A major topic on high school students’ minds is the SAT, a standardised test used for university admissions in the United States amongst other countries. However, although they are currently strongly taken into consideration by admissions officers, I believe they are tests that should be left in the past for multiple reasons.
Reduces students to a set of numbers
In recent years, and at UWC especially, a great emphasis is placed on having a diverse skill set and being able to immerse yourself into a wide variety of activities. Although academics are important, maths and english, which is being tested, is not always at the forefront of every student’s interests or even career. However, the SATs put an unnecessary emphasis on this aspect, which increases stress levels and anxiety for those who wish to apply for majors that are unrelated to maths or writing and reading.
Such deep stress is placed to encourage greater creativity and unique talent. However, I feel as though this is lost when it comes to the SATs, as it is merely a number universities use to judge your ‘smartness’. Whereas your dedication and commitment as well as interests and talents should be used instead. This same thinking can be applied to IBs and iGCSEs, which when combined with SAT test scores places a skewed emphasis on academics, only one of our core five aspects of a holistic education.
Standardised testing discourages bilinguality
Currently, the SATs are not available to be taken in different languages, and foreign language speakers don’t get extra time. This goes against the values of our school to unite nations and communities, as those who take English as a second language are systematically disadvantaged. The testing does not value diversity, rather assumes that every group that takes the SAT is identical and therefore the same format should be used for each student. There is no regard for experiences, proficiency, backgrounds or even thinking styles.
Standardised tests don’t provide feedback on how to perform better
It is stressed that the purpose of tests is to gauge your level of understanding on the topics so that you can improve in the future. However, the SATs just give you your score on each section, and you don’t know where you could’ve improved for . So, retaking the test is almost equivalent to starting from square one. This doesn’t promote improvements, rather just benefits those who are intellectually at an advantage to start with.
Standardised testing favour those at a socio-economic advantage
Students from families earning more than $200,000 a year average a combined score of 1714, while students from families earning under $20,000 a year average a combined score of 1326 (CNBC). But why is this? Firstly, wealthier families can afford to pay to take the tests many times. Wealthier students also tend to go to more well-funded schools, and therefore their quality of education is higher, setting them up to perform better. They also have better access to tuition and resources to practise for the test.
Standardised tests do not mimic the real world
In the real world, there will be no time where we would have to sit down and choose an option for a maths question or read a passage and answer analysis questions regarding it. However, in our actual careers, closed book testing itself would not exist, especially in the form of multiple choice, like the SAT is. Instead, we would be able to communicate with peers to solve problems and identify solutions to real world issues. Therefore, they do not teach students real-life skills to tackle issues.
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