Essay on Is State Testing Important for College

Standardized Testing is a required test that plays an enormous role when deciding if a student gets into the college they applied for. The SAT is supposed to tell a college admissions board roughly what kind of student the applicant is by their test score. College is a big part of an individual’s life, a place where they learn the valuable skills they need to get a job therefore the SAT is a very crucial part of getting into a college and having a college look first at that score and decide if they should be denied automatically or looked at further is unethical. Teachers are now expected to teach by trying to prepare their students for the SAT instead of teaching them different skills in different subjects (Teachers Vote). Standardized testing should not determine the knowledge level a student is at because a student’s knowledge is only based on one test rather than their whole academic career.

The SAT does not show what a student is good at outside of the normal four subjects such as math, history, science, and English. A student deciding what major they want to go into takes into account what they like to do for a hobby or what interests them when making that decision, therefore they could exceptionally excel in their major but be turned down from a school because of their SAT score. In Elizbeth Rockett’s article, she goes on to explain why a student should be looked at for more than just an SAT score, such as the fact that students have more to them than just the basic subjects that are tested, students could excel in areas that may not show on a standardized test (Rockett). Take for example a student wanting to be a math teacher and excels in math but is terrible in English ultimately receiving an overall bad grade on the SAT is turned down by a college when she was based on a subject that she wouldn’t even teach or use in her future career that she is working towards. Rockett also mentions that turning down a student at the first site of their SAT score is turning a student away when they don’t even know the student they are rejecting, they could be rejecting a student that if they take a little more time to explore they would come to find the student would excel within that college (Rockett). Therefore, the SAT should not be so heavily weighted on the deciding factor because there are other things to an individual than a test score.

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The amount of pressure that the SAT puts on a student can affect their confidence while taking the test negatively. When a junior and senior in high school the pressure of taking the SAT is enormous, they are constantly reminded of the fact that a college application is incomplete without an SAT score. All year long students are expected to take regular in-class tests while trying to remember everything that has been taught to take a major test that they have no idea what could be on it. Even teachers are feeling the stress because they are teaching all year on what could potentially be on the SAT, parents are starting to see the amount of stress this particular test is putting on teachers and their children and even deciding to opt them out of taking the SAT (University Wire). Taking such a heavily weighted test knowing that the test score is the first thing a college looks at and makes that initial judgment is going to put a lot of stress on a student going into taking the test. The amount of time given on each section can bring on a lot of stress too, even though a student can have more time if needed the simple fact of having time can put stress on a student. “The ability to answer test questions quickly, she added, is itself” a skill—and it’s a skill that can be learned. But I think we tremendously overweight that skill.” Said Ruth Colker (Toppo).

The SAT does not measure the full amount of knowledge a student has that is thought to. This test has five sections, math, science, history, English, and language which yes all of these subjects a student should indeed be tested on but should not hold the entire weight of a student’s previous work throughout their time at school. Christina Perez explains in her article about the flaws of the SAT 1,2 and the ACT she explains that the SAT is meant to help a college predict how a student will do and how well they will handle the curriculum change from high school to college, but previous test scores and overall class grades would better predict that than one overall test score (Perez). A college admission only wants the best students they think will benefit and thrive at that school in their classes, which is completely understandable but while doing so the whole performance of a student should be looked at instead of one large test that determines if a student is worth to be looked at further. Every student is different all having different strengths and weaknesses academically and outside of school that could be useful in learning the skill type to perform a certain job. But students are all set on one plane field and are evaluated by their SAT score first, where a student’s strengths outside of school or maybe even just in a different subject than the five that they were tested on that are particular to the person are not taken into account which they are already at a disadvantage.

While there are many people against the SAT many people are for the test. Some believe there must simply be a cutoff point so a university can start eliminating the number of applicants faster. While it is probably very hard to turn down applicants, and the easiest way to get a good number of applicants out of the way is to put a cutoff point when dealing with someone getting into college or not having a cutoff point seems a little unpersonal and seeing everyone as the same person. When deciding if someone should get into that college or not it should be on a personal level and seeing every student as a different person and not just a 1000 SAT score or higher. James Piereson and Naomi Schaefer Riley when asked why the SAT is so important to colleges rely on “there’s a simple reason for this emphasis on testing: Policy makers and educators have effectively eliminated all the other ways of quantifying student performance.” (James Piereson and Naomi Schaefer). While there are so many applicants that apply to college every year and there needs to be some type of system that gets through the applicants quickly, a cutoff point of a test score just seems too unpersonal.

People often agree with the SAT helping other places in the application where the applicant is weak in regrading grades. The SAT is supposed to be a cumulative grade that colleges look at first, and while they do look at other grades such as the applicant’s GPA, grades, and other tests the grade that is weighted the heaviest is the SAT. However, the SAT is not the only thing colleges look at, and if there is a weakness in the grading aspect the SAT could indeed help the student out but it is hard to score a high enough grade where the college will overlook the other weaknesses. The SAT is required in the college application and again the most weighted.

The SAT should not determine the knowledge level a student is at, because one test does not sum up a student’s whole academic year. The SATs a student on only five subjects which are the main ones but when in college after a student chooses a major, they get out of the regular math, science, history, and English classes and into their major classes. Therefore, the SAT should not be a requirement or be so heavily weighted when it comes to accepting a student or rejecting a student. There is always so much more to a student than just their test scores and the SAT does not show that. There are plenty of other ways to be able to narrow down the application pool, which would probably take more time but a way where that is a little more personal than just a test score and seeing everyone on the same plan field then narrowing down the applicants.

Works Cited

1. Freeman, James. “Scalia for SCOTUS; Plus, Why the SAT Is so Important to Colleges.” Wall Street Journal (Online), Dow Jones & Company Inc, 31 Mar. 2016, p. n/a, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1776890445/.
2. Perez, Christina. 'Different Tests, Same Flaws: Examining the SAT I, SAT II, and ACT.' Journal of College Admission, no. 177, 2002, pp. 20. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cpcc.edu/docview/219160772?accountid=10008.
3. Rockett, Elizabeth. “Students Are More Than Their Test Scores: Standardized Tests Shouldn’t Weigh So Heavily.” University Wire, Uloop, Inc., 22 Apr. 2015, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1674870460/.
4. 'Teachers Vote Against Sats Tests.' Herald Express, May 01, 2010, pp. 14. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cpcc.edu/docview/230625267?accountid=10008.
5. Toppo, Greg. 'Support Builds for Making the SAT Untimed for Everyone.' Education Next, vol. 20, no. 1, 2020. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cpcc.edu/docview/2319155880?accountid=10008.
6. “VITALE: Standardized Testing Shouldn’t Determine a Student’s Career.” University Wire, Uloop, Inc., 9 Apr. 2015, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1672034063/.