Should the SAT be Use to Evaluate Student Application for Ad
Throughout their years in high school, students carry anxiety and heavy burden on their backs over the supposedly, most important test of their life time, the SAT. The test is known as "America's oldest and most widely used college entrance exam. It is composed of two sections, Verbal and Math, each scored on a 200-800 point scale. The test questions are almost exclusively multiple-choice..." as stated in article, "Gender Bias in College Admissions Tests". The result of this test will determine their future and as well as alter their goals. They avidly study, spending hundreds and thousands of dollars cumulatively to prepare for the test. Brain Doherty, in his article "Those Who Can't, Test," states "...last year 35,000 kids paid the nationwide coaching service almost $26 million to learn how to beat the standardized test." SAT preparation programs such as Kaplan or Princeton Review flourish as more and more students realize the need to do well in order to gain acceptance into a "good" college. Today, the SAT exams are so overrated that the test preparation industry blossomed. Furthermore, the real purpose of the SAT test has completely been hidden under many thick layers of misconceptions. The SAT test no longer meas
Speaking of inaccuracy, the SAT exam does not test all the knowledge a person has; therefore it cannot predict how well students might do in college. According to psychologist, Claude Steele, in the FRONTLINE article, "What Does the SAT Really Measure?", he "...pointed out that the test has been found to measure only about 18 percent of the things that it takes to do well in school, and thus is not a very good predictor of how a student will do in college." The test does not show anything about the student but rather represents the student as a numbered score used for judgment. A number cannot be used to predict, judge or analyze a student's intelligence, potentials and merit, thus the SAT is really unfair. Aside from that, critics of the SAT portray the test as an unfair test where students are affected by biases. In "Gender Bias in College Admissions Tests", it stated that "[i]n 2001, females averaged 35 points lower than males on the Math section of the test, and 3 points lower on the Verbal section". Statistically, females tend to do better during their first year in college but their SAT scores are 35 points (on average) lower than those of males. Studied also showed that there is a gender gap because: one, multiple choice format test is biased against women compare to other types of test questions; two, since there's a "guessing penalty" for guessing on the SAT, "...males are more likely to take risks on the test and guess..." while "...females tend to answer the ques
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