Does Testing Really Matter Anymore?

Admis­sions tests like the SAT, CLT, and ACT have been his­tor­i­cal­ly required for stu­dents want­i­ng to enter col­lege. Not only did the tests give the col­leges an idea of a stu­den­t’s abil­i­ties, but they also helped col­leges find stu­dents and stu­dents find schol­ar­ships. In the past 10 years, there have been mul­ti­ple stud­ies show­ing the dwin­dling impor­tance of these tests. How­ev­er, thou­sands of stu­dents each year still com­plete them. While many col­leges are becom­ing “test option­al”, they still look at the admis­sions test as an equal­iz­er. Every high school varies in its edu­ca­tion prac­tices, so hav­ing a com­mon test to reveal a stu­den­t’s knowl­edge, abil­i­ty, and com­pe­ten­cy has been a help­ful resource. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, with mass test­ing and pow­er­ful deci­sions sur­round­ing the tests there has also been scan­dal. Cheat­ing and abus­ing the use of the test has been an increas­ing prob­lem, and with the new admis­sions exper­i­ment, which does­n’t nec­es­sary require a test, being suc­cess­ful, more and more peo­ple are won­der­ing if they should even con­sid­er an admis­sion test. 

Does college admission testing really matter anymore? 

The short answer is: yes. 

While it may be on its way out, it still serves a pur­pose. Also, with the new CLT, the col­lege test­ing process is def­i­nite­ly chang­ing. The admis­sion process changes each year, but com­plet­ing an admis­sion test is still ben­e­fi­cial to our students. 

1. The test con­nects stu­dents to colleges. 
   • • When a stu­dent com­pletes the appli­ca­tion for an admis­sion test, then they are placed on the mail­ing list of col­leges. This sort of acts as the intro­duc­tion for the stu­dent to start scop­ing out col­lege options. 
2. The test opens schol­ar­ship opportunities.
   • • Col­leges aren’t the only orga­ni­za­tions look­ing at test scores. A large por­tion of schol­ar­ships are giv­en to stu­dents based on test scores. As men­tioned above, the test pro­vides a com­mon ground for assess­ing stu­dents across the world, and schol­ar­ship groups know that. 
3. The test gives your stu­dent a chance to com­pare him­self to his peers
   • • Most of us despise com­par­i­son, but the fact remains that we all fall into this habit. Com­plet­ing a test helps our stu­dents assess them­selves. Just how do you mea­sure up to the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion? Is it all impor­tant? No. But it’s cer­tain­ly an inter­est­ing bit of infor­ma­tion to have. 
4. The test scores help col­leges choose a stu­den­t’s course load
   1. • Many col­leges will deter­mine the lev­el of course work for a stu­dent based on test scores. This is espe­cial­ly true for math. Whether a stu­dent is ready for col­lege cal­cu­lus or alge­bra can often be found by eval­u­at­ing a stu­den­t’s ACT math scores. 

In con­clu­sion, while there’s plen­ty of scan­dal, annoy­ance, and frus­tra­tion involved in con­tin­u­ing the test­ing process for our high school stu­dents, the ben­e­fits are still obvi­ous and worth­while. If you have a stu­dent who’s plan­ning to pur­sue a col­lege edu­ca­tion, then please con­sid­er tak­ing at least one of the col­lege admis­sion tests available.