From this year on, Aspen High School students need to start taking SAT prep more seriously.
In the week leading up to in-school testing this year, I had multiple conversations with students who bragged about not studying for the PSAT or SAT. Even though the SAT might be the most important test they will ever take. During the 2020 pandemic, many schools did not require an SAT, or ACT test score. Students could decide whether or not they submitted their test scores. Not having to submit scores led to the misconception that students will never need their test scores, so they should not study for the exam or try while taking it.
Schools decided to go test-optional for a few different reasons. One is, during the pandemic many public spaces were closed down, including testing facilities. Since many of them were closed it was difficult for students to even find a place to take the exam. Another reason schools went test-optional was to test the theory that standardized tests put students from a less funded background below their peers. Many people believe that standardized tests harm low socioeconomic status students since they do not have the resources to get tutors or take classes on how to take the test. For the 2024 application season, 65% of four-year bachelor’s degree colleges in the United States will be test optional. This is about 1,900 schools.
The idea for colleges and universities to go test-optional did not start during the pandemic. In Fact, the idea has been thrown around for decades. Bates, a selective liberal arts college in Maine, has been test-optional since 1984. In 2001 Hamilton College, another selective liberal arts college located in New York, started an experiment with score-optional applications and then made it permanent in 2006. The President of The University of California in 2005, Richard Atkinson argued that high school grades are the best predictor of college readiness, not standardized test scores.
Even though there are arguments to keep college tests optional, about 100 schools have gone back to requiring test scores for the next couple of application seasons. Some of these schools are Dartmouth and Yale, which are highly selective schools that have been researching the impact of optional test scores. They found that optional test scores were actually less fair.
The two schools found that optional test scores hurt disadvantaged applicants. When admission personnel look at test scores, they take the student’s background into account. A score that might be considered low for a student with more opportunities or resources could be interpreted as high for a less advantaged student. With test-optional, these students thought their scores were not good enough because they were below average, so they did not submit them. Even though the scores were below average, they would have shown a great deal of college readiness for the student and would have helped with their application. Likewise, with more advantaged students test scores would have better shown college readiness.
Even if a student is planning to apply for test-optional schools the SAT can still help them. When a student signs up for the SAT they give permission to the College Board to send their scores to schools, even if they don’t apply there. This can help students get in contact with schools they might not have considered.
Also, the main way students receive scholarships has to do with their scores on the SAT or other standardized tests. The SAT can also prove readiness for certain core courses in college. For placement in some courses, colleges might look back at a student’s SAT math or reading and writing scores to decide their best fit.
Aspen High School should also be helping students to prepare for the SAT. Preparing for the exam is more about learning how to take the exam than the actual material. The school could consider offering an SAT strategy class for first-semester juniors.
Doing well on the SAT can give students an advantage in their futures. Also with the uncertainty of what will happen with test scores, students should keep their options open. By not preparing for the SAT, students could miss out on incredible opportunities to attend colleges or universities of their picking.
