Standardized Testing Is Here To Stay
The COVID epidemic, which occurred two and a half years ago now, led to changes in the college admissions process. One of them was that most schools started making the SAT and ACT tests optional. Since then, an increasing number of universities and institutions no longer require examinations.
This makes sense. You can see how challenging it is when you consider how much the average high school senior has to do to prepare for college—endless applications, personal essays, college site visits, not to mention having to make the final decision on which school to attend. Adding yet another activity to their list of things to do—especially one that calls for planning and research time—seems excessive and unnecessary.
The SAT and ACT exams, however, have a lot to offer in terms of criteria for assessing knowledge and offer admissions offices a way to compare applications. When all the implications of grade inflation are taken into account, standardized examinations like the SAT and ACT will undoubtedly help level the playing field.
What is grade inflation, and why is it significant? This practice, quite common in the US, occurs when high school students obtain grades that are not based on their work, performance, or knowledge but rather are above (and in some cases, far above) what they actually deserve. It naturally follows that a student who submits an application that contains the SAT or ACT will stand out from the throng. Even though colleges and universities won't admit it, it's likely that the tests, even if they are "optional," are taken into consideration, especially when there are few seats available and a large number of applicants with identical [inflated] high school grade point averages.
The movement to abolish standardized tests for admissions has also been aided by problems with the questions themselves. However, this isn't your uncle’s SAT anymore. Prior to 2005, the SAT featured a large socioeconomic bias that rewarded the wealthy and well-traveled through the use of analogies and vocabulary items that were, to put it mildly, difficult and obscure. By eliminating vocabulary and analogies, not penalizing students for wrong answers, and reducing the number of multiple-choice answers (from five to four), the 2016 SAT exam redesign significantly reduced socioeconomic bias.
We here at StepPrep continue to recommend that students take the SAT or ACT exam (or both) to beef up their college applications and give themselves the best change of being accepted to the school of their choice.