The SAT: How Much Is Too Much?

Working as a college counselor in Asia, I hear a lot about the SAT (and standardized testing in general).  Many East Asian countries, such as Taiwan, China, and Korea, have a national college entrance exam which all students who are staying in their home country must take in order to go on to university.  Because of this many Asian families confuse the SAT with a college entrance exam.

I don't blame parents for this mistake.  Most only know this system from their own university experiences and they hear a lot about the importance of the SAT or ACT, and make this assumption.

I spend a lot of time dispelling the myth that the SAT and ACT are college entrance exams.  For many students, the score they receive on these tests are something tangible that they can use to measure against other students who were admitted to a specific college or university.  Most schools in the US have this information on their website or published in books such as the Fiske Guide (which I regularly use).  For some second language students and parents, using this number as a measure of entrance is an easy way to determine academic fit.

As a former admissions officer, I can say with certainty that most colleges in the United States use the SAT or ACT as just one measure of admissibility.  I often tell parents and students that it's just one piece of the puzzle (ok, maybe two or three, but who is counting!).

So, down to the question: How many times should my student take the SAT?

The official stance by the College Board, which is the organization that administers the SAT, is TWO TIMES.  This information is coming for the organization that makes money every time you take the test.  They could encourage you to take the test ten times and make five times the money, but they don't.  Why?  The College Board recognizes that taking the test again and again doesn't really show a college or university anything about your academic ability.  It simply shows that you are learning how to master the test.

I feel that three times is appropriate but NO MORE.  Unless a student chooses the Score Choice option, which I don't recommend and will be covered in a future post, each college or university that a student applies to will see every SAT test date score.  Frankly, taking the SAT beyond three times makes a student appear desperate.  I would often wonder as an Admissions Officer why this student was so fixated on this one exam when there were so many other important parts of the application.  I would often see a student over testing when it was clear that their application was lacking in other important areas.  It was made to seem that they were using this test score to make up for deficiencies in other areas.

What is my advice instead of fixating on the SAT or any other form of standardized testing?  Learn a new hobby.  Volunteer with an organization in your community that you care about or one that you want to learn more about.  As your Grandparents about their lives and what they did before they became Grandparents.  Learn a new sport or continue to excel at one you are already passionate about.  Join a club at school that has peaked your interest or start a club if there isn't one that interests you.  Read a book that hasn't been assigned for school.  Be a leader.  Be excited about something.  Be passionate.  Be personable.  Be proud of who you are and all that you have accomplished!  

The Game of Life

This is going to sound strange...I have never played The Game of Life. I know. I know. I just didn't grow up in a game playing family. I did marry into one though and my almost six year old son happened upon Life this summer. 

We got to play a few rounds this summer and I thought it was interesting that each player has to decide if they are going to immediately go into business, making less money but moving you quickly along, or go to college, taking more time but ultimately making you more money.

I was really surprised that my usually fast paced son decided that making more money was worth the extra time. He thought it through and decided, at age five, that going to college was worth it. When the time comes, he can make his own decisions about college, but this summer I was pretty proud of my little boy.

SAT vs. ACT

Students often ask me which standardized test will look better to a college or university in the United States.  The simple answer is: It doesn't matter!  Here are the differences between the SAT and the ACT.

The ACT has traditionally been considered to be an achievement test, measuring what a student has learned in school.  The SAT has traditionally been considered to be an aptitude test, measuring reasoning and verbal abilities.  While the SAT used to be the more widely used test, many students have been taking the ACT in recent years.  Seeing this shift (and watching their numbers drop) has forced College Board, the organization that administers the SAT, to shift more toward the SAT model.  This will begin in the spring of 2016.

The ACT has up to 5 components: English, Math, Reading, Science, and an optional Writing Test.  The SAT currently has 3 components: Critical Reading, Math, and a required Writing Test.

The SAT penalizes you for wrong answers, so guessing is discouraged.  The ACT is scored based on the number of correct answers without a penalty for guessing.

While I don't think there is a right test or a wrong test, I think every student should take practice ACT and SAT tests to determine which one they feel more comfortable taking.  Most students will naturally gravitate toward one test or the other.

Who Gets to Graduate?

I came across an interesting article in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago about graduation statistics in the United States, "Who Gets To Graduate?"  I know that as a college counselor who works at a private school in Asia I probably won't come across many students who this information applies to.  Almost all of the students I work with will be able to afford college without private loans.

Still, the students I work with will probably enter a university education system in which they will be surrounded by students who fall into this category - possibly first generation college students or those who come from diverse economic situations. 

I was really stuck by the fact that, "more than 40 percent of American students who start at four-year colleges haven’t earned a degree after six years."  I know that the graduation rate in the US is low, but this was a startling statistic.  I'm curious to know if the current economy in the United States is aiding these statistics. 

Another interesting trend that this article points out is, "whether a student graduates or not seems to depend today almost entirely on just one factor — how much money his or her parents make.  To put it in blunt terms: Rich kids graduate; poor and working-class kids don’t."  The University of Texas is working hard to tackle this issue.  

"If you want to help low-income students succeed, it’s not enough to deal with their academic and financial obstacles. You also need to address their doubts and misconceptions and fears. To solve the problem of college completion, you first need to get inside the mind of a college student."

To do this one of their professors, Professor Laude, has not only created a small classroom environment for these students but also, "supplemented his lectures with a variety of strategies: He offered students two hours each week of extra instruction; he assigned them advisers who kept in close contact with them and intervened if the students ran into trouble or fell behind; he found upperclassmen to work with students one on one, as peer mentors."

Overall, I think this article struck me because I believe so strongly in liberal arts education.  In general, these colleges tend to be small, with small class sizes and individual attention for each student.  While not every liberal arts college can provide this close personal contact, I think that most strive to create a more community based approach to education - integrating residential life and classroom learning where ever possible, and encouraging personal contact by professors, teaching assistants, mentors, and residence life staff.  

From my own personal experience as a student at Trinity College (CT), I had many dinners at my professors homes and was surrounded by faculty and students who kept an eye on me.  When my father had a stroke when I was a sophomore in college, a team of college staff came to my aid to make sure I had a plan for completing school work and that I had access to a mental health professional if I needed one.   

In working with Asian students for the past four years, many of them tend to shy away from "Liberal Arts Colleges" because they think of them as a bastion for far left thinkers and artists.  Many of them enter the college search with this mis-conception, hearing only "arts" and move toward larger universities in search of a more balanced education.  I have been working hard over the years to encourage my students to take a look at liberal arts colleges for the small classroom environment which fosters personal connections and interdisciplinary thinking.  

When speaking with students in the future, I think I will add to this information that the learning environment offered by a liberal arts college might actually increase graduation rates too.