When Will People Learn to Boycott the SAT?
Published March 16, 2005
"It's really stressful, because my whole life is the SAT."
So said Dylan Ottman of Massachusetts, after arriving to take the SAT last Saturday morning, only to find that it had been postponed because of a snowstorm.
I'd like to give some advice to young Dylan: chill out, stop studying, and go have some fun between now and the make-up date. And when that day arrives, do your best but don't stress about it. The rest of your life doesn't really hinge on that stupid test, despite what the adults are saying. Sure, every point might count at your school of choice, but a rejection letter wouldn't signal the end of the world. Plenty of schools eagerly accept, if not recruit, solid students who merely "underperformed" on the SAT.
In fact, more than 400 colleges and universities, including my alma mater, either don't require the SAT at all or use it only under special circumstances, such as for placement or academic advising, for out-of-state applicants, when minimum GPA or class rank is not met, or for special programs. Go to one of those and save some teenage angst for life's bigger issues, such as how long Brittany's [second] marriage will last.
How stupid is the SAT, you ask? Witness the following essay question, which test-takers had a whopping 25 minutes to answer. On the spot. With no prior knowledge of the topic.
Does creativity have a role in the contemporary world?
It's a groaner, isn't it, exactly the kind of essay question you dreaded when you were in school? Dreading a question: not a good way to start a 4-hour test that you're convinced will make or break your future.
Let's review what's wrong with it:
- The question begs a short response: Who cares?
- Pop-quiz essay questions must easily relate to the average high school student's life — if there even is such a thing, which is a whole 'nuther can of worms. This question does not easily appeal to common experience, in part because it's based on an abstract, pseudo-intellectual concept. Pop-quiz essay questions must be concrete so that students can quickly focus, generate a thesis, and defend it with specific examples. Half the battle in writing is knowing what you want to say. The other half is saying it with confidence. How many h.s. students know what they want to say about creativity in the modern world? How confident do you think those essays will sound? Not very. Ask a fuzzy question, get fuzzy answers.
- The question doesn't even reflect a real-world application of students' skills. Real college students are asked to write timed essays [as on History tests] about topics they've been studying, not random topics that they may know nothing about. They're not asked to muse on the spot for a high-stakes test. How can the answers to this question predict success in college, as the SAT claims to do, when the question doesn't reflect a common college assignment?
- 25 minutes is not a lot of time for a pop-quiz essay question, especially on a high stakes test. Writing takes time, and good writing takes a lot of time. On the current test, I'd say students must start jotting notes immediately and then start drafting with least 15 minutes left. How many kids do you think were able to jump out of the gates on this topic?
- When Will People Learn to Boycott the SAT?
- Published: March 16, 2005
- Type:
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Education
- Writer: bhw
- bhw's BC Writer page
- bhw's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
I couldn't agree more. It's the same argument I make against the transition our nation's classrooms are currently making toward "test teaching" instead of more creative teaching.
I don't know what's going to happen in 20 years when creative thinking is missing from the workforce because of the insane amount of importance placed on standardized tests.
Lisa, you're exactly right. Colleges and unversities have said exactly what you said: that high school records are much better predictors of college success than the SAT ever was.
Also, a couple of the articles I linked to talk about the big business of SAT prep, as well as how it's so expensive that underprivileged kids have no chance of taking a class. So we have another gap in opportunity based on socio-economic status. The 'haves' get test preparation, the 'have nots' don't.
From the Business Week article: "Test prep and tutoring services in the U.S. took in an estimated $702 million in 2003, and that's expected to grow to $960 million this year, according to Eduventures."
Essentially, every time the SAT changes its format, the test prep companies rake in extra profits.
What a racket.
Travis, I'm in complete agreement on the standardized testing craze taking over public schools. As with the SAT, it will get worse before it gets better, sadly.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/26824)
Not to mention the whole cottage industry that's grown up around helping kids prep for the test. When my son was a junior in high school we must have gotten five or six flyers in the mail every week from these places, and they're hideously expensive classes (and I don't think you get a money-back guarantee). When we made the rounds of colleges, one of the things we heard from every single admissions officer was that the high school transcript was way more important in the long run than the SAT scores, which likely means that success in high school, along with a reasonably challenging curriculum, is more predictive of success in college than how one did on a standardized test.