One test determines if you’re qualified. One test can make or break a scholarship. One test is able to measure everything you’ve learned throughout your entire school experience.
Can one test really do that?
Standardized tests like the ACT, SAT, PSAT were built to help colleges measure a student's readiness for higher education. Standardized testing though has turned into a complete game. Thirty years ago, it was expected of high schoolers to take standardized tests, but for college admissions, only one test, one time. Today, it is expected and assumed students will take multiple forms of these standardized tests multiple times to predict which schools they’ll be able to attend.
We all have been through these tests. We have stressed over them. Many people study, months in advance, to master these tests. A majority of the students could probably score better if they study for the ACT or SAT, but the reality is, nobody should really need to study for these kinds of tests because they’re supposed to test for what I know and have actually learned, not if I know how to take a standardized test.
I personally hate standardized tests. I struggle with them. I’m good in school; I have good grades. But put a fast-paced, time constrained test in front of me and my brain freaks out. I’m not the only one, so many of my friends and peers feel the same way, working hard in class only to receive an adequate score on a test. Tests like the ACT don’t give time to think or process. Can’t remember how to solve this probability problem in less than 30 seconds? Oh well, this student must just not know how to do that. This chart? Can’t read all the directions and details in two minutes? That sucks. The ACT is actually testing how well a student can take a time-constrained test in four subject areas. It doesn’t care that in school, a student might have to put in extra effort and time to succeed in any of those courses. It is just trying to show if a student can process anything, fast.
Standardized testing has become a business. The actually College Board offers prep books and online tutoring. Kaplan, Barron, and other similar programs will guarantee a score raise for students who study with them. If my teachers taught me right in high school, what more is there to study for?
As AP scores are being released, I hear the excitement some get of receiving better scores than they thought were possible, while simultaneously listening to the sigh of others whose extra study time and effort ended up with a mediocre score. I know people who receive A’s in the class, but get a 2 out of 5 on the test, while others have troubles sticking with the class, but end up scoring higher than anyone.
Many of these standardized tests involve pure luck. It is unfair to base in one single test a student’s efforts, skills, and knowledge. There is no way to ensure a good score on any standardized test, no matter how prepared or how knowledgeable the student may be in that subject. The difference between any scale score on the ACT, is just one, sometimes two questions. The person who scored a 28 on the reading section, answered just two more questions accurately than the person who received a 26. Those two questions, could have totally been the rushed bubbling in of a random A, B, C, or D. But one student still gets a better score, out of pure chance.
Some colleges have come to realize the absurdity of these tests, and refuse to consider the score. But the majority still require some form of standardized testing for admissions.
Do we really need to put ourselves under all this stress? Is anything really accomplished from these tests? After struggling for years to get through these tests and knowing there are probably more to come, I have come to realize there is much more to learning than that final score. What I learn and all my experiences throughout the process are what actually matter.
