College Entrance Exams

Arunaarathi Kallur, Staff Writer

Every year millions of students pay to take a college entrance exam like the SATs or ACTs. These tests are the cause of a lot of anxiety for students. College entrance exams are presented to students as something that will make or break their college acceptance and, that shouldn’t be the case. Students will put hundreds of dollars into taking the tests, but they  only play a small part of whether or not a student will be accepted. The tests take time away from students because students are focused on studying for this instead of their actual school work. The tests also go against students from low income families. While the test, itself, is not expensive the preparation for it sure is. Students from low income families have a harder time doing well on these tests. The problem with these exams is that they are not worth it. Students can have a fantastic score but when it comes to the final decision, the tests don’t have a lot of influence. They don’t tell the colleges about the student as an individual and they are not the most effective way to measure a student academically.  

Students should spend their time studying for school or working on their extracurriculars. They take the tests on Saturdays, but Saturdays should be open for volunteer or internships or other activities. These activities are more productive. There other things colleges can use in their admission process other than entrance exams. On their applications, colleges can require more essays and have prompts that force students to think and express themselves. That may be more work for the student, but colleges will have a better understanding of the student is and what they are capable of.  Overall, colleges shouldn’t require entrance exams.