For students all across the country, one of the main insecurities for getting into colleges has to do with the SAT. The SAT was designed and developed in 1901 "to supplement essay-based tests and also help privileged applicants get into college". For many students, The SAT is extremely difficult and hard to comprehend, but for other it is uncomplicated. Students who take the SAT have scores that ranging from 200 to 1600. By taking the SAT is not an accurate judgment of the student's knowledge and should be banned as part of the college entrance process.
As a standardized test, the SAT produces unequal results because those students have had unequal educational experiences. For example, several students advance in higher educational classes, which give them the knowledge necessary to accomplish different sections of the SAT. Different schools around California offer a variety educational opportunities and each student who goes to these schools absorb a different amount of information. In addition, two million U.S. high school students will take the SAT reasoning test and how well they do will play a big part in determining whether or not they'll get into the college of their choice. A man by the name of Richard Atkinson calls for an ending to the use of the SAT for UC admissions. "He warned that the misuse of SAT scores is so widespread that it "is compromising our educational system". (collegeboard.com) Atkinson also stated, "Anyone involved in education should be concerned about how overemphasis on the SAT is distorting educational priories and practices, how the test is perceived by many as unfair, and how it can have a devastating impact on the self esteem and aspirations of young students. Many universities, faced with having to choose among thousands of highly qualified applicants, give too much weight to the SAT."(collegeboard.com) Atkinson has asked UC's to base admissions on an overall look at the applicant thanks to the Academic Senate promises to drop that SAT by 2003.
