Ah yes. The season of test-taking. At all levels of your education you take a test, either for a class or in this case a standardized one. Throughout all of my academic career, I've taken a variety of standardized tests including the PSSA, SAT, ACT and the LSAT. AP Tests are excluded from this semi-rant. I have come to the conclusion that after taking these tests....they don't work. These tests don't measure one's intelligence at all nor are they a good indicator of anything. Not everyone is a good test taker. You can't really "study" for these tests either compared to a test you take for a class where you actually LEARN material and have fun with it! It was Einstein who said: "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination."
Years after I took my SATs I heard on the news that some universities are now saying that the application may not require the SAT scores. Where was that when I was growing up? Money wasted? You bet. After taking my SATs in high school and was in the process of choosing a college, my high school guidance counselor told me that I would do good at a "branch campus" based off of my scores. You're joking. My mom thought it was a joke too. Instead I chose Widener University and my GPA is better than it was in high school.
The LSAT is a different matter. I dreamed of going to law school for a number of reasons. The question of the purpose of the LSAT still puzzles me, even after I took it. When I got that score back, it didn't surprise me at all. I prepared as much as I could, but in the end, my mind wasn't standardized to do well.
My brother also fell victim to the dreadful abomination of standardized tests. He took the Keystone, which replaced the PSSA.To make a long story short, different name, same bullsh*t. He didn't do well in particular the math section, and because of that he had to retake the math class he was currently in. He had a B+ in the class...and why does he have to take that again??? That doesn't make any sense.
It's not my fault that my mind can't be limited to a standard, but the bottom line is that these tests are not an appropriate way to evaluate a students' progress. There's a pros and cons list you can check out at the link below, but until then, I refuse to take another one of these. I know who I am, I know where my intelligence comes from and I refuse to waste more time and money on taking another one of these.
If universities and colleges are making the SAT/ACT scores "optional" for applications now, I think there's a reason for it. Who knows? Maybe it's just me...
