Students
Continue
to
Rebel
Against
SAT I and ACT
Special
Report
from
the
Creative Youth News Team
10/10/09
As more and more schools
discard the SAT I and ACT, students continue
to discover that the way to get a perfect score is to psych out the
test, something that can be done by students with no knowledge or
ability in math, English, reading, science, literature or any of the
other subjects one would expect to be tested on these exams.
The SAT I and ACT have never been knowledge, intelligence or
ability exams. All these exams have ever tested is whether the
students have learned the keys to cheat the test. Many courses
allow students to pay thousands of dollars to learn these keys.
All one needs to do is to note the direct correlation between income
level and test results to see that this is true.
The SAT subject tests and
APs differ in that these are knowledge tests
more representative of how well a candidate will do in
college. To get a 5 on an AP or an 800 on a SAT II requires
knowledge of the subject tested. For this reason, more and more
schools
are ignoring SAT I and ACT scores in favor of selecting candidates
based on their GPAs and their AP and SAT II.
Over 800 college and
universities in the United States have gone SAT I
and ACT optional. Now on the optional list are Alabama
State University, the California State Universities,
New York University, the
Ohio
State
Universities
and
many other universities and
colleges. A more complete list is at http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional
.
Ivy
League
Schools are considering going optional. In 2008, William
R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard's Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid
spoke of these exams as one day being optional at Harvard. The
word
from admissions officers elsewhere is that high quality students will
not be turned away, even if they fail to submit ACT and SAT I scores.
While there are lots of
reasons to enjoy high school's junior and senior year without
the headache of entrance exams that show nothing, there are more
reasons to say "no" to the SAT I. Employers are using SAT I
scores to determine hirablity. Forget confidentiality.
The College Board seems to think keeping something confidential means
sending the scores elsewhere. Otherwise, how are universities
basing recruiting decisions on leaked AP scores, which are also
supposed to be confidential? While learning to cheat the exam may
help one with a future job, a bad day or a computer error could end
their job chances. Students should be very sure they will
be receiving an 800 before taking a SAT I.
This is another win for
the National Youth Rights Association and for
our whole generation.