SAT- is it really necessary?

Test Preparation
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As an applicant to three American universities, I had to take the SAT which has given me a brief insight into the US education system. Of course, this was entirely self-taught within about a month so I didn’t exactly have an advantage when taking it.

The question, “Is the SAT really necessary?” often popped into my head during the long and tedious process of applying. Of course, I can see why someone would defend the SAT: the exam is taken by nearly all applicants to universities and therefore it is very easy to compare grades. However, the knowledge required on the SAT itself seems to be rather superficial. The only two killers are timing and obscure vocabulary and I can see how this could cause many applicants to score badly, especially if their knowledge is very subject specific.

In the United Kingdom (and probably the rest of the world), students tend to be admitted based on their A-level or IB grades, which in my view reflect extensive hard work and months if not years of preparation, in contrast to the SAT. Other dimensions to the application process are minimal in the UK although a good personal statement and interview definitely helps. Personally, I think this makes the application process a lot simpler for both students and admissions staff. Don’t get me wrong- I don’t think grades determine intelligence. That’s why I like the idea of admissions essays in the American system. Although they may not be exact indicators, they certainly give admissions people an insight into how you think.

The UK system seems to work fine, with people being admitted based on their school leavers exams so why does there need to be this extra dimension in the US? Surely someone who scores 45 points on the IB or gets a string of A*s but has a very low SAT score, like 1000 would still be a stronger candidate than someone with 2400 on the SAT and like 27 points on the IB. I know that no college accepts people purely based on SAT scores but when you have exams like AP, IB etc. that really test your knowledge, is there really a necessity to have standardised tests and to pay the extra money for them?

On the bright side, I have to say that the SAT did draw my attention to some basic skills I overlooked during school. Many people I have encountered still make silly mistakes in grammar or have a very cumbersome writing style, even when highly qualified. I can see how the SAT would be useful for them.

Please do not misunderstand this thread. I am not criticizing the American education system. I am merely offering my alternative perspective (from outside the US) in order to open up a debate. So please, feel free to weigh in on this. I am curious to hear what you guys have to say on this matter, whether you defend or oppose the SAT/ACT.

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If every school in the United States had IB/AP classes, perhaps admissions would work similarly to UK schools… But more often schools have classes that are easy to good grades in, producing students who can easily get a 4.0, while not being up-to-par in the subject(s) themselves… So the SAT IS kinda the “great equalizer”, shedding some light on how “kind” schools’ grading scales truly are.

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If you can’t beat it, complain about it. I’m sorry, but this has been becoming the great truth regarding those who say the SAT is the measure of how well you take the SAT.

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Do you wish to attend an American school?

  1. If you answered *yes*, there is no other way but to take it.
  2. If you answered *no*, great! You don't need to take it. But the caveat is that you get to only attend US institutions which does NOT require SAT/ACT for admission purposes.

It’s part of the process. Sure, it’s not perfect. But it is an easy, efficient way for the admission officers to determine the caliber of an applicant without a major offset.

Stare Decisis

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@KingAnon -

[Are you sure about that?](University application process penalises disadvantaged pupils, study finds | University administration | The Guardian)

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GPAs are arbitrary by school. With SAT, everyone can be compared with equal weight.

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And essays can be ghost-written.

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@marvin100‌ Yeah well no system is perfect. My point is that in comparison with the US, admissions here in the UK are pretty straightforward. You just do your IB or A-level exams, write a personal statement and apply. In the US, however, the admissions process is a lot more complex, time consuming and expensive (ie. each application is like $80). As I said, in some ways I guess it’s better as it is more about you rather than your grades but in other ways it probably isn’t.

@Ghentsphenze‌ Don’t get me wrong- this isn’t a complaint. As I clearly stated earlier on, I am just curious to see what people have to say. If you read my original post carefully you will see that I mentioned positives as well as negatives. This is not some personal rant.

I noticed many of you mentioned GPA, which is something else I find quite peculiar about the schooling system. I can see
how it might be a problem if it is the school that assigns you the grades. What if you ditched both GPA and the SAT altogether, with the admissions system basing everything purely on AP/IB or equivalent foreign grades? Do you think that could work?

Also, I think I should probably draw attention to the fact that there are US colleges like NYU who have a flexible testing policy and allow candidates to submit IB grades instead of rather than as well as SAT tests. I have to say, this makes things a lot easier for international students. Could such a policy be successfully implemented in many other US colleges?

Finally, I have one further point to make against the SAT. Yes, you could argue that like any exam it’s not a true test of intelligence. However, I can imagine there would be many situations where it could do very good university candidates major injustice.
For instance, people who have very subject specific knowledge. Say there’s a kid who excels particularly at mathematics but sucks at literature. Let’s imagine he is some kind of genius who has solved Gauss’s problems and scored full marks on every Math/science exam ever. He wants to go to Harvard to study Maths but gets rejected because of very low literature scores of his SAT. What would you say to this situation? Moreover, would highly competitive schools be willing to overlook bad SAT components from very strong candidates?*

*Please note: this situation is just an example and has nothing to do with me. I want to make that clear before anyone else tries to suggest that I’m on here to winge about SATs because I have bad scores (which I don’t).

I’m sorry if my prose is a little ugly towards the end. It’s quite late and I haven’t got the time and energy to seek out and correct all the infelicities. If you have trouble understanding me, please just say and I’ll explain to you what I mean.

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I understand what you mean, and it does bother me that I could have gotten perfect scores on my IB exams and SATs but still not have been admitted to my favorite college. At the same time, though, I like some aspects of the American system. Colleges, at least the more selective ones, seem to value hard work and individuality more than test scores. You are allowed to make mistakes - if you have poor scores because you had a bad day when you tested, you can still make a case for yourself through the essays and extracurricular activities. Colleges look for people who are interesting and have story to tell.

If you are a genius with the more concrete aspects of testing, but are not good at writing essays, I suppose you’re out of luck. That does seem a little unfair - hundreds of applicants with perfect test scores are turned away from selective schools each year, for some other “intangible” reason. Because colleges tend to choose candidates based on more subjective factors, admissions can feel like a lottery sometimes. Until you are actually accepted or rejected, you really have no idea what the decision will be.

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By the way, there are colleges here that make decisions based solely on test scores - they are just not the most selective schools we have.

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As a CIE A level student, I’d like to pitch in my opinion.
The UK admission system is great, but it has its own problems. For one, several people can meet the grade requirements needed by the universities (and I mean several). This makes the job of the admissions officers even harder. Then they have to go down and check the GCSE grades, and so on. And besides, a few universities, like Oxford and Cambridge, do require a standardized test for some of their degrees, especially Science based ones. Or sometimes the universities conduct their own test during the interview. For medicine, there’s the UKCAT or BMAT, which are quite hard in their own right.
Regarding “the rest of the world”, there’s Singapore, which follows the same system as the US and the UK. There’s India, and trust me, it’s one of the harshest systems out there, which has the “joint entrance exams” for Science related majors. China follows a similar system. Hong Kong’s system differs by students, which I can’t specifically say. But it follows the US system for US students (or students following the same curriculum) and the IB/UK system for UK students (or students following the same curriculum).

I get your point, but I’m just sharing my opinion.