Molly Lin
Wishyut
Pitawanik
Should Colleges Use Admission Criteria Other Than SAT Scores and Grades?
March 9,
2015
In the US and some universities in Canada, they use SAT
scores and school grades
as a requirement to let students into their schools. Some people think is a
good way to see how students do in academics. However, I disagree with this
statement for the following two
reasons.
The first
reason is you can’t judge a person’s ability just on SAT scores and school
grades. Even if they got good SAT scores or good grades in school, it does not mean that they are
going to do well in their future school years. It can simply mean that they are
good at testing, which does not mean they are really learning the materials; they can just memorize a lot of
vocabulary and practice a
lot of SAT math questions. On the other hand, some people are not so good at testing;
they get nervous when they see long essays and lots of math questions. But that
does not mean they are not good at English or Math, they might practice a lot
but still not get good scores. Also,
the SAT does not show
every part of the students; it only partly
reveals the academic part of them. How about the other parts, like
social skills, sports, music, etc., other parts of the student where the SAT
scores can’t judge? There
are a lot of parts of people not only the academics, so this is the first
reason why I think colleges or universities
should use admission criteria other than SAT scores and school grades.
But some people might say, if we don’t use SAT scores, how
are we going to know if the students are meeting the requirements? The SAT uses a lot
of academic vocabulary that
we don’t normally use in our daily lives. Some people are just better at taking tests than
others, so it is unfair for some people who are simply not good at taking tests and getting
high scores even when they put a lot of effort in it. It does not mean that
they are not good at reading or writing
essays for class projects.
It just means that they are not good at taking tests. They can do other things
like collaboratively, using
technology, or without time pressure. Another option is to set the admissions requirements so they are related to
what they are going to study.
For example, if they are
going to study art, make
them do an advanced art project or if they want to study music, let them play a
very challenging music piece to go into music school instead of taking the SAT. If they are international students, let them
do an English test without using too many technical
or advanced words
to see if they are qualified
to be in your school.
The second
reason is that some
schools don’t see the SAT
as a good measure of the
skills they require. Other schools recognize that the SAT limits their applicant pools and
gives unfair advantages
to students from families that can afford test prep courses. So this is the second reason
why I support my statement in the first paragraph, which is you can’t judge a person’s ability just on SAT
scores and school grades.
In the conclusion, I don’t seek SAT scores as a requirement
to go to universities for the two reasons. First, you can’t judge a person’s
ability through SAT, the second reason is some families are not able to afford SAT classes for their children, while other
students are simply not good at taking tests and can’t perform well on them. It is an unfair requirement for some people, so this is why
I disagree that we use SAT
scores and school grades
as a requirement to let students into college.
Bibliography:
Grove, Allen.
"Low SAT or ACT Scores? Check Out These Test-Optional Colleges." Web.
12 Mar. 2015.
