Is there really a way to accurately measure and compare intelligence? The Scholarly Aptitude Test (SAT) was used for over three decades as a way to measure how smart or college-ready a student was. This test was a prominent feature of college admissions from the late 1960s up until the late 2010s. During this time, activists worked to expose the bias in the test’s structure. Across the United States, colleges and universities dropped their test score requirements, in an attempt to reduce discrimination. Now, some schools are moving back to testing requirements.
What does this mean for students? Well, a lot of people still take this test very seriously. For Ohsoo Kwon, an Arcata High senior, the test was very important. He wants to attend schools like Pomona and CalTech, which still require scores. Kwon said that while the actual test wasn’t too difficult, the preparation can be tough.
“I started studying about a month and a half before” he said. Not only that, he also met with a tutor, and used practice books. Additionally, he had to travel to Oregon just to take the test. For rural students, it can be a challenge to even make it to a testing center, as the local ones fill up very fast. For instance, the test hosted at Cal Poly Humboldt has to be reserved up to three months in advance.
For rural students, testing location isn’t the only disadvantage. Schools in Southern California, in larger cities, have more resources available for their students. Anayeli Auza, a critic of the test, attended high school in San Diego and received a 1550 on her SAT. She credited her score to the fact that her high school prepared their students for the SAT specifically. This is a major advantage that urban students have over rural students.
Not only that, but testing centers are all over, “I only drove a few minutes to a different high school to take it,” Auza said. These differences are just a few of the reasons why more and more colleges have stopped valuing scores. So, for Juniors thinking about it and Seniors stressing over it, remember that a test score does not actually represent your intelligence.
