I pack my tote bag the night before. I sharpen three #2 pencils and grab my Ti-84 calculator. The bright and cute sticker I placed on my calculator case to keep morale high during my math and science classes now mocks me. I shove my test anxiety down because I cannot afford to lose sight of the goal. I am a junior in high school. This is the SAT. Absolutely everything rides on this.
This spring is special though, because this is the first year that the SAT is digital for all test takers. I was part of the first wave of digital testing, and honestly loathed it. While no one really loves the SAT, there are factors I appreciate. Filling in Scantron bubbles is a meditative process, and one that I occasionally leave until the end. I like coming out of the test (whether on a break or at the end) and knowing that everyone answered those exact same questions. It’s a bonding experience, one that is shared by high schoolers across the nation a couple Saturdays each year. The new digital SAT obviously eliminates the Scantron, and now, the test is section-adaptive, so students will get different questions.
However, as with most changes, there are positives. It’s shorter, which is awesome. In and out in just over two hours, compared to the three hours in days of yore. The math sections are both calculator active. In fact, it has also gotten a little easier in content in recent years. And now that more and more colleges are returning to requiring standardized tests after a break during COVID-19. Now, the SAT is more important than it was three years ago.
College admissions are a ruthless battleground. While an application includes extracurriculars, course transcripts, and essays, it also usually includes a standardized test score. It is not the defining factor in admission, but it can be imperative. It could also take a middling application to the right side of average. A good score could also mean a hefty scholarship, without which most could never afford college, even with loans. But is it truly the best way to conduct college admissions?
The SAT has changed a lot in the past year, but a lot about it hasn’t changed at all. A 2018 study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that white and Asian students scored significantly higher than other races and that male students scored slightly higher than female students on both the SAT and ACT. This has been a trend for over 30 years, leading many to believe that these tests are biased and therefore invalid. They are supposed to be a unifier of applicants from the entire nation. They provide a metric that every student can be compared to, but with clear racial discrepancies, are the standardized tests a good standard? The study reported an average score of 1229 for Asian students and 1098 for white students compared to an average of 926 for Black students. The average Asian student in this study is just about an average applicant, while the average Black student is well below the 25th percentile of scores and would likely not be accepted at all.
Because the very first national digital SAT only happened earlier this month, there isn’t much to say about how it might impact the discrepancies in race, class, and gender. Programs through companies like Khan Academy have created free tutoring opportunities and accessible test prep, but there is still a long road ahead. While 95% of selective schools technically practice holistic admissions (looking at the whole application to decide whether to offer admission) there is, ironically, no standard for what that means. There is room for improvement in college admissions in general but recognizing that a student is not their SAT score could be a place to start. I look forward to a future where acceptance is based on the whole student and their whole high school career, and not just specific numbers.
