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Harry Yan

Dr. Peters

ENGL 133

12 March 2018

Say No to SAT

Do you think a test making company could make an enormous amount of money? If you

think no, I am afraid that it is not quite right. College Board, a non-profit organization that

regulates standardized testing for college admissions, had a revenue of $200,000,000 and a profit

of $62,000,000 in 2013 (Weissmann). The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) is an exam offered

by College Board to high school students around the world. An SAT score is an important

reference for US colleges to decide whether to accept or decline applicants. Although there are

over 1.3 million students taking the SAT each year, the SAT is not a good measure of student

success because it focuses too much on logic instead of performance, the goal of the test is to get

a good score rather than learn the subject matter, it causes test anxiety, and the content is not

specific to major-related skills.

According to the College Board’s official website, the SAT is aimed to “[help] students

navigate their path through high school toward college and career, [offer] a range of unique

benefits to students,” and test students on “what [they] learn in high school and what [they] need

to succeed in college” (“Inside the Test”). Generally speaking, the SAT only tests on a small

portion of what students have learned, and a higher SAT score does not always indicate that the Commented [MOU1]: An important point to make! The
test purports to measure a broader set of abilities than it
actually does
student has a greater possibility to succeed in college. As a test which colleges use to gauge

students’ academic ability, the SAT score does not show the students’ skills which the colleges
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are actually looking for. Colleges are looking for more skills such as creativity, initiative,

intellectual curiosity, social consciousness, and leadership.

The SAT assesses students’ skills in Evidence-based Reading, Writing, and Mathematics.

The test includes 144 multiple choice questions and 13 student-produced response questions.

Gaston Caperton, the former governor of West Virginia, who is the president of the College

Board expressed “most college admissions officers tell [them] they rely on the SAT to be an

objective measure of college readiness and [the] SAT has proven to be a valid, fair, and reliable

data tool for college admissions” (Caperton). People who support the SAT have the following

major points in their opinions. Firstly, they think the SAT is fair for every student since all the

tests are standardized. In the test, no free-response question is involved, and all the answer sheets

are sent to grading machines for avoiding the personal biases of different graders. Secondly,

every student has the choice to take this test multiple times. The statistic shows that the majority

of the students would take the SAT two to three times; and according to College Board, students

perform better on later SAT tests than the first one (“Percentage of Students with Senior-Year

Score Gain or Loss (2017 Cohort)”). Lastly, SAT scores are easy for colleges to gauge students

from all over the world since the test results are out of 1600, making it easy to compare two

applicants.

Although the SAT is standardized, and no bias is involved in the tests, it only focuses on

students’ logic, but not their performance. Logic is very important for learning, which helps Commented [MOU2]: This is a much more effective
critique now that you added the earlier section about the
stated purpose of the test
people to understand and handle a new concept easily. However, students in college are required

to implement those concepts to complete different kinds of tasks. Students can repeatedly

practice different SAT mock exams in order to improve their score since the SAT is a logic test;

but in the process of doing practice exams, students barely improve their critical thinking and
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analytical and comprehension skills, which the SAT mainly tests. Instead, students develop an

inflexible thinking for this specific test. Johnny Wei, a current senior at Capital Christian High

School, who took SAT twice towards the end of last year, attended an SAT crash course program

in China during the summer. In the reading section of the crash course, the lecturer instructed

them “not to read the articles in the SAT, but to read the questions and find the similar words in

the article, and by reading the small section of the article, test takers should be able to pick the

right answer according to the question” (Wei). This strategy could save test takers’ time and

decrease their stress while doing the reading questions on the SAT. Also, they had learned

different kinds of strategies for different sections on the test. Johnny expressed that “[they] were

able to get the majority of the questions right by using the strategies which the crash course

provided” (Wei). Not only did the crash course provide the fast approaches to solving most of

the problems on the SAT, but also “taught students how to prepare for this test mentally” (Wei).

Referring back to the skills which the SAT tests on, it does not include the ability to

analyze and comprehend under stress. Preparing for the test mentally is an important part of

taking the SAT. Test takers spend a lot of time on preparing for the SAT before the test day as

they want to perform their best on the test. Obviously, this is the basis for receiving a high score

on the SAT. However, most test takers spend more time on learning how to take the test instead Commented [MOU3]: Can you demonstrate this through
your research?
of preparing for the test. As everybody knows, the SAT is a time-consuming test. As such, test

takers are trained to allocate specific time to spend on each question; many SAT prep books

provide time-management strategies for the test takers. For example, the majority of the books

mention that test takers should read all the questions before reading any excerpts; this step may

help them to exclude the incorrect answers efficiently, which could save time for answering the

rest of the questions.

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Since the test score is an important reference for college admission, test takers may have Commented [MOU4]: Combine paragraphs

test anxiety that would definitely affect their performance on the test. Test anxiety is caused by

various factors, such as fear of failure, lack of preparation, and poor test history; it can collapse

test takers’ thought processes so that their ability to analyze, synthesize, abstract, and generalize

does not operate as usual (“Test Anxiety”). To overcome examination anxiety, it is very

important to keep a stable mentality before the test.

Despite the need to be both physically and mentally prepared to take this test in order to

get a satisfying test score, the SAT does not test on the skills which are necessary for different

majors which students intend to be in. It does not agree with what College Board said on their

official website that students can “explore college majors and see how to get to where they want

to be” (Benefits). Students should show their deep interest and understanding of the relevant

concepts corresponding to each major. Howard Gardner, the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and

Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, mentioned on an online forum that

“Students should have some choices about the topics on which they are examined” (Gardner).

For example, students who are interested in studying biology may have been asked questions

such as using their prior biology knowledge to discuss pros and cons of genetic therapy, and

students who are interested in studying mathematics may have been asked questions about

discussing the use of set theory in everyday life. The test should be focused on the depth of

knowledge rather than breadth.

Overall, in future, students should not be assessed by the SAT, but be assessed in the area

in which the students are interested. The SAT’s misjudgment could damage the future

generations which could prevent our society’s development. The SAT should take into account
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students’ interests and it should not be an indicator of a student’s future and abilities. Society

should focus more on students’ mental health, and not judge students by their SAT scores.

Harry,

This is a terrific revision compared to the earlier draft you shared with me. I appreciate the work

you did to describe the stated purpose of the test according to the College Board. Your essay is

also well-researched and carefully cited, which positively impacts your credibility and the logical

appeal of your position.

GRADE: A
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Works Cited

“Benefits.” SAT Suite of Assessments, 13 June 2017,

collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/about/benefits.

“Inside the Test.” College Board, collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/inside-the-test.

“Percentage of Students with Senior-Year Score Gain or Loss (2017 Cohort).” College Board,

2017, secure-media.collegeboard.org/sat/pdf/percentage-of-students-with-senior-year-

score-gain-or-loss.pdf.

“Test Anxiety.” Anxiety and Depression Association of America, adaa.org/living-with-

anxiety/children/test-anxiety.

Caperton, Gaston. “SAT Scores Help Colleges Make Better Decisions.” Standardized Testing, Commented [MOU5]: The whole list should be
alphabetized
edited by Dedria Bryfonski, Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010478226/OVIC?u=calpolyw_csu&xid=65853b

04. Accessed 26 Feb. 2018. Originally published as "SATs Help Colleges Make Smarter

Admissions Calls," U.S. News & World Report, 4 Sept. 2009.

Gardner, Howard, et al. "Reconsidering the SAT. (Forum)." Issues in Science and Technology,

vol. 18, no. 3, 2002, p. 11+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A85697918/OVIC?u=calpolyw_csu&xid=d705cb9c.

Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.

Wei, Johnny. Personal interview. 5 March 2018.

Weissmann, Elena. “The College Board: A Very Profitable ‘Nonprofit.’” New Brunswick Patch,

14 June 2013, https://patch.com/new-jersey/newbrunswick/bp--the-college-board-a-very-

profitable-nonprofit.