Too much emphasis is placed on the importance of standardized tests
by Dylan Nugent

Second semester of junior year is unsurprisingly one of the most stressful times in high school, especially for college-bound students. Juniors hold the responsibility of maintaining or raising the grades that colleges scrutinize the most, preparing for grueling AP exams (possibly for the first time), and, of course, taking standardized admissions exams such as the ACT and the SAT.

As students prepare for the ACT and/or SAT, a lot of advice will be spread around. They will be told when and what to study, how much sleep to get before test day, what to eat, what to wear, what to bring, and so forth. Perhaps the best advice that can be given to them, however, is also the simplest: relax.

According to the American Psychological Association, stress is one of the most common psychological conditions and is most prevalent among teenagers and young adults. Constant stress can weaken the immune system, cause insomnia, and reduce reaction times: factors which unsurprisingly lead to lower scores on the ACT or the SAT. Constantly worrying about the tests is by far the easiest way to perform worse on them. The solution recommended by the College Board is to begin studying for the test in advance, avoid cramming the night of the test, and get an uninterrupted eight to ten hours of sleep and eat a complete breakfast before taking the exam.

However, this does not always help to stop the raging worries and questions in test-taker’s minds. Often, the chief question is whether or not one should take both the ACT and SAT (the ACT is required by Illinois state law, and is taken in April by all Northside juniors).

There are theoretical differences in the ways the ACT and SAT are written. According to ACT and College Board, the two companies that publish the ACT and the SAT respectively, the ACT is an aptitude test, which attempts to gauge how students will perform in college, whereas the SAT is an achievement test, which attempts to gauge how much students have learned in high school. Ask any student who took both exams, though, and you’ll generally find a common verdict — most people who score high (or low) on one test do about the same on the other. The real questions flying around at this time are more than just “how will I do?” however. With the emphasis placed on standardized testing being more extreme than any other single aspect of college admissions, the weight they actually hold in the eyes of the admissions offices around the country can be unclear. The honest truth is that it is unclear. Each college treats different aspects of the admissions procedure differently — some colleges, especially larger ones, tend to be formulaic and go by numbers (i.e. GPA, test scores) alone, while others do not even require test scores to be submitted.

School counselors say that grades are the most important things submitted, and this does tend to be the case. Grades show how a student has performed in various classes of various difficulties over an entire three-year period. Of course, a huge discrepancy between a student’s grades and test scores never look good, but a bright student with low test scores and high grades has a stronger chance of being accepted to a college then one with low grades but high test scores.

But what does the test score say about the test taker? This year, Northside ranked second, dropping below Walter Payton, in the Chicago Tribune rankings of high schools in the Chicago area. These rankings, primarily based on Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) scores, which is the Illinois mandated standardized test that includes the ACT, might suggest that test scores are a strong measure of a student’s performance, worth, or intelligence; they are not. In fact, they are not even necessarily an accurate gauge of school performance; they do provide the easiest method for comparison, though. For a student, all a test measures is how well one preformed answering those particular questions on that particular day.

Though these tests are considered standardized, a lot of possible factors that could change the score are not included under the ’standardized’ banner. Students who have difficulty focusing, perform poorly under time pressures, or who read or write better in a foreign language than they do in English will almost certainly score worse than other students. Concerns about focus have lead to some students resorting to immoral or even illegal practices.

According to the New York Times, the practice of using certain psychostimulants generally reserved for patients diagnosed with ADD or ADHD to improve focus has been gaining ground on college campuses and among standardized test takers. Despite being weaker variations, stimulants like Adderall are in the same category of drugs as methamphetamine and can be extremely hazardous, not to mention illegal, to use. According to Eric Heilingenstein, director of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, these drugs also cause a reduction in impulsiveness and creativity, something which is equally necessary on tests as focus.

So if you are taking that standardized test relatively soon or even in the distant future, do not get caught up in the test score rush. Do not do anything you might regret later, like trying to cheat or use drugs; in the end, you will be worse off. Instead, in the weeks before the test, study a bit, but sleep and relax. When those scores finally do come back, celebrate and do not worry if they are lower than desired. It is always possible to take the test again, and keep in mind that absolutely nothing on the test can tell a college how creative, brilliant, or dedicated you may be. Remember that no matter what, a test is just a brief moment of a long life.

So good luck, but even better luck in everything that actually matters.