TOW #17- Flaws in the New SAT

As a junior in high school, the stress of college-admissions tests is something that I’ve become familiar with this school year. With the addition of the New SAT as another test option, deciding which test I wanted to take wasn’t the easiest. But after reading public education director of FairTest Bob Schaeffer’s view on the New SAT, I don’t regret deciding to take the ACT. In his brief letter, he highlights how “none of the coming changes to the SAT address the test’s historic flaws.”

He focuses on how the revised exam is still “just as susceptible to high-priced, test-prep “steroids” as its predecessor.” It is understandable that these exams help colleges make decisions, but there must be a better way. The unfair financial problem created by these exams leaves those that can’t afford tutoring with bad results and those that can with good results. The same disadvantageous aspects of the test are still here, skewed significantly “by race, gender and family income.”

Schaeffer closes the letter with facts that look into the direction colleges are starting to go in. More and more are no longer requiring applicant to submit scores from any standardized exam. He supports his position by including that this is true with more than 850 accredited, bachelor-degree-granting institutions, including 200 of the most selective in the country. Schools are seeing the problems with these tests and want to get rid of them too. It is evident that this college-admissions process is changing, especially with the dissatisfaction that people like Mr. Schaeffer are seeing in the direction that the New SAT is going.