is a required 1300 score on the SAT to enter into any particular higher institution of learning? That this is the one and only hurdle and you mind as well not even start the race because you don't have the right shoes.