As juniors anticipate their test scores, it’s time for us to reflect on the uses of standardized testing and how it affects the college admissions process. Fewer students in recent years have taken the SAT, from 2.2 million in 2019 to 1.7 million in 2022. The ACT saw similar results, going from 1.8 million in 2019 to a little under 1.3 million in 2021. While there is an obvious reason for a drop in the overall number of test-takers (starts with p and ends with andemic), many students have also realized that testing is too costly for the often disappointing results.
The ACT and SAT are both broad in subject matter, and prep courses are needed to achieve higher scores. These courses can cost hundreds of dollars and don’t add to the typical education. Tests can help the admission efforts of higher and lower-income students, but rarely are test scores the reason a student enters a college. Some are concerned that low-income or minority students will be disadvantaged by test-blind admissions, but expert Zachary Bleemer, an economist at Yale University, has said that isn’t the case.

“Fewer than 100 students got into [The University of California] just because of their SAT score, and the best available evidence suggests that eliminating the SAT has a negligible, and perhaps slightly positive, effect on the admission of disadvantaged students,” he said.

However, the UCs aren’t the only ones disregarding test scores.

FairTest – the national center for fair and open testing – has collected data on 1,785 U.S. colleges and universities, stating, “[They] will not require ACT or SAT scores from applicants seeking to enroll in fall 2022 …  More than 76% of all U.S. bachelor-degree granting institutions now practice test-optional or test-blind admissions, an all-time high.” 

Clearly, colleges are making more changes as we deal with life after March 2020. More people acknowledge that testing is unnecessary and biased towards advantaged students. While some universities are only test-blind for these years affected by the pandemic, they’ll hopefully keep these changes once they realize the positive effects they have in terms of student equity. These tests discriminate from preparation leading up to it to the very structure and content of the test. Simply put, the results of the SAT and ACT greatly differ between privileged and marginalized students. 

It’s time we leave standardized testing in the pre-pandemic era and move forward with more just admission processes.