The examinations and the high school curriculum by testing for “aptitude” And third, the College Board sought to sever the tie between Two major sections–verbal and quantitative. Second, the examinations were divided into First, essay questions were dropped in favor of multiple-choice The 1920’s the examinations were changed in several significant ways, German, Latin, Greek, history, mathematics, physics, and chemistry.) In nine subjects common in secondary schools at the time (English,French, At first, the College Board held essay examinations Out of this chaos by developing a set of common examinations that couldīe used to help make admissions decisions at a variety of colleges. Because there was little uniformity across colleges, a candidateįor admission to two or three schools could end up studying for manyġ901, the College Entrance Examination Board was started to create order Each college developed its own examinations. Time selective colleges required candidates for admission to take entranceĮxaminations in several different subjects. Was pretty chaotic, particularly in the East where most of the older The turn of the century, the transition from high school to college The battle lines are well entrenched and any Group and Fair Test), some journalists, students’ groups at scatteredĬolleges, a few admissions offices, and some academic researchers. On the other side are consumer advocate groups (e.g. Most college admissions offices, and some academic researchers. On one sideĪre the Educational Testing Services (ETS- the developer of the SAT), That this is a controversial topic with little agreement. The use of standardized tests in college admissions by concentrating
This article, I’d like to describe the principal issues surrounding But a part of me will always wonder how things would be different That both the college and she will benefit from that enrollment. In the fall Heather will enroll at a college seemingly well suited to To continue this personal story a bit longer, I’m happy to report that Applications were submitted to a much more restricted set of colleges. In her early selection of possible schools, fell by the wayside. Like Rice, Carnegie-Mellon, and Cornell, which had featured prominently Heather reached an internal accommodation between her expectations and The cost of these courses deterred her, however, and eventually Friends in similar situations started signing up for SAT preparationĬourses and rumors of impressive score gains filtered back. Then in her senior year she took the SAT three times and theĪchievement Tests twice in an effort to raise her scores. Trouble occurred with the preliminary SAT (PSAT) taken as a junior. Weren’t abysmal, but they were certainly disappointing to her and surprising The Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) were something else.
To me Heather has the basic skills to succeed at whatever she When the time required to do everything is too short. She’s learned to set priorities and to live with the consequences Work, sports, a job, and an active social life. In her part-time job until she is now a store manager at an ice cream The National Honor Society, captain of her tennis team, regularly promoted