Four hours of taking a test that will soon determine our future. This dreadful test is called ACT. This American College Test should not be able to determine our future. Interesting research on what the ACT can do to your head and how this test cannot accurately determine your success for college or even your future in general. If the ACT did not exist, many more people would have the confidence to apply to college and would believe in themselves more. It also does not correctly determine our future, instead we should be judged more on our grades, due to the stress that the test gives, and the ACT does indeed stress students out causing them to do poorly.
If one was told to name a single reason why we take the ACT/SAT, they would more than likely answer it determines how successful one will be in the future. Historically, the traditional predictors of student success in college, ACT/SAT and high school GPA, have been shown to account for only a modest amount of variance — 25 percent of a student's academic performance in college as reflected by their GPA (Jalynn G, Maulding, Roberts, Sparkman, Wanda S, 2012). If the ACT/SAT can only predict 25 percent of college success correctly, 75 percent of future college success will be predicted wrong. We take the ACT/SAT to determine how successful we will be going into college. In reality, we prepare our whole schooling life for this test. This test determines if you get into college or not. It does not accurately determine your success, so colleges should not base our admissions on the ACT. Recent research demonstrates that high school GPA and ACT scores are unrelated to prediction of college graduation (Jalynn G, Maulding, Roberts, Sparkman, Wanda S, 2012). If our ACT score cannot predict our future, let alone our college success, then what does this test even prove?
Many colleges will look at your ACT scores, if they’re not good enough they will not even bother to look at what else you have to offer. In the book, "Standardized Minds" by Peter Sacks, he says in the realm of higher education, I show how many colleges and universities have gone their own way by eliminating the commonly required standardized admissions tests, such as the SAT or ACT, without diminishing academic quality (Sacks, 2000). He discovered that this worked and the success rate of many graduates graduating college were high. More colleges and universities should start to eliminate the required standardized testing and start looking more at our grades and who we are as in individual and not what a timed test says about us. He then went on to say I argue that the nationals swoon over the “accountability” movement is wrong headed at best, and that true reform of our schools must include a revaluation in the way we measure children and in the very meaning of what school should be (Sacks, 2000). It’s relieving to know that adults understand what we go through and do not think we’re crazy teenagers who are just lazy. They understand that a four-hour test shouldn’t overrule the 13 years of schooling we go through. Plus all the late night studying, staying up all night for projects, and memorizing hundreds equations for tests. We’ve done these this for 13 years and it’s all to get good grades and a four hour test out rules all the hard work.
All my life, I was told junior year would be the most stressful year of my life. I never would have thought that the one day we took the ACT in school would make my whole year stressful. With all the studying for the test and the practice ACTs, I was beyond stressed. “When time was up, I felt sick to my stomach and handed in my test I knew I’d messed up (Amy and Shin Kang, 2009). No kid should ever feel sick to their stomach because of one test. If you are ever that stressed because of a test you know something's wrong. It’s not okay what this test can do. I’ve had friends who have had serious panic attacks over this test. This test brings teenagers so much stress just to go along with everything else they have to deal with being teenagers. Why should we put teenagers through this much stress when you could prevent it by simply taking away the test. I was sure my hard work in high school would pay off with a high score on ACT (Amy and Shin Kang, 2009). His high school career should have prepared him. He ended of not doing well on his first ACT. He later retook the ACT again to see if he could get a better score. I had taken class every day and felt like I was missing out on the entire summer (Amy and Shin Kang, 2009). It’s sad that he had to take a class and spend money to improve his score and waste his whole summer. We only get a little break between each school year and it shouldn’t be spent studying every single day for a four-hour test. Also you shouldn't have to spend money to take a class, high school should've prepared him and/or anybody for this text.
Most adults would argue with the fact that the ACT does not test our true intelligence. Adults would say that you have had 13 years of schooling to prepare for this test you should do great on it. What adults don’t see it the behind the scenes of the stressful high school students. Adults could also argue that if there was no ACT it would be harder for colleges to accept students. It’s an easy way to test thousands of kids around the United States of America.
