Standardizing isn’t always a bad thing. Take, for example, standardized testing.
Testing obviously is not the most fun activity known to man. I know that waking up early on a Saturday morning to take a multiple-hour-long test isn’t high on anybody’s list of things to do, but I would prefer that if it means more of an equal opportunity for students applying to colleges.
It’s no secret that different school systems educate differently. We at WS are frequently reminded of the great quality education we are getting in Fairfax County, and taught that other students across the nation are not getting as thorough of an education as we are.
Therefore, an A in another county may not mean nearly as much as an A in Fairfax County. Where people may work just as hard in other places, it is simply a fact that in some school systems, good grades are harder to come by, especially when the curriculum is more in-depth and detailed.
Enter the SAT. This standardized test serves as an equalizer for students living in various areas who are subjected to various different qualities of education. Since everyone takes essentially the exact same test, it provides a very good, objective indicator of whose skills are superior. SAT scores reflect purely factual results: students either got the questions right, or didn’t. There’s no guesswork of whether teachers gave out certain grades unfairly, or if the difficulty of the same class was different in different school systems, or other such worries of college admissions offices. The SAT puts everyone on the same scale and lets them be measured fairly against each other.
Naturally, there are complaints against the system. The SATs stress students out, and some demographics apparently score lower, and some people are just naturally not good test takers.
The SAT is stressful. Scores are a major cause of worry amongst students. But so is every other factor that may affect admissions, like GPA, number of leadership positions, etc. Admissions are going to be stressful regardless of how much the SAT impacts them.
The demographic disconnect isn’t truly about demographics: the SAT favors students who read more and whose parents have taken an interest in their education, not those of a specific race or gender.
As for those who are not good test takers, that is what the rest of the college application is for. That’s the reason they ask you your test scores and your GPA and your extracurriculars and so much more: they want to know your best facets, and these can, to a certain point, buffer out low test scores if need be.
The point is that for a majority of students, the SAT actually increases their chances of admission into the college of their choice since otherwise students with all A’s from lower-quality schools would edge out students from Fairfax County with a C or two.
Schools like to emphasize how they look for well-rounded students, not just at the numbers. The SAT isn’t a deciding factor, just one of many that colleges take into consideration in the admissions process. In that case, I say why not just take it and move on with your life? It won’t make or break you if you’re a well-rounded applicant with good grades and good essays.
The SAT gets a bad rap because nobody likes testing. Nobody ever stops to think about how it actually helps the students of Fairfax County get the edge they deserve.
