Those with test anxiety learn to deal with it, or overcome it, by practice, practice, practice. Otherwise, they’ll struggle on the mcat, gre, and the others, if they ever get there. (tests in organic chem can create a lot of test anxiety…)
@tomsrboston. I’m not a good test taker, had a low gpa, and still managed to graduate Boston college. A much better school than northeastern by the way. I manage to make more money per year than family doctors here in Silicon Valley. Software development has no licensure requirements. Doctors aren’t rockstars anymore, I’ve never heard of a billionaire doctor. Lol. Software has many billionaires.
This was exactly my experience as a student . . .
I have a sister who was not the natural test-taker that I am (she was a better overall student than me though); she passed the CPA exam (which is tough).
I have read that once you fail the bar exam once, your odds of failing it again go way up.
@Aida Do you think your son might be a little ADD? I am, although such things weren’t diagnosed back then. I did pretty poorly in high school due to homework, ect. In college, with less time in the classroom and zero busywork, I did much better.
Being good at a multiple choice test that essentially measures your family’s income doesn’t say much to me.
I don’t think it has to do with income. Lots of low income kids do very very well first time. It is what it is, and I don’t think you can put too much emphasis on it petsonally. Unfortunately, for schools, these are the only standardized tests they have to see, and the quality of ed varies so widely.
Agree if you are bad at math, go the other way. You work with your strengths. It’s the smart play!
I passed NY bar 1st try, but I was totally not pressured bc I was in another grad program at the time, so I was not facing getting fired from my first job if I failed. That pressure kills a lot the test takers. They have a job in the fall, and if they don’t pass, they may lose it!
The low SAT/ACT scores could be anxiety. However when I see a kid’s on CC with a 4.0+ GPA and a bunch of AP scores that are 1’s or 2’s then that makes me think either there was grade inflation or they weren’t in a true AP class. Those classes are supposed to be taught to the test so kids ought to be able to get a 3…maybe they could have a bad day on 1 AP test but not when you see multiple AP scores that are all really low.
Bad test takers who are good students usually end up just passing licensing exams. Maybe after a retake. . And guess what. Just passing is just as good as passing with a perfect score. I know several attorneys who had to take the bar exam twice and squeaked by. And once they passed they found that in the real world you never ever have to take a test again. And you can be tremendously successful.
“What happens to these students when they graduate from college or professional schools? What happens when they have to take the medical or dental board exams, bar exam, nursing board exams, CPA exam etc.? There are no test optional professions…other than journalism.”
There are so many, many career paths with no exams. Many creative fields among others. Not everyone goes a pre-professional track, thank goodness, and colleges like and want to attract these kinds of students, too.
Sometimes low SATs and high GPA mean the hs program is not as rigorous as others. But given identical hs background,/GPA you can see why a college might favor higher SAT student (possibly stronger reader, faster at math etc). But both students might do fine in college. And both might do well on cert exams, based on specific knowledge.
People can overcome anxiety and get better at testing over time too.
Or it can mean the HS is not rigorous.
True Erin’s Dad, but if the kid attends a school where students with good classroom grades also normally have good test scores, then the school staff should flag that kid for further evaluation.
I have taken the RN licensing exam. You don’t have to be a great test taker, you need only be minimally competent to pass it. It’s not like the SAT; it is simply pass/fail, as I believe are many licensing exams.
Well, that’s not comforting!
A lot of them end up being the boss of employees who had those great standardized test scores – but not so strong with the skills that really count in life.
Real world employers want competence and demonstrated ability & experience, and are not particularly impressed by anyone’s SAT score.
@TomSrOfBoston …it is a test to determine starting competency as an RN. It doesn’t test skills and critical thinking one would expect of a 10 year RN. I don’t think she meant you only had to be “minimally competent.”
From the NCLEX website:
To ensure public protection, each jurisdiction requires candidates for licensure to meet set requirements
that include passing an examination that measures the competencies needed to perform safely and effectively
as a newly licensed, entry-level registered nurse.
It doesn’t necessarily mean the threshold is low, it means that you only need to meet the minimum requirements, which is the definition of pass/fail. The SAT puts you on a scale of lowest to highest and ranks you according to your peers. The NCLEX-RN does not. You either pass or fail, you don’t know if you scored at the high end or the low end. You only know that you passed and are now licensed.
Someone could be intelligent, competent, and not a “great” test taker, yet still score within the limits allowed by the NCLEX.
I can tell you from the highschool my brother went to that some members of their national honors society (requirement of a 3.6 GPA and above) had a 1300-1400 sat (on a scale of 2400).
It’s unfortunate that so many kids (and parents) see the tippy-top schools requiring high test scores as being some kind of validation. Standardized tests are not the be-all and end-all, and as many have pointed out, there are many professions where there is no testing, and other professions test on specific knowledge rather than general knowledge. However, so many kids and parents see prestige and so important that they dismiss the test-flexible schools as somehow unworthy. The two students who graduated ahead of me in high school were very smart - but I blew them away in test scores just because I’m better at strategy on multiple choice questions. Did that make them less capable than me? I don’t think so. I managed to score well on the ASVABS in areas where i had NO competence other than my ability to eliminate unlikely answers. That doesn’t mean I’m suited for some of the careers that test indicated.
If kids do have test anxiety, or learning disorders, I hope they can find the help they need. For others who are bright and capable, but who just don’t flourish in a multiple choice world - there are many paths to success that don’t involve SAT type tests.