March 12th, 2010 by Rachel | Tags: Anthropology | No Comments »
(Click on the bold text to see the sources)
In the U.S., many young Americans have been stacking up their expenses to earn the best scores on SATs (and AP exams) and the expenses include taking the exam more than once, purchasing books, and paying fees to take the preparation courses. A high school senior could easily spend almost $600, the amount, that my brother who is about to graduate from high school, paid to take the SATs, SAT IIs, AP exams and to send his scores to various schools. Just to sit for an exam costs $45. While College Board has been claiming to be a non-profit organization, this organization earned a total asset of $577,406,688 in 2008.
In my personal theory, College Board has certainly been creating a ridiculous cultural landscape of ‘false’ representation of each young American individual today. SAT scores have not been showing the true reflection of many individuals. The scores are just numbers. Those who were in the upper-middle class society tended to pay a much higher sum than those in the lower class society to prepare for the exam and obviously, many of those who spent more time preparing normally had higher scores. This has been damaging to those who couldn’t afford preparation courses and books, as many could have as much future potentials as those who received higher scores by paying extra for preparation, and the scores could effect college admissions’ decisions. Let alone, the amount of time the students spent studying has been taking students’ invaluable time to explore their interests such as painting or history or anthropology and also their skills such as committing to a leadership position or making contributions to the society. Yes, I understand that students could make an effort to fit both, preparing for SATs and exploring their interests, but doing both could reach to the point that it could burn their health – not having enough time to relax and sleep!
In 2001, the President of University of California system proposed to drop the SAT requirement from the admissions as he stated that the scores do not show the true colors of the students’ ability to achieve in college. He also stated that SATs did not examine based on what students learned in the course:
“It says that students will be tested on material that is unrelated to what they study in their classes. It says that the grades they achieve can be devalued by a test that is not part of their school curriculum. Most important, the SAT I scores only tell a student that he or she scored higher or lower than his or her classmates. They provide neither students nor schools with a basis for self-assessment or improvement.”
Thus, College Board proposed to do a major overhaul on the exams, and that’s what led to the SAT change in 2006. In my personal theory, because University of California system has such a large number of college students, College Board feared that they would lose money to those students who choose not to take the exam. Thus, this is why they changed the exam in order to get University of California’s admission office to continue to require the scores.
Obviously, as someone who took both the new and the old SATs, I feel that the new one absolutely did not make any differences. I received just about the same scores on both tests. The test scores do not predict students’ abilities in college and let alone their future potentials, especially the fact that College Board did not grade hundreds of score correctly in 2005. College Board as a NON-PROFIT organization, has been in existence just to take money from many students including those who were in debt after graduating from college, and that did not just include changing the SATs in 2006 to ensure that revenues would still be flowing into the organization – it also include selling their guidebooks on taking exams and charging outrageously high fees to take the exams.
While College Board has not been a corporation, this organization that has been earning multi-million dollars in profit, still does really have a tremendous power to control the college admissions and students’ education.
Click here to read more about College Board’s unethical conduct.
