Most college-bound students participate in standardized testing in hopes of achieving a score high enough for their target school. Even though standardized tests, such as the SAT were created as a way to be an equal nationwide measure of students’ aptitude, they are still heavily influenced by factors beyond a student’s control, making them an ineffective measure of ability. 

The SAT is not a measure of a student’s ability, it is a measure of how good someone is at taking the test. A good student can be a bad tester due to factors such as stress, pressure, and test anxiety. Students can drill strategies to test better which is why it does not show that students have learned the content, but simply memorized the test’s format. 

“Teaching to the test” does not guarantee future success in life, but simply a score on a test. A better measure of a students’ abilities would be their activities outside of school because they show students’ interests and ambition, and their grade point average (GPA) as it shows the hard work that a student is consistently putting in throughout the year, and it shows that students are learning the material taught. 

Even though students across the country are administered the same test under the same conditions, socioeconomic background greatly affects a student’s performance. According to the Washington Post, students in households with less than $20,000 yearly income scored on average 400 points less than students in households which earn $200,000 a year, showing the difference that money can make on a student’s score. Underprivileged students don’t have access to tutoring services, prep books, and sometimes even access to a proper meal. These tests don’t account for the fact that many students may have been born disadvantaged. While the SAT was created with the goal of fair testing across the nation, in reality it just isolates minorities even more.

While standardized tests play a great role in determining a student’s future, they exist for administrative, political, and financial purposes. Companies such as the College Board and ACT make up a billion dollar test prep industry. According to Business Insider the College Board has a yearly revenue of $750 million with their monopoly on the testing business which includes the SAT, SAT subject tests, and the AP exams. These companies capitalize on the importance that is placed on these tests, as many students believe that if they do not take these tests they will have more difficulty getting into college due to the weight placed on test scores, even though there are colleges such as New York University, University of Texas-Austin, and George Washington University that are starting to phase out the need of tests for admission. 

The SAT and ACT do not factor in disadvantages students may have, and they prey on the high stakes importance placed on these tests to profit. Instead of placing these tests on a pedestal, colleges should assess students in a more holistic way and consider other admission factors. For now, it seems that colleges are slowly being more open to new ways of admission. If a few colleges start making this change and students show interest, other colleges will follow suit which could spark a change to improve the way college admissions work.