The cons of the ACT and SAT

I feel they are not outdated. I feel they never should have existed. To me, a college should test on what it wants to get in. The individual college. Not only would it curb students from applying to the 10 schools they do now (unless they want to take 10 tests), it would also test what the individual college wanted.

In a study done at MSU almost 20 years ago, researchers found that as many as 50% of the items on a nationally standardized achievement test may cover topics that students wouldn't in the classroom in a given locality (Popham).

makes me feel good about that. Not only that, but teachers teach towards a standardized tests. If their students are going to a full range of colleges they'll be forced to teach what they believe is important, and not what will get a good score. Also, ACT/SAT tutors will be gone. You can't have an MSU teacher or a GW teacher, its to hard. It will cut down the gap of rich and poor as they wont have the people paying for a full time tutor vs minimal education.

That is if we need standardized tests at all...

Most standardized tests are written for the white middle/upper class. There are huge gaps between different groups (as shown on the site) like gender, racial group etc. The tests are written to trick students not test their intellect. People who arent good test takers are not taken into account and on the SAT the idea that if you get one low score it affects you even if you get a high one next time is absurd. One bad day can ruin your life.

There are so many reasons why these tests are bad and so few why they are good. If we need testing, let each individual college test you. My proposal: an online test/essay test. These two options allow for a student to be themselves and be weighed, take away from problems with tests and will allow for foreign language students to use tools at hand. Why handicap anyone from using tools theyll have in college?