Atara Berkower - Week 4 - Testing optional

 Blog Oct 12, 2021

Testing optional

As juniors in high school, we are all busy making ourselves stand out to colleges. We are focused on our academic grades, the ACT and SAT standardized tests, and extracurricular activities to add to our resumes. Class of 2022 has it easier on them because they have the option to test-optional, which means the ACT and SAT are not mandatory to submit when applying to colleges. This option makes it easier for all students to be accepted into their college of choice. If a person has really good grades and does not do well on standardized tests, they are in luck. Since not that many people are submitting their test scores, it makes a person who does submit their scores stand out. It gives them an advantage to getting accepted into a college over someone who has the same grades but no test score. It is up to the student to decide if they want to spend the time studying for the SAT and ACT. Next year, when the class of 2023 is applying to colleges, it is very unlikely that schools are still doing test-optional. Therefore, it makes it more competitive for them to get into the college of their choice. Additionally, it makes our junior year more academically challenging. Studying for the SAT and ACT is extremely time-consuming. It may take away from doing well in school because it may take over studying for a test in school. If you had the option to test-optional like the class of 2022 does, would you take on that offer? Or would you still test to make your application stand out?

Comments

  1. AnonymousOct 12, 2021, 9:58:00 AM

    I would personally want this year to be test optional because of the advantages. If colleges go test optional (which is highly unlikely), it would make students like me stand out more since I would take on the challenge of one of the standardized tests. Obviously, that is a huge plus, and always having the mindset of the test not being mandatory relives a lot of stress. I agree with you Atara.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOct 12, 2021, 12:15:00 PM

    I think the optional aspect would be really nice to have. So you can take either the Sat or Act if you want and have the choice to submit it if you want because you got an insanely good score, and if you want to take it and you get a so so score, and don't want to submit that score, you have the choice to not do so.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOct 12, 2021, 10:55:00 PM

    I am hoping that schools are still test optional when we all apply for colleges. I am hoping that I score high enough on my SAT to be able to not have to worry about if different colleges require testing, but I would still like to have that choice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOct 13, 2021, 1:25:00 PM

    Even if we, as the class of 2023 had the option of test-optional, I feel like I would still take it to stand out. However, I do feel that if we did have test optional, I don't know if I would try as hard as I am now to get a good grade. Also, if the SAT and Act were optional, it would let us, as Juniors to be less stressed because studying for these standardized tests are very time consuming and energy draining.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michael HakimOct 18, 2021, 7:23:00 PM

    Even if it was optional, I think I would still take the test. I think that you have nothing to lose. It would be nice for it to be optional, though.

    ReplyDelete

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