When my college councilor walked in
to my advisory today to meet us, she immediately brought up standardized
testing. She told us that she thought there was no point in going to a test
like the ACT or SAT unprepared and that most New Trier students participate it
some sort of tutoring for these tests.
This didn’t come as some big surprise to me because many parents want to
do whatever they can to give their children a leg up in getting into college,
including trying to boost their test scores. But does that put the students who
can’t afford tutoring for standardized testing at a disadvantage?
For the ACT and SAT, the same test
is administered nation wide on the same day so that it is fair and equal for
all the students taking the test. However, all students are not going in on an
equal playing ground if some students have been given the opportunity to
prepare for the test when others have not.
I completely agree. Although it is said that these standardized tests give colleges a fair and reasonable account of your strengths and weakness, there are inaccuracies. One being the fact that some can afford tutoring, either one-on-one or with classes, that can help prepare and better understand the structure of the exam, while others simply cannot afford this advantage. They are forced to take the test with little to no preparation. To me, this shows that the belief that these tests give an accurate representation of your abilities is almost false. It's unfair to these who cannot afford these luxuries and aren't entering the best score they could have achieved, while others do.
ReplyDeleteThis is a super popular topic that I'm glad is being blogged about, #H8theACT
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and many of our classmates that those who can afford tutoring will receive higher scores than those who do not, however, I also believe that colleges are looking at how students are doing compared to other students at their school. For example, when I go onto Naviance, I can see the ACT scores that I supposably need to get into certain colleges, and these scores tare significantly higher than what my friend at a CPA school needs to get into a certain college. This is because I'm not just competing against the nation on the ACT, but primarily within our own school. So I think the ACT (as much as I hate it) is more fair than we give it credit for because every school has different scores that are considered it's "top scores", and this is what weighs into the college acceptance process.
I agree that many students at New Trier have an unfair advantage on these standardized tests. I also think this says something about American society and the divides in America. We claim that the U.S. is a place where "all men are created equal". Yet, in this example we can see especially education and college is not equal for many American students. Are Americans really equal?
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