The SAT: a good college readiness measure?

The SAT is a 3-hour test that consists of Math and English parts, that colleges use to measure students’ readiness for college and compares the applicants by scoring them on a 200-to-800-point scale. The test has a Math section, which has a part with calculator and another with no calculator, and covers topics of Geometry, Algebra 1 and 2, Statistics, and more. The English section has a writing part and a reading part, and covers grammar, comprehension, and understanding of the passages provided. The highest score one can achieve on the test is 1,600, while the lowest is 400; according to a College Board report the average score in 2021 was 1,060. When taken into deep consideration this test might not really be a good representative of what one knows, and how ready one is to be in a college, because many factors in the test cause students to perform poorly. 

 The SAT is not a good measure of how much a student knows is because it causes great levels of anxiety among those who are taking the test before, during the process of, and after taking it. Megan Stubbendeck from ArborBridge said, “Test anxiety is a common phenomenon, especially among students taking the SAT and/or ACT. Because of the pressure placed on college admissions, it is easy to get stressed out during these exams.” According to Stubbendeck many students who take the SAT experience elevated levels of anxiety that can potentially lead one to score low or not as good as one expects. When one experiences anxiety and the stress that comes from it, the nervous system is affected, thus one’s memory can also be affected. If one’s memory is affected, it is hard to remember the things that have been learned and especially those which were learned in previous grades so one is prevented from truly showing one’s knowledge. Anxiety also prevents one from understanding and processing the information on the SAT, “I couldn’t focus at all with the English section. I read the passages and stuff, but I could not comprehend the information” says Camila, a senior at Wesley Chapel High School, who recently took the November SAT.
 

In addition, the SAT might be a poor measure of one’s college success because of the pressure put on students due to the limited amount of time to answer all the questions. For example, the Math section with no calculator gives students 25 minutes to answer 20 questions, which gives students around 50 seconds to answer each question, not even a minute. During those 50 seconds students must read and process the question, remember the formula to solve it (if necessary), answer the question, and finally check to see if the answer is right. For a lot of students, the answering process is complicated because they have a challenging time comprehending and processing the information provided or get distracted easily, among many other struggles. The struggles these students face hinder them from answering all questions correctly and cause them to guess on those questions they did not have time to answer. Because of all the pressure placed on students due to the limited time they are not able to show how intelligent they are and how much they know, and that is projected in their score. Colleges later see the low scores of highly intelligent students who were not able to show their full potential due to their time struggles and give decisions according to a score that does not represent the student accurately. 

 It can be argued that if the test’s time were prolongated and the material was accommodated to school’s curriculums a lot more students would receive higher scores, which would complicate colleges’ process to find those students which are in the highest percentiles of knowledge. Sara Matthews, an educator, puts it like this, “Colleges are so deluged with applications that they need a tool by which the initial pile can be quickly whittled down – SATs serve that purpose.”  In the context of Matthews explanation, the SAT might seem like a fair measure for colleges to accept or deny students, yet it loses its fairness once students’ anxiety, stress, and pressure that affect their test scores are taken into consideration. Many of the students who are in the high knowledge percentile do not score as high as they could because of the many factors that negatively affect their ability to perform correctly on the test.  

 Overall, the SAT is important for all students considering going to college and many factors make it an obstacle. The elevated levels of anxiety caused by the test are a real struggle for most of the students that are taking it, and its negative impact on one’s performance affects how colleges see students. The test’s time crunch is also a great factor that leads students to score low and not look as appealing as they could have in a more extended time. Though the SAT’s structure serves a specific purpose for the colleges’ admission process, after considering its negative factors it seems like to an extent it only benefits the admissions committee and not the applicants. After all, is it possible that all students can process, remember how to solve the problem (which could be something they learned years before), answer the question, and check their answer in a couple of seconds?