CollegeBoard Survey Response

If you were going to say something to the teacher, counselor, or whomever who encouraged you to sign up for the SAT, what would you tell them?


The SAT is a poorly designed waste of money.  In direct contrast with CollegeBoard's well thought-out and interesting AP exams and curriculums, the SAT not only fails to outline a curriculum that will actually provide students with useful knowledge and adequately assess students' understanding of the admittedly pointless standards, it also just fails in general.  In fact, I assert that the reason you are recommending me to take the SAT is not because you personally feel it is a good representation of one's skills and preparedness for the world, but rather because those with more power than you feel as such.  I can't express to you in words how many teachers have talked to me about their negative viewpoint on the SAT as a whole.  It's a sad truth that since the SAT and by extension CollegeBoard has such a ridiculous monopoly on student life as a whole, even people who share my viewpoint still end up taking the questionably founded SAT.  However, in the seemingly unlikely scenario that someone in a position of power at CollegeBoard is reading a textual representation of our conversation, I'd like to outline a few of the reasons I'm against the SAT.

While most people are (wisely) opposed to standardized testing, I personally can appreciate the value of a standardized test that provides a numeric representation of one's aptitude at everything in life (although precautions probably should be taken to make sure our society doesn't devolve into one of the grossly hyperbolic dystopian societies so popular with pre-teen girls).  However, the core issue with the SAT is that the curriculum it outlines is comprised of completely useless information better forgotten (again similar to most dystopian society novellas).  For example, why were there several questions on the PSAT exclusively regarding the differences between "affect" and "effect"?  To what affect is knowledge like this important to a college-bound student?  Even someone who grossly misunderstands the difference shouldn't be discredited for it.  A major rewriting of the curriculum is necessary; a focus on applicable, real world information would be preferable.

Let us assume that progress has been made and an entirely new curriculum has been written to replace the old one.  All this work is for naught if a test is manufactured that can't even assess students over this information.  Allow me to illustrate with an anecdote.  It's the early 1990's and you are Professor Andrew Wiles (then Professor Andrew Wiles, presently Sir Andrew Wiles).  It's been your childhood dream to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, a mathematical theorem whose simple and elegant proof has eluded mathematicians for centuries.  However, you don't know where to start.  Thankfully, you turn over the sheet of paper on your desk and see, in writing,
"Fermat's last theorem can be proven by:
A) eating ice cream.
B) baking cookies.
C) first proving the Modularity Theorem"
"Of course!" you shout, enthralled with your purported discovery, "my teacher just went over this one last week!"
Hopefully, this example serves to illustrate my point better than my words can.  Multiple choice questions do not in any way shape or form allow students to demonstrate problem solving skills; they merely allow students to regurgitate a memorized answer.  If you want a test that will provide colleges with information about which students will change the world someday, I ask how this can come about purely by memorizing already discovered information.

All in all, teacher, counselor, or whomever who encouraged me to sign up for the SAT, I would concisely describe the SAT as such: wasted potential.  CollegeBoard has established themselves as the defacto standard in college-bound education.  It deeply pains me that they so utterly fail to capitalize on this opportunity.  However, all is not hopeless.  As I alluded to at the end of the first paragraph, there's a impossibly small chance someone in a position of power at CollegeBoard is reading through our one-sided conversation.  The fact that the reader has read this far indicates to me that Collegeboard has some willingness to change, or at least an interest in understanding how students view the SAT.  What I have to say not to you, dear teacher, counselor, or whomever who encouraged me to sign up for the SAT, but to the hypothetical CollegeBoard representative reading through the conversation is this:  The change I propose may be difficult; I recognize this.  However, educating the children of the future is something incredibly important, and it falls on your shoulders and no one else's to do so.