Standardized testing is the bane of my existence. It is the epitome of terrible ideas, and I’m sure there are others who would agree with me. I have run into many unsavory road blocks because of tests like the ISAT, ACT and SAT, and I’m tired of it. I had a conversation with my grandparents one night back in high school about how I would need to re-take the ACT in order to receive a certain scholarship I really wanted. During this conversation I, of course, moaned and groaned about how unfair the tests are and that someone should find a way to do away with them by coming up with an alternative that might produce better results. Although it may never come to fruition, I believe I have found the beginnings of a solution.

First, I would like to give some examples of what I mean by “road blocks”. My first bad experience was in 10^th grade. I had managed the previous year to get either proficient or advanced in all categories except for math in which I had received a basic score. When looking over my class schedule for my sophomore year I noticed I had been placed in a class I had not signed up for, and it was in place of my drama class. I knew it had to have been a mistake, so I went to the counselor to get it fixed. The trouble was it was no mistake. They had placed me into an alternative math class because I was one point under proficient for my math ISAT. I would not be able to take drama which was a part of my future occupation. Needless to say I was furious, but of course there was nothing I could do, but fume about how even though I was receiving excellent grades in my regular math class I was being made to sit in an extra class I felt was unnecessary all because of a test I could hardly study for. Even the teachers couldn’t be sure of what was on it. Eventually I was able to pass the math ISAT, but that was just a bit of background to show what started my bitterness towards these tests. The real monsters are the ACT and SAT.

In order to get into college and receive scholarships students must get a certain score on their ACT or SAT tests. The required score varies between schools and scholarships, but usually the student needs a fairly high score. An example of an “acceptable” score would be a 23. Scholarships and colleges gauge a certain amount of their decision by how high your score is. The score is meant to be a representation of how your grades will look your freshman year of college. This, I think, is a very poor representation of a student’s potential. In an article on the websiteFairTestthe author says even the maker of the ACT test stated that high school grades are in fact a better representation of the student’s performance their first year of college. I agree with this whole heartedly because I can speak from experience. My ACT test resulted in a low score of 18. Because of this I have been turned down by a few scholarships and have suffered through quite a head ache trying to get an acceptance verdict from the college I now attend. I find this very unfair considering I am involved in many school activities, take on many leadership roles, am very involved in the community, and have above average grades which include a 4.00 I was able to maintain during my entire senior year. However, none of that seems to matter to certain colleges and scholarships when deliberating over a score that does not represent the student’s work ethic, performance, or accurate academic ability. The real kicker is the only part of the test that was bringing my score so low was the math portion.

In both the ACT and the SAT I excelled in the English and Reading portions and did fairly well in the science, but there was math again. Always getting me down. I was making an effort to keep my grades up in math and was succeeding too, but alas the test which is presumably modeled around the high school curriculum had very little recognizable, or for that matter memorable math problems. I can see one arguing that perhaps I should try harder to refresh on certain areas of math, but I would also like to point out that everyone has a different learning process and that is where these standardized tests fall even shorter. People like me need a step by step process in order to learn something. We need to know what is going to be on the test, or at least a very good idea. The practice tests that students are provided with have a wide range of what might be on the test, and there are many possibilities. How on earth can one be sure that they are ready to take this test? The answer is they can’t. I have studied for this test before and re-taken it only to improve by one point. Studying a random set of different random kinds of math did not provide me with any insight.

This also leads into the fact that some people are just not good at certain subjects. A person who plans on majoring in Creative Writing and has always been involved in the Arts might not be too interested in doing more that getting good grades in algebra and geometry. Those math and science classes are just not in the playing cards of their future. That is not to say they are not important skills for them to learn from and apply to everyday life, but they are not something the Arts Major is going to delve into to pick up more than the basics. The same can be said for the aspiring scientist or mathematician. Sometimes for a person the subject doesn’t even matter. Sometimes it’s just the fact they are taking a test. Especially one that is timed.

Some people are just not good at taking tests. They can be a straight A, golden star, perfect everything student, but as soon as you give them a test they fall apart and forget everything because of nerves. I’ve seen cases in school where the teacher has allowed students like this to take the test separately from the rest of class, so they can better concentrate. For these people tests are a lot of pressure. A lot of times these people know the answers, but psyche themselves out so much they second guess themselves and end up failing. The ACT and SAT do not take this into consideration, of course, and to make things even worse the test is timed. That fact alone might be one of the test’s biggest flaws. Some people are good at retaining information, but are not fast readers. Some people could be able to figure out a math problem, but take a lot of time and extra steps to do it because that is the only way they understand it. Some people might be good at science, but have a hard time sorting through all of the rubbish that surrounds the information they need to get to interpret the graph. These things all take time to do. Just because someone takes a long time to solve something does not mean they have a low chance of receiving successful grades in college. These tests do not take different people’s learning styles and test taking skills into account, not to mention students with learning disabilities. Albert Einstein explains this perfectly with this quote, “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” There are many flaws in these tests and I think I speak for the majority of the student population when I say that something needs to change. I believe that I have come up with, not a perfect solution, but an idea that can be worked with.

My senior year I participated in the College of Idaho’s Kathryn Albertson’s Scholarship. For this scholarship I was given an essay to write and an interview pertaining to the Major I was interested in. My essay was for creative writing and they had an English professor interview me and ask me about my interests and thoughts on books and writing. I think this is the perfect model for what should replace standardized testing.

When we go to college we go to learn about the things that will help us make a living with our future career. For instance If someone is a Science major they will be taking all of the more advanced science and math classes, but only the required English classes which will teach them basic skills in that area. The same goes for someone who is planning on being a Creative Writing major only reversed. With the ACT and SAT one category can destroy your score. This is why I think something like the Kathryn Albertson’s method would be perfect. It pertains to the person’s area of concentration and that is the kind of system we need.

First the student will register for a day where they can go in to take either an opinionated test, or an essay and do an interview which will be at most a $15.00 charge. Both the test/essay and interview will pertain to their area of interest. If their category requires them to take the test then the test will only consist of opinion based questions as to gauge how the person perceives different kinds of questions and what kind of knowledge they have about their area of interest. If the student is given an essay assignment, the writing prompt will revolve around their major for instance, a creative writing major might be given a poem to interpret in their own way. The test or essay will not be timed.

Before they do the test or essay they will go to a scheduled interview with a professor or expert in their area of concentration. The interviewer will ask the student questions about their interest, strengths, weaknesses, and work ethic. The interviewer’s goal is to decide what kind of a student as well as citizen this interviewee is. The Interviewer will take nerves in to consideration. The student will treat this interview like a job interview which means they will dress nice, be polite, and make sure to answer questions fully and truthfully. The interviewer will grade the student on all these things and write their own essay on how the interview went and give the student a rating from one to five. One being the lowest and five being the highest. In their essay they will include how the student presented themselves and give an overview of each category the interviewer questioned them about. The interviewer will also be required to contact at least two of the student’s references and include their view of the student in the essay. The test or essay the student completed along with the results from the interview will be sent back to the student and the student’s school counselor. This is what the student will use for scholarships and college applications in place of the standardized testing.

With my plan one might argue it doesn’t take bad test takers out of the equation. They might still have a hard time getting through the opinion based test or essay. While this might be true I have a way of providing students with a better chance of success than the practice tests that the SAT and ACT provide. The high schools will offer a series of practice essays, tests, and interviews. A certain number of them will be required and then the others are just offers that people will sign up for. The student will be interviewed by the teacher which most closely match their area of concentration and the teacher will do for them the same thing the college level interviewer would do. The student will also have to treat this like the real thing. The students who will take a test will be given advice on how to answer the questions most impressively and clearly. The questions will be pertaining to their major as well as the essay which students will practice and be informed on the necessary essay writing skills. Both of these things will be similar in length to the actual test or essay.

With this, students will have a clear idea of what they are going into and therefore have most or at least some of their nerves staunched, and their skills enhanced. Another question someone might ask is how we might get these teachers and experts to do all of these interviews, and how will they have time. First of all we will be paying them for their services. The College Board will be in charge of deciding the amount, and they will be paid extra depending on how far they have to travel. As for time, we will do this the same way the Kathryn Albertson’s Scholarship is done. A group of kids sign up online for a day to interview and the interviewer sees a certain amount of kids on a certain day. The interviews will go on for as many days as they need to get all of the students interviewed.

ACT and SAT standardized tests are weighed much too heavily by colleges and scholarships. The tests are inconsiderate of different learning styles, learning disabilities, and produce inaccurate results. There needs to be an alternative which revolves around the student’s area of interests, and gives the scholarships and schools an idea of what kind of a person the student is and how much they are willing to work and become a productive citizen in the community. America is always concerned with the low percentage of kids who go to college and graduate, but how can they complain when the standardized tests make it nearly impossible for students to be accepted into college, or afford it. I believe with a plan like this we can change America’s educational future for the better. Let’s do away with unproductive standardized testing.