The Pros And Cons Of ACT And SAT Scores

It may surprise you that ACT and SAT scores used for admission is a controversial issue. Although, many people take a high ACT or SAT score for granted, individuals oppose it on the grounds that many people are not good test takers and might not have been aware of what exactly to study to prepare for the exam without paying for an expensive class to help them study. According to school systems, what’s at stake in this issue is having a base line understanding of certain topics per student. For me, however, what is most important is that the student is looked at for more than just their test scores and school systems shouldn’t have a baseline of knowledge. People who have test anxiety and cannot perform well and are not taken into consideration
They’re barley able to pay to take the test itself. To take ACT just once costs $46.00 without the writing section and $62.50 with the writing section. People who are more privileged are able to take the test more than once and increasing their chances on getting a better score. SAT and ACT preparation classes teach different methods for mathematics that aren’t taught in a regular in school class. Classes teach more of trial and error which takes the longest of all the math methods and having the test being timed the chances of a student completely finishing are very low. These classes are so focused on getting a good score and how you are able to do so. Due to this it is questionable on whether it’s a test of the students’ knowledge or how well they studied for the
Some insist ACT and SAT scores are necessary to have a baseline score to know if a student is capable of keeping up with the curriculum. Which is not true because an alternative to using ACT and SAT scores would be to consider the students grade point average (GPA). All schools have some type of way to calculate a GPA. GPA’s are used to calculate how a student has progressed over time as well as it is calculated at the end of the year giving the student a chance to progress and improve their grade. According to Schmitt, “there remains a large portion of unexplained variance in college student performance measures”. It is also stated that there are already changes being made for universities such as, “changing the role that standardized tests (SAT or ACT) play in the selection process. For example, the University of California has begun to use the SAT-II, an instrument more directly tied to high school curricula, for admission decisions.” These changes are necessary and are slowly going to catch on with other Universities when this change proves to be