Well, about 1,000 schools were TO prior to the pandemic, so there’s that.
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…out of how many total colleges & universities?
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The good news for those who still have skin in the game is you have options. If you have a great test taker, apply to schools that still consider scores. Have a kid who for whatever reasons didn’t take the test or doesn’t want to submit, choose schools that are still test blind. The one thing colleges are transparent about is where they stand on test required/optional/blind.
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I was talking four year colleges…there are about 2800 four year colleges in the US.
Congrats! You, and others who score well for the reasons you mentioned, will make great college students… 
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Still unclear why the algebra test in Mrs Johnson’s class in 9th grade contained different algebra than ACT does…
Yeah, I make a GREAT college student… until I get to the level in a subject where I have to do deep, sustained work… then I look around at the smart people around me, and feel dumb 
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Pretty sure I put it where I meant to.
What excuse? They sound much better when they practice with the player function on. Thinking of entering them in competitions. Just have to figure out how to bring the piano to the competition sites.
Don’t sell yourself short - you can do it!
Sure, I can manage… I can compensate somewhat for being dumb at some things.
My point is that being a good test taker is not everything, and in some ways (in my case) I feel like it’s sort of fluff rather than substance. I really like being around people who are good at deep, thoughtful, sustained, original work. That kind of work impresses me.
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Agreed. Down with pianos
I believe it’s “my bow needs to be rehaired” and “I need to replace the strings, they’re old” or “I need rosin.”
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Not necessarily. Sometimes when something like standardized tests come easy, it can mask other more basic educational weaknesses. For example, there is tremendous educational value in struggle, and kids who have a knack for standardized test they may not have had much of an opportunity to develop that.
Or they do. Maybe they are intelligent AND resilient.
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I had that problem too, but at least through college and the first couple years of grad school, I managed to compensate well enough for being bad at struggling, by being extra good at tests. Whee!
This is a great point that often gets overlooked - thinking quickly is not the same thing as thinking deeply, and the world really needs both. I’m a quick thinker and hence always found standardized tests to be fun and relatively easy. My wife, conversely, is a deep thinker who rarely came close to finishing any standardized test section and thus had a relatively awful SAT score, yet I’ve come to greatly value her ability to ponder things and identify the importance of minor nuances or wrinkles that I simply glossed over. I think quick thinkers are predisposed to view the SAT as a fair and unbiased measure of general intelligence that simply happens to codify their superiority in a neutral, objective way. Or at least I viewed it that way as a teen who silently judged those who made lower scores, which was almost everyone. As an adult, I acknowledge that the SAT measures something, but far from the only thing, and I worry that we overemphasize it in a way that undervalues other critical attributes.
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I think that that it unmasks academic weakness more than it masks genius.
For many people, struggle is overvalued and academic ability undervalued.
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Sure, you could spend a lifetime pondering why 2+2=4, or anything else, but it isn’t practical. Could be wrong, but quick access to stored information is a component of intelligence. Why bother having modern supercomputers when it’s just as well to have a Commodore 64?
Who wants the ER doc who goes, “hmm…lemme think about this for a few days. I’ll get back to you.”
If I took the SAT today I would fail miserably. I’d probably do OK on the reading and writing sections, although not great because anything timed stresses me out and my coping mechanisms all seem to involve distraction of various sorts which obviously would not help in that particular situation, and I am a SLOW reader who overthinks everything, always have been… The math I would totally bomb. Like, can you score double digits on that? Because I would probably score double digits on that. Someone above mentioned being able to perform basic functions like calculate a tip or convert feet to meters. I google that. Or I ask Siri. I can’t do that in my head. Calculate an angle? Are you kidding me? Not this uneducated slacker. So, if the SAT is to be believed, I would clearly have limited potential for higher level academic work, as would be required by selective undergraduate programs.
(Signed, someone who nevertheless managed to get a BA, two MAs, and a PhD, who has never used algebra or geometry a single time past the age of 19, who does not see any particular value in standardized testing such as the SAT and ACT, who chose UC Berkeley for graduate work specifically because they agreed to exempt me from taking the GRE long before test optional/blind was a thing, who does not work well under pressure such as a clock ticking away very limited time, and who is glad to live in the land of test blind admissions. Vive la difference 
).
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Yeah, down with LSAT and MCATs. Who needs quick thinking doctors and lawyers?