SAT: Numerical value with no value at all

An article in the Feb. 26, 2001 issue of Time magazine reported an interesting development in the area of university education: Richard Atkinson, testing expert and president of the University of California, recommended that the UC system drop the SAT in its admission process, saying, "America's emphasis on the SAT is compromising our educational system." He noted the vast sums of money that parents spend on test-prep programs — some starting from the age of 12 — and that some parents even try to find psychologists to certify their children as "disabled" so they will qualify for extra test time.

So, if the University of California can do it, why can't Princeton? Yes — I am suggesting that Princeton abolish the SAT from its admission standards. And after thinking about it long and hard, I stick by that recommendation, which stems much from personal experience but also from my observations about Princeton admission standards.

First, the personal experience. It's been a while since I took the SAT. My school required all sophomores to take a "pre-PSAT," and so my first experience with the test was back in the fall of 1993. The results came, and I was horrified when I opened the ETS envelope: I had scored a 1080.

I, the wonderful student, had bombed the PSAT (one bright note, however: it was before re-centering, which occurred the following year). My mom was not too supportive, simply saying, "That sucks, Seth," but I was able to regain my composure after that devastating setback. That summer I took a Princeton Review SAT course, and when I took the test for real in the spring of my junior year, the course paid off, and my score increased in the neighborhood of 400 points.

What did the course teach me, though? I did not gain any actual knowledge; I learned how to take the SAT. I learned in a methodical, repetitive manner how to read the passages, how to approach the math questions and how to find the correct answers for the analogies by using them in a sentence. Weeks of homework and practice tests showed me just one thing: that doing well on the SAT was just a measure of how well you could dissect it and learn some tricks in approaching it. I did get to learn a nice slew of fifty-cent words which I use in my papers to this day, but I did not gain any actual knowledge. Furthermore, once the SAT was out of the way, I never used any of those techniques for further high school or college reading.

When college application time came along, I was much like many of you readers: good grades, leadership in activities and interesting essays. Between my 1080 and my 400-point increase, I was not a different student. The Princeton Review just made me a more attractive applicant based on a four-digit number.

But what I don't understand is this: Princeton doesn't look at us solely in terms of GPAs and SATs. They want physicist dancers from California and premier racquetball-playing Westinghouse scholars from Idaho and math whizzes from Turkey fluent in five languages. Why should the SAT be a component of the admission process when a simple class can allow me to have as good a score as someone who is a naturally good test-taker? We are not a law school or a medical school where across-the-board grades and test scores matter. Admissions officers look at the whole package — from awards we won to what our favorite movies are.

The one complaint to be lodged against this point of view is that the SAT is the only standard comparative measure between students of different backgrounds, since schools may vary in their rigor. But why should ONE three-hour test someone takes in high school be such an important determinant of his future? European school systems employ evaluation systems based on actual knowledge learned, and if Americans are to have some standardized test, each state should employ proficiency tests on information to be taught during high school, and those scores could be posted on students' transcripts. Why should a low score on an SAT — which, as I said before, is a test of how well you can take the SAT — relegate otherwise superior candidates to the dustbin? I am not the only one here who can attest to Dr. Atkinson's observation of the vast sums of money poured into preparation for a silly test — so I ask the admissions office to do what they have always done: evaluate the whole package, but subtract one four-digit number. Seth Wikas is a Near Eastern Studies major from Beachwood, OH. He can be reached at sawikas@princeton.edu.