Putting standardized tests into perspective

A lot of people have completely lost their minds.

Nowhere in the word of college admissions has so much of the population gone so far over the deep end as they have with standardized tests.  Sixth graders are taking SAT prep classes.  People are paying obscene amounts of money (sometimes upwards of 10 or 20 thousand dollars!) for the “best” prep tutors.  Families are taking tutors with them on vacation so as not to break the summer prep streak.  

In some cases, people are right to be concerned.  If you want to go to Yale and you have a 1520 on the SAT, your chances are probably going to be slim.

That’s the bad news.

But most of the over 2000 colleges out there don’t expect sky-high test scores.  There are plenty of good colleges out there that will gladly take a good kid with average or even below average test scores.   

In fact, Fairtest, an organization that works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing, maintains a list of over 700 schools where SAT/ACT scores are not even required for admission.  Id love to see that list grow to include all four-year colleges--dare to dream.

So, that’s the good news.  You can pretty much walk into the SAT, take it cold, and as long as you don’t draw dirty pictures on the answer sheet, you’ll still get into college.  I'm not suggesting you should actually do it that way, but test scores are not a life or death experience.  Don't treat them like one.  Maintain your perspective.