After doing research on SAT’s and the importance of if they should even exist, I personally think they should be abolished completely. Colleges shouldn’t require it at all, let alone make it optional. Most students don’t see “optional” as truly optional. This can be another reason students feel the immense amount of pressure to perform as they see their future on the line. The admin that reviews college applications need to pay more attention to a student’s academic rigor, along with their extracurriculars. Having a balance between school, a job, and a social life is very important and beneficial for your future. Having the social skills for college will set you up for success, despite a single standardized test score.

It isn’t likely that these tests will be abolished completely, so a reasonable solution would be to remove the time restraint implemented on all the tests. If college advisors wanted to test a students academic level, they should let them work at their own pace and be given a school day length to complete it. This takes off one of the biggest causes of stress among students in high school. In my experience, the SAT wasn’t beneficial because I believe it doesn’t measure your aptitude for life, it measures your ability to master a set of questions.

In this podcast, Vince Kotchian and Blake Jensen talk about the new advancements with the SAT, post-Covid. The main difference with this SAT is that it is now digital and no longer on paper throughout the United States. When it comes to the ACT, Jensen states, “they have not announced any plans as far as switching to digital” (02:19-02:24). Going back on the SAT, this test is now an hour shorter. This could be due to the many complaints about the length of the test, but it does not change the fact that the test is still timed and will still submit automatically even if there are unanswered questions. “They are focusing on making the test section adaptive,” this meaning students can move through the sections at their own pace and not be held up by classmates (03:23-03:26). Although a lot of colleges are considering making SAT’s not required permanently, there is a percentage of schools making it mandatory post-Covid due to the adaptations being made by College Board.

Along with the timer causing stress to students, another reason colleges stopped requiring the SAT and ACT involve financial issues. In the video shown above, Rob from A+ Tutoring mentions how many academic professionals say the SAT tends to not be “academically useful” (01:17-01:23). He claims that due to the cost to sign up for these standardized tests, students who struggle financially are put at a disadvantage for something that is mainly out of their control. “To try to level the playing field”, some colleges have stopped requiring the essay at the end of the SAT to lower the cost (01:49-01:51). This has caused an emphasis on the personal essays and writing supplements that students are recommended to do in the application process.

Paper SAT Infographic

In this infographic shown above, it gives the baseline for the SAT test, and the recommended pace. I want to mainly focus on the section under “time per question”. One of the main complaints about the SAT from students is the pressure they feel being under a time constraint. I believe if colleges were to consider these standardized tests, they should get rid of the timer completely. Students won’t perform to their best ability if they feel pressured to answer all questions within 25 to 65 minutes, resulting in students having to guess on half the questions. The 5 and 10 minute breaks that are a part of the standardized tests wouldn’t be necessary if students were given the length of a school day to complete the test, and allow them to self-pace through all the sections. If colleges continue to require students to submit SAT scores, it should be one of the last components of a submission to look at. Academic rigor and how a student performs should always come first, along with the balance of extracurriculars.

My blog is focused mainly about the SAT and ACT, tests students hate. I wanted to make sure my blog page caught students and college advisors attention. To not scare this audience away, I chose to not use a black and white color scheme with a picture of a standardized test. I chose blue as the accent color along with a floral background to not solely focus on the standardized tests, and because blue is seen to represent freedom and inspiration.

If you think my design is cool, you should also see this one!

In this article, Eva Rothenberg focuses on the aspect of stress revolving around standardized testing in schools. There has always been speculation on whether or not standardized tests really show a students academic performance, but once dozens of the “most prestigious universities in the nation” started to suspend the requirement to submit a score, it shined a light on their importance (Rothenberg). Eva talks about how colleges shouldn’t rely on these scores due to them being unholistic. If a student is having an off-day and doesn’t perform to their best ability, they should not be denied from a college without looking at the full picture, focusing solely on academic rigor and overall performance. She wraps up the article by talking about new advances to help students testing ability and overall stress levels as well. This being the SAT School Day Program, allowing students to “take the test on a weekday rather than on a designated weekend at a potentially unfamiliar testing center” (Rothenberg). 

This article is great to use to help me move towards answering if SAT tests are really worth it. In the article it not only states an opinion on the author’s stance, but uses evidence and statistics to back up her point. I can use these numbers to help enhance my argument on why I believe these standardized tests should not be required or accepted at any colleges across the country. In my argument I wanted to focus on the negative impacts it has on students, and how one night of no sleep resulting in a poorly performed test should not impact your future. This article will help me get the right information to make a strong argument. 

Standardized testing and its effects on college admissions.

How do tests like SATs and ACTs put stress on students and should they even be a part of the admissions process?

Working Thesis: Most colleges stopped requiring the SAT test once Covid hit, these tests cause immense amounts of stress on students to perform as it decides their future, therefore, they should never have been counted in the first place.

Ever since Covid hit, the views on the significance of SAT or ACT tests have changed drastically. College admission advisors are noticing that students who submit high SAT scores, with a lower high school rigor, tend to struggle more in college compared to students who challenged themselves in high school but may not have the highest GPA. These scores not being required, would benefit the students who put in the work everyday, and don’t rely on a single test.