I need to write an essay with a lot of reasons why the SATs should not be weighted so much for admission to college and some good ideas would help!
2007-03-20 12:50:50 · 7 answers · asked by hello there 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
They are not a good test of someones mental ability. Me for example, I had a very high GPA. I did not do well on the SAT's. I went to a major private college and did great. They did not care about the SAT. I have a great job. Majored in Accounting (One of the harder majors) so the SAT does not mean that much.
Everyone is different. People take tests different. The SAT does not cover all areas and it puts people under pressure.
Another about being smart. Smart is not only about books. It is about life too. SAT tests nothing on being smart in life and being street smart. You can have all the book smarts you want, but if you are street dumb, I feel for you. You will get used and abused. A high SAT score cannot protect in public.
Smart people feel so superior to everyone else. Book smart people anyways. It is funny they are the social inept ones and do function well in society. SAT caters to those people.
Another reason the SAT is not so important is look where people come from. Look at Mississippi and Louisiana where education is the lowest. People do not far well on that test there. Is it their fault education is bad in those states. Not at all. It does not mean they are not smart either. It does not mean they should miss out on a higher education either.
The SAT is biased and unfair for the most part. I think there is much better entrance qualifications that colleges could come up.
2007-03-20 12:58:48 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's unfair for one test to hold so much weight indeed. Test taking results can be an inaccurate measure of a person's knowledge. Many people have test anxiety, which keep them from doing well on tests, as well as many other learning disabilities. You should look that up, and use that information in your essay.
I am so grateful for my community college, they have don't require SAT or ACT or have an "entrance exam" they have a "placement" exam which means you will get placed in remedial courses if need be, but you will never get turned away. It's been a blessing and an immense opportunity for me, or I probably would never have gotten in college.
2007-03-20 19:54:33 · answer #2 · answered by Kurius_Kitten 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well there is a lot of data available online about this.
but a couple of things you can mention are, its a poor indicator of real world success, book smarts do not equal common sence. Its a poor indicator of ability to work hard, college often times requires someone to just do the stuff rather than to actually "get" the stuff. SAT has a lot of arbitrary questions on it that no one actually learns in HS or in real life, half of the words utilized on the sat no one uses unless they have just recently taken a SAT prep class.
It eliminates a lot of gifted students from attending top universaties because of poor sat scores when in reality they might just be poor test takers.
2007-03-20 19:56:00 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
My personal opinion on college applications is that everything should count equally. Your highschool performance, SATs, extra cirruclar activities, etc. My brother is currently attending UAT and the only reason he got in was because of his SATs. His highschool grades were not enogh and he got denied at first. I think that should not determine your ability in school or in the future. Best of luck with your paper.
2007-03-20 19:54:20 · answer #4 · answered by April F 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
some people are just very bad test takers... my girlfriend for example did not get into the college i applied to because her scores were low (shes an honor society student while i was not... and she got way better grades than me... ) i got some decent scores
2007-03-20 19:53:49 · answer #5 · answered by dramoonzer 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There could be culturally bias questions on the test, and people whose native language is not english may have trouble understanding what is being asked of them.
2007-03-20 19:56:43 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
anxiety stress for kids w/ nervous personalities. test anxiety. it doesn't reflect what you've learned in all your years of highschool , just a sample, its timed which puts alot of extra pressure...theres more but for me it was mostly test anxiety.
2007-03-20 19:54:58 · answer #7 · answered by parveeahmed 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋