The SAT is a standardized test that is utilized to assess a student’s ability in reading, writing, language, and math. The tests are timed to show how a student can quickly understand a question’s meaning. Not all SATs are the same and have different reading passages and equations. You could get lucky and happen to get a passage about a topic you are interested in or get unlucky and receive a passage about a topic that utterly bores you to death. This may cause you to earn a high score on one test and then a lower score on the next test, if you choose to take the SAT again. It is impossible to create the same test for every student because then you will have people cheat and each time they would improve if they already know what questions will be asked. Since there are no official questions that are asked to all the same students and it is impractical to do so, I believe you can not rely on the test to reflect your true potential.

Earning a high score on the SAT is a great accomplishment, but just because you get 1500 does not mean you will be successful. Many people may be knowledgeable and do great on tests, but when faced with real-world problems they lack common sense. They can quickly solve any equations, but when faced with a real-world problem they freeze and do not know how to apply their knowledge. Some people score relatively low on the SAT but have more potential to be successful than others with higher scores because they have more logical thinking about how to solve problems in life rather than problems on paper. I think the SAT does not take problem-solving and common sense into consideration and focuses solely on how much knowledge a student can retain.

Some students are also more prepared for SATs than others, so it is very likely for a student who takes a Prep Class to do better than a student who has only studied on their own. There are also financial issues with the SAT because some parents may pay a tutor to help their child study, whereas some may not be able to afford extra help. There is nothing wrong with a student receiving extra help from a tutor because they are just simply trying to prepare for the test. If you correlate the test score to potential though, it will appear as though students with tutoring or prep classes have more potential when in reality a student with no extra help may have the same potential but their test score was lower because they were not as prepared.

The SAT is a good concept for testing students worldwide to see their capabilities, but it is flawed and does not always reflect real potential. Changing test questions prevents cheating, but also leads to luck of the draw and whether you may know a question, knowledge and remembering facts are prioritized over common sense and problem-solving when both are needed to be successful and some students may have more access to extra help which leads to their scores being higher than others, even when they may have the true potential. I think the SAT can not reflect real potential and is more of a baseline assessment of knowledge a student has.