The number one most stressful thing as a High School student is the Scholastic Aptitude Test(SAT). Although a student may have worked hard all four years of their high school career, if their Scholastic Aptitude Test score is not high, it can determine whether or not they get into certain Universities. Is the test doing more harm than good emotionally? Why should a student with a high GPA and a low Scholastic Aptitude Test score be rejected from a University as opposed to a student who barely passes and has a high test score? Studies show that it does cause harm and those whose grades are not good but have a high score do not have success in college. As opposed to those who have higher GPA’s and mediocre test results are more successful. …show more content…
How? The amount of stress as well as making a student anxious, has caused permanent damage psychologically. When in search of a college, a student should not have to be stressed or even dreading it. The student should be excited to look for a college since it is a new step in their life. However, this is not the case. Thanks to the Scholastic Aptitude Test, students hate the thought of even applying to colleges.
Since the first year of high school, students are taught how to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test and are also told what they need to score in order to get into specific colleges. They are basically being told that if they score anything less than a 2,300, they will never see an Ivy League. They will simply go to a mediocre university or end up in a community college. Due to this traumatizing information from their teachers, students then go into a stressful mentality. Tests like the Scholastic Aptitude Test determine the future of a student when trying to get into
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The study was designed to calculate the success rate of students who turned in their SAT scores to Universities and students who did not because they applied to a school that had a “test-optional” admissions policy. The study was performed by William Hiss. Hiss is the Dean of Admissions at Bates College. During his studies, he realized there was barely a difference in the success rate of the two groups.
The problem here that we have with those who have worked so hard in contrast to those who have barely tried and gotten a good score is very big. Why should a student that has worked so hard for a high GPA to get into an Ivy League of their dreams not get accepted but the student that has performed poorly but achieved a high test score be chosen by that University? The United States currently has about 850 “test-optional” schools. According the findings in the study, as well as help from the facts proven in the study, the “test-optional” trend is slowly increasing as we
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 ...
Students and teachers both can have anxiety about testing. Teachers can be worried about the students’ performance on a test – a test that does not measure a student’s intelligence unless the student is good at taking tests. A student might be a gifted musician, artist, or athlete, but if they do not pass a standardized test, they are considered unfit for most colleges. Moreover, since the test is so important and they do not want to fail, students might be nervous while taking this test and because of this, they might not perform as well as they could. Also, a student’s self-esteem and self-worth can be lowered if they do not do well on a standardized test. This can be for two different reasons. One, a student might have thought they had done better on the test and the results could not be what they expected and they could feel like a failure. This can cause a student’s self-esteem to be lowered. Two, they might become worried about their future if they don’t receive a high score. There are many students who have the pressure of their family to do well and if they do not, they might become depressed. Even President Obama thought that standardized testing was not a good way to do things. Taken from an article written by Jonathan Glover (2016) of The
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.]"
Presumably, the most widely known of these measures has been the Scholastic Aptitude Test (now the SAT Reasoning Test, or SAT). Developed by the Educational Testing Service after World War II, the test in many ways was the big idea of James Bryant Conant. Adhering to democratic, classless society, Conant thought that such tests could identify the ability of individuals and ultimately help to equalize educational opportunities (Frontline, 1999). Unfortunately, many have argued that instead of fostering equality, the SATs have become an instrument to separate the social classes, and many in the testing movement were not as magnanimous as James Bryant Conant.
According to Robert Jackson in . “Retooling education: Testing and the Liberal Arts” Colleges who changed their admission by making the SAT optional have directed their aims into a more high school grade based admission. This solution is the only true measurement we have at the moment and it is a better measurement than the SAT states Robert Jackson. The writer also goes on to say scholastic aptitude should be abolished, as it has no true value or indicator of student’s ability. A more precise measurement based on four years of schoolwork is a pretty good indicator of student’s ability. It gives equal playing field for all students from their freshmen year in high school until their senior year in high school. Students have equal opportunities to perform giving them four years to accomplish good grades for college admissions. this method gives unprivileged students the opportunity to go to college who previously could not attend college because of SAT Prep cost. Also this method benefits college admissions by providing an indicator on how students will perform in college classes making it easy to admit or deny
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.
Another example of this phenomenon took place in Toledo, Ohio. Nathan Card, a graduate of the 2017 class of Ottawa Hills, received a 35 ACT, but was rejected by schools such as Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, and Cornell. All of these students met or exceeded the requirements for both of these schools yet they were somehow rejected even with high test scores. These are not the only students that have come across this issue, countless students across this Nation have experienced these similar issues. These tests can have a negative impact on students, as Columbia University recently stated that “Standardized testing evaluates a student’s performance on one particular day and does not take into account external factors.
These institutions believe that standardized testing should not be completely opt out as do play a factor along with GPA, extracurricular activities, recommendation, essay, and interview in the ability to determine a student’s success.
Getting into college requires students to make an assured grade on a standardized test called the American College Test. High school students begin in kindergarten preparing for tests; to make it to the next level you have to score a certain score. Pressure is forced upon many students when they begin sophomore year and begin to ponder the thoughts of college and life after high school. Once they have planned out their school, major, and work life after college, the school counselor plans a meeting to discuss the ACT. Students begin to be worried and anxious about grades and tests; all of these stressed students do not realize they have been passing test after test to score a good enough grade to get into college, where they will begin to take test after test to graduate college and even after college, these students will still be tested within their workforce.
Tests have been taken and the results are shown to be biased towards students from wealthy areas, most likely because they can afford more educational resources then students from poor areas. “The private test preparation market for the SAT and the ACT is a $2 billion-a-year industry in the U.S. “(Westervelt ,Eric ). Families living in suburban neighborhoods typically have a higher income than those living in urban neighborhoods, which enables them to have more resources. This is an unfair advantage because not every student is being set up for success.
As child growing up some of the frightful memories include a visit to the dentist; an evil man with scary drill whose solve purpose is to hurt you or the first day in elementary school you finally leave all behind the cozy classrooms and nap times of kindergarten and enter the big leagues. All of these are considered a cakewalk compared to standardize testing. Since the start of elementary school students in the United States are taught to test. In many instances students are held back or placed in remedial classes because of lower grades. But many don’t realize that some students are not great at testing taking and because of the lower grades some educators believe that these students are lower achievers. This leads to lower self-esteem and encourage students to drop out in later years. Also students are forced to memorize information merely as facts without sparking their creativity or enhancing their knowledge.
There is added pressure to schools to get better scores which adds pressure to the educators and the students. The added pressure can cause health problems with the students or the educators. If health problem come from the stress of the tests it could negatively affect the student’s ability to learn (Pros and Cons, 2013). The test itself is a problem as well. The test is supposed to be unbiased based on the grade level but in most cases the test is not. As much as they try...
In the early 1930s, James B. Conant, president of Harvard University, decided to develop a test for admissions, that was reliable way to measure student achievement without taking into consideration who the test taker was or what background they came from. According to Kevin Finneran, editor of Issues in Science & Technology, Conant believed that through administering the same test to all applicants for admission, factors such as family wealth, which private or elite academy the student may have attended, and any benefits their attendance would bring to the university would be removed from the decision making process. While his colleagues believe this would provide a real excuse for excluding those they did not particularly want entering Harvard, they were soon proved wrong as an increasing number of underprivileged students began scoring very high on tests and ultimately earning acceptance into the university.... ... middle of paper ... ...