Standardized+Tests+Rule+the+College+World

Walking into the towering, austere halls of Jesuit High School-- after getting lost on South Claiborne-- Rachel was anything but prepared to take the SAT that summer Saturday morning.

Half an hour before the test was scheduled to begin, students lined the walls, flipping flashcards and rummaging through papers, all reviewing the hundreds of new, obscure vocabulary words they learned from Princeton Review, Alex Gershanik or Ricky Rosenberg. Quixotic. Flip. Inequity. Flip. Fallacious. Flip.

Eight o’clock. The test begins. Thirty people, from Bane to Borat, are confined to one small room, cluttered together by desks and book bags and calculators and number two pencils. The proctor is old and bald and spends the first twenty minutes spouting out obvious directions. There is nothing like spending the entire morning bubbling in R A C H E L.

Standardized Aptitude Test. This is what the SAT does not stand for. In fact it doesn’t stand for anything because it doesn’t measure anything, aside from your level of stress, or if you are Rachel, your level of anxiety.

“Going into the test I psyched myself out the first time at Jesuit because I get claustrophobic and self-conscious, especially in that room with all those strangers,” said Upper School Student Body President Rachel.

Rachel, who has taken the SAT twice now decided against the ACT not only because she’d “rather not get bogged down with too many tests,” but also because her parents, like many other concerned parents across the country, have spent a lot of money on private tutors and summer courses like Alex Gershanik’s infamous three-week work load, which includes learning at least fifty vocabulary words a week. And, sadly, let’s not neglect math.

In the first few weeks of school Rachel, and many other seniors, balanced AP European history tests, physics homework, executive committee, applying to colleges and studying for the SATs, a task that amounted to about ninety hours in itself. It is this drive and not one’s performance on the SATs that will help one succeed in college.

Universities and colleges preach about being diverse and accepting, but “as long as standardized tests are a major part of the college process, it limits this diversity,” said Upper School Head Kim Wargo. “Standardized tests were supposed to test how much potential a student has, but when you make the test so achievement oriented (you can be taught how to take the test) then what it is really testing is how much can you afford to study for the test ( both time and money).”

“The kid with opportunities is the one that’s more likely to get into a good college,” said Rachel.

Standardized tests, however, are not only stressful and unfair, but they also, according to college counselor Jessica Henricksen, “offer an easy, at a glance way to say yes or no to students applying to large universities.”

In this respect, despite the prejudice of the test, it is necessary. It’s the only system we have.

Ms. Henricksen, however, does challenge “really large universities to devise some way to more closely examine transcript in lieu of standardized testing… Four hours on a Saturday,” argues Henricksen, “does not adequately measure a students’ work ethic, value system, organizational skills, creativity or civic concern…”

So sit down. Process of elimination, ten minutes left, three hours to go, choose answer C and try to ignore the leaf blower outside the window. It’s only your ticket to Harvard.