Opinion: The SAT is not an effective way in showing students knowledge
PHOTO April Carr
April 12, 2022
Junior year— one of the most stressful years of high school— is a year full of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. Now add on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and numerous other standardized tests that students dread taking.
Oftentimes students that perform well on the SAT have a tutor they see regularly— which comes with a lot of money poured into it. According to Magoosh, “…preparing for it is quite a time-consuming and expensive commitment.” Many students may not be able to afford a tutor and although the school has offered numerous review days, a great score is hard to obtain without an outside tutor. This results in students being unprepared and overwhelmed regarding this major test.
According to U.S News, “Standardized tests like the SAT were never intended to measure the complexities of intelligence, and over time they have drawn the center of gravity in college admissions away from things we value.” The SAT has become more of a test based on test repetition rather than just a raw score, meaning that students often take it more than once with the goal of increasing their score. Numerous students take the SAT more than once to achieve a better score, which racks up a lot in costs.
Clubs students are involved in, letters of recommendation, a student’s desires, grade point average and the classes they are taking are much better resources for important decisions, rather than the SAT. Each person has layers to them— strengths, weaknesses and more— that can be seen more easily through these other avenues rather than the SAT.
University of California, Los Angeles student Hilary Phan conducted a study showing that 40-60 percent of students struggle with severe test anxiety which affects students’ well-being and their ability to perform well on tests, proving that students should not be defined based on one test score.
Overall, the SAT is an ineffective way of measuring students’ knowledge and is just an added anxiety to an already stressful school year.
