Do colleges put too much stock in standardized test scores?
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With the current times and the amount of pressure put on students to go to college and to receive a degree, the competition is as high as ever. Also adding to this heated competition are the process of standardized tests, where these scores mostly decide which school’s you will and will not get into.
There are students who are great during the school year and in class, but have no ability to take a standardized test. Where as you have someone who is not traditionally a good student during the school year, but is brilliant when it comes to taking standardized tests.
Which type of student are you in this regard?
Do colleges put too much stock in standardized test scores?
Definitely. I do think that it is a good way for colleges to tell the intellect of the student, but they use it too heavily.
Standardization is the only way for colleges to effectively judge student aptitude, as grading procedures, and curriculum can vary so greatly from one school/state to another.
Without standardized tests, this variation would only become greater.
Unfortunately no standard will be ideal for all (I was one of them, I struggled on the SATs and ended up taking them twice just to boost my score) but the good far outweighs the bad.
Also the tests are constantly being studied and adjusted for improvement.
I don’t believe so. There has to be a system that filters out the applicants. Getting an A in one school might just as well be an F in another school. All schools teach differently and this is the only way the schools can filter through them all, with a standardized test to see where you rank.
Standardized testing is a much fairer grading standard than GPA. When it comes to GPA, the same course could have two completely teachers. Student A could get a 3.8 GPA because she had an easy teacher who gave a significant amount of extra credit, while Student B, who could be much smarter than Student A, could get a 2.5 GPA because she had a teacher who gives out twice the amount of work and grades harshly.
To do well on a standardized test, a good knowledge of basic math, basic reading comprehension, and basic grammar mechanics are necessary, which all students who aspire to go to college should have.
Maybe the SAT does not test things like social skills or astuteness, but there is already a test for things like that: life.