The ACT and SAT are entrance exams used to make decisions by universities and colleges. Many citizens spend their teenage years in the United states preparing for the SAT and ACT. Nonetheless, these admission exams have been considered optional or completely unnecessary by more colleges and universities in recent years, often to encourage a more diverse applicant pool — and to remove unfair advantages.
The test scores standard for many Universities are starting to deter some potentially strong students from even applying. The SAT and ACT should be eliminated from use because the revenue gained from the exam helps monopolize the education industry, the test does not accurately and fairly test a student’s ability to perform, and the scores are the least important factors in college student selection.
A large amount of money is wasted on these tests each year by parents. The college testing industry is run by two nonprofits: the College Board, which develops the SAT, PSAT, and AP curriculum, and ACT Inc., which administers the test of the same name. And for decades, the two have been accused of abusing their nonprofit status by holding a monopoly on college testing and, thus, admission. Currently, it costs $47.50 to take the SAT ($64.50 with the Essay portion), and $22 for each of the SAT subject tests, not including the $26 registration fee.
The ACT costs $50.50 ($67 with the Writing portion), and for each test, there are extra costs for late registration. A March 2019 report from IBIS World valued the tutoring and test preparation industry at $1.1 billion, with exam prep services making up 25% of the industry. Exam prep services gained more than 275 million dollars just from exam preparation costs. With the average test prep class cost at $500.00, this means parents are wasting thousands of dollars just for their students to gain a statistical average of 40 points higher. The ACT and SAT are not worth the amount of money they cost to take and prepare for.
These assessments do not accurately or fairly test a student’s ability to perform. One study found that average SAT scores increase with every $20,000 in additional family income. Research has also consistently demonstrated that SAT and ACT scores are strongly related to the mother’s education degree and peer competition. Furthermore, this means the exams test does not test a student’s intelligence but their access to these resources and go head to head with their peers. These assessments are also gendered biased. The largest organization with sex on this SAT is seen in the mathematics area, where male students, typically, score higher than female students by around 30 points.
In 2013, the American College Testing committee issued a report saying that boys outperformed girls on the mathematics part of the exam. This makes the scores and outcome differences between males and females predictable which erases the staff’s capability of measuring a female’s ability to perform since her score will be typically lower than the males. This College commission maintains that this SAT is uncoachable and investigation by the College committee and the National organization of College entrance guidance indicates that tutoring classes lead at the average increase of about 20 points on the math section and 10 points on the verbal section. Different studies have shown significantly different outcomes.
A longitudinal survey from Ohio State indicated that taking individual SAT prep courses correlated with ratings higher by ~ 60 levels. A survey from the university demonstrated that coaching classes boosted ratings by an average of 56 points. In addition, because test prep is used, this means these assessments are very coachable and do not analyze a student’s ability to perform. The SAT and ACT do not fulfill their purpose of analyzing students.
The ACT and SAT are the least important factors when it comes to college admissions and student selection. There are substantial differences in funding, curricula, grading, and difficulty among United States secondary schools due to U. S. federalism, local control, and the prevalence of private, distance, and homeschooled students. SAT ( and ACT ) scores are intended to supplement the secondary school record and help admission officers put local data – such as coursework, grades, and class rank – from a national perspective. However, independent research has shown that high school GPA is better than the SAT at predicting college grades regardless of high school type or quality.
The non-public essay, a higher indication of who you’re than your ability to fill in bubbles over four hours. The writing suggests your personality, your capacity to express yourself, what you care about, and preferably what makes you protrude from the other heaps of applicants. Two students can have the same ACT/SAT score, however, no two students can have the same emotion and story in an essay. The SAT and ACT do not help you stand out thoroughly to colleges.
In conclusion, the SAT and ACT are a money scam used by the education industry, they do not properly analyze students or predict their college success, and the scores from these tests are the least important statistics in student selection. ACT and SAT testing has been under speculation for years now because they lack reliability, perfectly consistent administration, and content validity. After a tremendous amount of research both tests are considered by many colleges an invalid assessment. These tests should be banned from use so students can focus on other factors such as GPA, grades, and extracurricular activities.
