Deciding if your teenager should take the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and/or the ACT (American College Testing) can be a daunting task. When faced with making this decision for my son, I realized I knew little about college entrance exams.
All I could recall from my high school days was if I scored well, I stood a better chance of getting into Goucher College. Clearly, I needed to reacquaint myself with the exam process before making such an important decision for my son.
Meeting with the guidance counselor seemed like the best place to start. The first and perhaps most important thing I learned was to optimize his scores, we needed to take into account his individual learning style, prior standardized testing history and academic strengths.
Next, we reviewed the differences between the two exams. I discovered that one exam is given in a sequence that would fit poorly with my son’s learning style. Once I was aware of this and the exam’s other features, my decision was easy.
My conversation with the guidance counselor prompted me to learn more about college admission exams. This week’s Education Matters takes a closer look at the history, role and purpose of college entrance exams, beginning with the SAT.
As of 2005 the SAT changed its name to the SAT Reasoning Test. Nevertheless, most people still refer to its well-known acronym. At its founding in 1901, the organization was known as
the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB). Now known as the College Board, it owns, develops and publishes the SATs, a standardized higher education admissions exam recognized by the majority of the nation’s colleges and universities.
The College Board is a non-profit organization headquartered in New York City. The current president is Gaston Caperton, a former Democratic governor of West Virginia. More than 5700 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations belong to the College Board.
As with many of our country’s venerable institutions, the CEEB was established to meet a pressing need. In the late 19th century municipal and county schools were independently funded and administered. With each school system designing and implementing its own curriculum, there were substantial differences in the quality, scope and assessment of a high school student’s achievement.
The result was little or no academic parity between our nation’s high schools. This lack of uniformity made it difficult for college admissions offices to accurately assess an applicant’s ability to master college level work. Thus, the SATs were created to supplement a student’s high school record and help college admission officers put “local data—such as course work, grades, and class rank—in a national perspective.”
For decades the SAT’s standardized test scores were a universally recognized tool for evaluating a student’s academic capacity. However, in recent years a growing number of educators have questioned the value of the exam. In particular, concerns have been raised about the cultural bias of the SAT.
Statistical studies of the SATs have revealed a wide variance of test scores by race, gender, income and parental educational background. Exam questions with answers that presupposed a student’s familiarity with conditions and situations associated with a wealthy, more privileged lifestyle have come under close scrutiny.
Critics of the SATs cite an exam question designed to gauge a student’s ability to identify comparisons of similar relationships. In this example, only 22 percent of black students answered correctly that “runner to marathon” is like “oarsman to regatta.” Conversely, 53 percent of white students— presumably more familiar with oarsmen and regattas than their black peers— answered the question correctly.
In response to concerns about cultural bias, these types of analogy questions have been replaced by short reading passages. Nevertheless, a number of U.S. liberal arts colleges have either joined, or have been important influences on a movement to make the SAT optional for admission, in response to criticism of the exam.”
Next week- Part two of “College Entrance Exams”
Jayne Matthews is an academic advocate and non-profit development analyst. Your thoughts and comments are welcomed at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
All I could recall from my high school days was if I scored well, I stood a better chance of getting into Goucher College. Clearly, I needed to reacquaint myself with the exam process before making such an important decision for my son. 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
