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Nicole Carpenter

Mr.Phillips

English 3

28 February 2019

Is Standardized Testing Necessary?

I would like to change that students should not have to take the ACT and SAT to attend

college. A plethora of colleges accept and reject students because of these standardized test.

Instead of these test I feel that colleges should look more at kids GPAs and there grades from

sophomore year to senior year and see how much they approved. Also I feel as colleges should

just not care about just your grades. Even though you are really book smart that does not mean

you are street smart and a good person. Some people are really smart in school but outside of

school are a really rude and impolite person. That’s why I feel as colleges if they see your

grades and like you, you should have to take a character test/interview with them for them to

see the type of person you are, because colleges do not want crazy rude people coming to

there school affecting the good positive environment they want at their school.

Standardized test only show just little ability to predict the success of students. Recently

all the juniors at Leesville Road High School just took the ACT. My whole high school career I

have only taken academic level classes. On the math section on the ACT, on more than half the

math problems I had not learned how to do that type of math yet. So more than likely I got those

problems wrong which counted against me which I do not think is fair. The people that make

these standardized test put what they think all juniors have learned but that is not the case.

Academic classes do not learn everything honors classes learn and there was for sure honors

math on the ACT. Also you only get a certain amount of time on each section of the ACT. Not

everyone is a fast test taker and can not read a lot of passages in a certain amount of time, not
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everyone can figure out a lot of math problems in just a little bit of time. They want us to do our

best on these test but giving us limited time and rushing us is not going to make us to our best.

Mr. Swann thinks differently about standardized testing. In his opinion “not all grading at

the schools are the same, some schools have harder grading than others, some teachers grade

harder than others everything is different”. But in my opinion the grading scale can not be that

different. Some teachers might grade harder than others but in reality a teacher knows when to

give a student an A,B,C,D. Mr Swann also states that a lot of people do not do there homework

and classwork because they are lazy but are actually very smart, so the ACT and SAT give

them a chance to show what they really know and what they can do. The ACT and SAT might

give those students a chance to shine but in college the ACT and SAT are not what is going to

get them through college, it is that classwork and homework,and the dedication that will get

them through college. The ACT and SAT are just a test. In college you have to have a lot of

motivation to do your work and and if you already do not do your work in highschool what is

going to make you do it in college.

In the end the ACT and SAT should be optional for all high school students. More

colleges need to not require it like Belmont Abbey, Bennett, and, Wake Forest college. One test

is barely going to prove anything to the colleges you apply for. You might be the student that

has to work really hard to get the grades you want like me and taking test like the ACT and SAT

you are not for sure what is going to be on there so you can not study for it so therefore you

might not do the best.