4.0, 36, 1600, 3.5, 24, 900. Numbers. Two, sometimes, four-digit combinations that claim the capability of measuring intelligence and college readiness. The college admissions process is a stressful time for high schoolers everywhere. Instead of being their own self, high schoolers are forced to fit this mold of “intelligence”. Every person is unique in who they are. Some person’s strengths might be another person’s weaknesses. Trying to fit every college applicant into this mold ends up benefiting few, while discouraging many. Colleges use the test scores from the SAT and ACT to judge whether or not the applicant will be academically successful in their institution. Realistically, there must be a college admissions process. However, the focus must be geared away from what the applicants are missing, but rather what the applicants are bringing to the table. Not only is the reliance on a set of numbers an outdated, inadequate, and an unreliable way of measuring how prepared a student is for college, but it does not provide all students an equal opportunity to succeed.
The SAT and ACT are flawed in the sense that they do not equally evaluate the complexity of the mind. Each mind works differently, therefore classifying one person "smart" based on one test and another person "dumb" is not a fair system. For example, I have always been a mediocre test taker. Constantly being compared to the success of my older siblings, I always felt defeated when I did not beat my siblings test scores. I was determined to earn that golden score. I was ready to prove everyone wrong and prove myself. I woke up every Saturday morning at 7:00am to participate in one-on-one tutoring sessions. Test after test, my scores stayed the same. I was so frustrated that my hard work was not shown in my test scores, simply because I was not a good test taker. This feeling always made me feel inferior to those who tested better than me. In my own head I knew I was smart, but the test scores to prove my "intelligence" were not up to par. What I realized is that these test scores don't know me. They fail to recognize my creativity, hard work, and curiosity. These standardized tests fail to recognize that there are unquantifiable traits that mean more than just numbers. The fact that colleges believe that these tests accurately depict whether or not a student will be successful in their university is absolutely ridiculous. In order to attempt to predict collegiate success, one must take into account work ethic, self-discipline, and determination. All of which are unable to be measured through college entrance exams.
There has to be a better way to equally evaluate students besides the SAT and ACT. Colleges should rather focus more on the applicants cumulative grade point average which is earned over a 4 year time span, instead of one test score.
