Remember when you had to take all of those standardized tests in your K-12 education, in elementary school we had to take the ISATS (Illinois Standards Achievement Test) I never really understood why we needed to take them but that we spent two of those days taking them because they were "so important" but why were they important?
The ISAT retired after the 2013-2014 school year, but they still have the ACTS in high school we had to take them in my junior year of high school in order to graduate (which I never really understood why) just for colleges to see, but what if someone chooses not to go to college, what if someone is going to be going straight to work, what if they are joining the military, will they still need to take those tests.
I personally think that requiring everyone to take the test is ridiculous - unless you are going to law school or a fancy Ivy League it's not necessary.
Test scores do not determine how smart someone is, like there can be someone who has A's and B's in their classes, is really involved in activities, helps out, but yet they aren't good test takers. And yet certain colleges look at test scores rather than their grades and involvement.
Colleges should not be only looking at test scores to determine if they accept the student or not.
We need to stop putting so much pressure on kids to do well on these tests.
When I was in my junior year of high school, we didn't really read anything in English class the second semester because of ACT prep. Its personally a waste of time and prevents us from actually learning stuff that we want to learn.
I think it is time we abolish the required standardized testing and let colleges accept students based on their overall performance in school.
A little advice for everyone out there! Your scores do not define how smart you are, everyone learns in different ways I know I do. Never let anyone tell you that you are not smart enough to go to college and have a successful career. We are all smart and we don't need a test to tell you that.