What Do Standardized Tests Have in Common With the Flu

Standardized testing (The SAT and ACT) is not even the most important factor in a college’s evaluation of an application; the applicant’s grades and course selection throughout high school are more important factors. So why is the SAT or ACT such an obsession in this process, spawning countless media articles and generating its own attendant, vibrant industry of test prep?

Maybe it’s because a test is a one-off, something that can be addressed and improved in a short period of time, and people find it easier to deliver short bursts of effort rather than sustained determination (as is necessary to excel over the course of a high school career). Or maybe it’s something more profound: the resistance to the notion that an applicant can be summed up in a 3-1/2 hour exercise in bubbling an answer sheet. With the American ethos of hard work lifting a person’s prospects or station, it’s almost un-American to think that one morning’s test can negate a lifetime of effort; paradoxically, though, there are many students and parents who hope the opposite is true—that a great test score can negate a lifetime of listless academic effort! Certainly it’s complicated, and people want standardized test scores to count for everything in the evaluation process, or nothing, depending on the score. In any event, what, exactly, do these tests even measure? And, do they do it accurately? Are these tests reliable or valid?

Such questions have given rise to a robust anti-testing movement (See fairtest.org for more on this movement). Critics of the tests claim, among other things, that they measure little more than the wealth of the test-taker’s family. Proponents of them say that the tests provide a universalizing mechanism to help college admissions offices fairly evaluate applicants from a wide variety of high school experiences.

While I have elsewhere in these posts written about the murky future of standardized testing in the college application process, they are currently very much a feature of the process. And so we want to treat it with the respect it deserves while not freaking out about it.

That means practicing for these tests in ways that make sense, and not to the exclusion of all else; after all, if you practice for your SAT instead of doing your homework, your SAT score might go up but your class grade will go down. And as I’ve already pointed out, grades in high school are a larger factor in the process that standardized tests are.

So study a little bit at a time, over time. That’s how the brain likes to eat. Use your results from the PSAT to help you study your areas of vulnerability. Take practice tests to learn how to pace yourself and answer bubble-sheet tests. Understand that the best way to prepare for these tests is to be a reader and pay attention in your math classes. If you don’t like reading, I would suggest you’re just not reading the right things. If you are having a hard time paying attention in math class, then I would suggest sitting in the front row of the room.

Test prep courses can have their place in this process, but not in the same way for every student.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!