Despite many perceived flaws with the tests that College Board administers each year, standard tests serve a purpose of providing college admissions counselors with a level of objectivity. Yes, you need to do well in your high school grades, write great essays, excel in extracurricular activities and receive solid recommendations. While these may provide the college admissions officers with a glimpse of who you are, they do not paint the entire picture. Without your SATs and other standardized tests, your high school resume will remind people of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer joins a karate class. In this one particular episode, Kramer is the quickest and strongest pupil who beats up everyone in a hand-to-hand combat. When he tells Elaine, she is visibly impressed until she finds out that Kramer is enrolled in a class with 9 year olds. If he were in a class with people his age, we would get to know how good he really was. That Kramer, he is so silly.
The SAT test is probably the best known of the standardized tests and is required for most colleges. This writer used to think that SATs were called that because they were always taken on Saturday. Later, much to his embarrassment, he found out that it stood for Scholastic Achievement Test. Some people call it Scholastic Assessment Test or Scholastic Aptitude Test. The SAT is designed to measure one’s verbal and mathematical abilities. The assumption behind the test is that all college bound test takers should have the basic knowledge, and you are really tested on your intelligence. This is certainly debatable but there is a strong correlation between high grades and high test scores. The merits of test preparatory services are questionable as well. To be sure though, you should become familiar with the format of the test. That means that you should take several practice tests. When you are taking the test, you want to give yourself the best chance to do well on the tests. That means that you don’t want to spend any time reading the instructions because you should be familiar already. Also, you should develop a test taking strategy. If you know that you do better on one particular section over another, you may want to give yourself ample time to maximize your chance of getting a good score.
I am not going to insult your intelligence by telling you what the scores mean. If you get 500 or worse, you did about as well as Charley would have done in day one of Flowers For Algernon. If you get a score above 1500, you are now in that elite range where your scores will provide you with a boost. Most of you will score between these two extremes. If you do score in that middle range, there are probably ways for you to make significant improvements to your score. If you got that 1590, don’t be a dork and try to go for the perfect score.
SAT IIs (artist formerly known as the Achievement tests) can be studied because they test your knowledge. Most colleges may require at least two of these scores. Generally, the most competitive colleges would ask for three scores of which one is English and the other is Math. This doesn’t give you many options as your third choice. My advice is to take the test on a subject that you enjoy and did really well. The chances are that you are more likely to enjoy studying (if that is possible) for the examination and be able to get higher scores.
And if you don’t get good scores in these tests, perhaps you should consider a career in environmental management (janitor) or accelerated edible consumption dispenser (fast-food waiter).
