The SAT and ACT were developed so schools can compare students on an "apples to apples" basis and not admit students who post great GPAs due to grade inflation. It seems nothing has changed since my high school & college years ('83-'91). Test anxiety is an excuse, rather than accepting tests as a tool to separate the men from the boys and the wheat from the chaffe (or whatever euphemism you prefer).
The sad part is that alleged "test anxiety" persists in the working world. I once attended a professional school one week for three summers. The first year we took a test on the last day and did one project between then and the next summer. But, the "test anxiety" crowd didn't like that, so the format was changed to no tests and two projects.
Projects take a lot longer than a one hour test. The tests weren't hard. As long as you attended class, paid attention and spent an hour reviewing your notes (instead of getting drunk at the nearest bar), you'd be fine. But no, the party crowd wanted a baffle w/ bullsh** projec insteadt; heaven forbid they should take a knowledge-based test that measured what they learned!
Something Else to Worry About
A new SAT option is supposed to reduce stress. Fat chance.
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Oliver Beavers is planning to take the SATs again, and he's a little nervous. "Everyone has good test days and bad test days," he says. So it makes sense that he's a big fan of a new twist on the decades-old SAT, an innovation called Score Choice. Introduced by the College Board in late 2008, Score Choice allows test takers to send only their best SAT scores to the colleges to which they're applying. Under the prior system, colleges were given a warts-and-all look at the scores of every exam a student took. Beavers believes the old system hurt students whose performance varied on different test dates, and that the new scheme makes it easier for students to take the exam repeatedly to try to boost their score. "I think the best way to get better SATs is to just keep taking them and see where you go wrong," says the rising senior, who is hoping to attend his hometown University of Virginia to study economics. By utilizing Score Choice, he's less nervous about whiffing on the big test, and more relaxed knowing colleges won't know how many times he retests.
That kind of stress reduction, the College Board says, is exactly what motivated it to implement the new score-reporting system. According to Alana Klein, a spokesperson for College Board, Score Choice is intended to lessen students' anxiety by giving them more control over their college applications. But while it may have begun with the best of intentions, the new system has proved controversial.
Some observers believe its real purpose is to boost the College Board's revenue by encouraging students to take the SATs more frequently and to improve its competitive position against the rival ACT exam; ACT already had a choice system in place and has been steadily stealing market share from the SAT in recent years. In December 2008, NEWSWEEK reported on an internal College Board e-mail in which general manager Laurence Bunin wrote that Score Choice was motivated by "less kids taking the SAT" and thereby "threatening the viability of the program itself." [Klein did not respond to requests for comment about the e-mail or questions about the financial motivations behind Score Choice.]
That reinforced the notion that the shift is driven by bottom-line considerations, not what's best for students. "Everybody is going to tell you it's really a moneymaker for the College Board," says Jean Jordan, dean of admissions at Emory University, who shares that view. Another issue: some colleges are rejecting the Score Choice system and insisting that applicants send in every SAT score. There's also worry that by rewarding students who take the SAT many times, Score Choice unfairly penalizes lower-income students, whose lack of resources limits the number of times they can take the $45 exam. "There is no question that students from less—sophisticated backgrounds are at a disadvantage," says Edward Gillis, executive director of admissions at the University of Miami.
The basic idea behind Score Choice isn't new. Throughout the 50-year history of the ACT exam, students have been allowed to take the test repeatedly but report only their best score to colleges. From 1993 to 2001, the College Board used a similar system for its SAT II subject-specific tests. And some colleges insist the debate over Score Choice is overblown, because most schools have focused only on a student's best SAT scores all along. Typical is the University of California, which has a longstanding policy of using a student's highest score when making admittance decisions, says Susan Wilbur, director of undergrad admissions. "We don't encourage students to take it numerous times," she says. "Take it once, do your best, and move on."
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