The SAT is one of two standardized tests that many colleges around the world use to measure an applicant’s academic value. Every year, millions of students take the SAT in hopes of being awarded a score that is hopefully high enough to be admitted to their dream college. In terms of academic worth, a great score on a standardized test like the SAT is the most valuable honor. However, as someone who has never taken the SAT before, the SAT does not reflect a student’s current and future worth.
The issue with the SAT is the fact that it’s a standardized test. Multiple choice tests, like the SAT, are structured with only one correct answer. This does not reflect reality, where there can be multiple correct answers to a question, even answers that contradict each other. Examples include science, which has multiple paradoxical theorems, yet all of them are correct. In other words, the very nature of answering the universe’s questions is completely different than the process of answering a question on a Standardized test.
It’s also important to consider that not every student is a good test taker, yet are very intelligent in their own way. Creative students, students who can see more than one correct answer to a particular issue, do not do well in situations that demand one concrete answer. A question answered this way is seldom found in reality other than in standardized tests. It is also dehumanizing if a person’s potential is determined by a score sheet. People are not statistics, not numbers, they are constantly changing and growing. Even the SAT reflects this by allowing retaking the test. However, it still has the problem that the SAT doesn’t account for creative thinking, which is arguably of greater value than logical thinking.
However, tests like the SAT are not inherently bad. Standardized tests are an easy and efficient way to measure a student’s academic worth in a few subjects. While yes, some students do better in situations that demand more creativity, creating a test that accounts for creativity is extremely difficult to measure, let alone create. While creativity is as fluid as water, academic knowledge is concrete and reflects the student’s cognitive abilities. The ability to think logically is very important in the workforce, and the SAT reflects this.
While the SAT is a useful tool to measure a student’s logical thinking, it shouldn’t be the driving factor to determine a student’s worth. As stated, an accurate report of a student’s potential would account for the student’s logical and creative thinking, yet a test that does both is very difficult to create.