It seems the best solution for students would be for the tests to be made required and the college to decide how much they care about the score for each candidate as part of their holistic review. Right now, the burden is unfairly on the students to determine whether to submit everything from medium high scores on down with next to no information about how much a particular school cares about the scores. Guessing wrong may be the difference between an acceptance and a rejection.
5 Likes
Yes, it really speaks to access. We are an extremely well-resourced family and willing to drive and be inconvenienced so she has a chance to take the test. I wonder what families who don’t have resources do. I can see why so many people now are just opting for TO, and I completely disagree with those who think access is not an issue. Oh, and D24 had her site change too (Feb ACT).
2 Likes
Can’t attend if you don’t apply.
Kinda like a lottery slogan.
Question for those lacking access- why don’t you take this up with your public school board? Why isn’t this a priority for your city/town? Several states have mandatory SAT tests during the school day. We do not, but there are half a dozen test sites within 5 miles of my home. It is neither hard nor expensive to become a test site. I guess I would question your local community’s commitment to education if there was no easy access.
Every public and private secondary school here is a site. Accommodations are available at all. Parents would not tolerate less here.
We have no testing areas within 30 miles, and most much farther than that if you want to actually get a seat, and we are in a major urban area, but our schools are some of the highest ranking in the state and the area is definitely committed to education. Schools are busy, with many on-campus activities and tournaments that frequently conflict with test dates. Plus, with modern collaborative furniture in the classrooms, they’d have to be completely reorganized for the tests. In an affluent area, it is just easier to trust that students drive somewhere else. One of my friends actually took her child to Hawaii for a testing center there! (which in hindsight was a pretty fantastic idea!)
1 Like
How much has the gender balance changed at other colleges in the last few years? Here are the UCLA CDS stats for full-time first-time freshmen, note the significant step change in gender balance when test scores stopped being considered:
2017-18: Men: 2410, Women: 3612 (60.0%)
2018-19: Men: 2482, Women: 3728 (60.0%)
2019-20: Men: 2332, Women: 3568 (60.4%), Other: 9
2020-21: Men: 2519, Women: 3852 (60.5%), Other: 7
2021-22: Men: 2406, Women: 4126 (62.7%), Other: 35
2022-23: Men: 2371, Women: 4002 (62.0%), Other: 77
2 Likes
I’m in an affluent area with some of the best public HSs in the country, and test sites are still reduced here as well (we do have a state mandated SAT requirement for graduation, but one could take that as late as spring of senior year). People of all income levels and students of all stat levels are buying into the test optional movement. Many test sites still have fewer class rooms and fewer seats in each room available in a given test date. It continues to be difficult to get proctors for weekend administrations.
The total number of annual tests taken is still down from 2020 (prepandemic):
This year (2022), 1,349,644 students took the ACT, up from 1,295,349 last year and down from 1,670,497 in 2020.
More students also took the SAT this year, 1,737,678, compared to 1,509,133 last year. In 2020, 2,198,460 students took the SAT.
Note also that even with this significant decrease in tests taken, average scores have fallen.
The national average composite score on the ACT for the high school Class of 2022 was 19.8, the lowest average score in more than three decades, according to data released Wednesday by ACT. It is the first time since 1991 that the average composite score was below 20. (The maximum score on the ACT is 36.)
The SAT also saw scores fall this year. The 2022 average score was 1050, compared to 1060 for the Class of 2021.
Maybe things will pick back up with the digital SAT which comes to the US next year (international digital testing is happening now, US Fall 2023 PSAT/NMSQT will be digital). The digital SAT is only a 2 hour test so should be more attractive to many, perhaps we will see the overall test numbers increase.
2 Likes
Women are among the groups that are consistently overrepresented among test optional admits, such that test optional admits have a higher percent women than test submitter admits. Some example numbers from the 25 years of test optional at Bates study are below. Other colleges I have seen follow a similar pattern.
Test Optional Admits – 60% Women
Test Submitter Admits – 48% Women
This pattern relates to women averaging higher grades than men at all levels of education from elementary to college, while averaging similar or lower composite scores than men. Grades are more likely to be a relative strong point of application for women, and scores are more likely to be a relative strong point of application for men.
However, overall gender balance at a highly selective college often has more to do with institutional priorities than whether the college is test optional/required/blind. If a highly selective school wants to maintain a roughly 50/50 gender balance, it may choose how ever many admits it needs to from each gender to achieve that balance, regardless of whether tests are required or not.
2 Likes
Except if discrimination on the grounds of gender is forbidden, as in California’s public universities.
1 Like
Agree.
Test blind. Eliminate SAT/ACT is the trend. But the argument there is well let’s look at the transcript. Let’s look at the GPA. Let’s look at the QPA.
BUT, BUT, BUT… in the same breath, let’s take away class ranking? That is not relevant. GPA is not important. Its the whole child with the SAT/ACT… wait, what, no tests allowed.
Bottom line… if a kid does well on GPA or SAT/ACT it should be rewarded.
I agree with your points…
1 Like
Shouldn’t that be expected, given that most colleges are now test optional?
Yes, that was my point that people buy into the test optional mentality, so demand is down. But in many areas, supply (number of sites and number of seats per site) is also down so there are still access problems too.
1 Like
Why isn’t it because the demand is lower? As demand trends lower, access inevitably becomes more problematic.
1 Like
Because many people still report it’s hard to find a testing center with open seats (some have said that in this thread, it’s also on counselor/prof association communications). Many students are still driving more than 30 mins to get to a site because once registration opens, seats fill quickly. If seats sell out in minutes after reg opens and students have to drive far (or even fly) to take a test, there are access problems.
2 Likes
Just out of curiosity - what kinds of activities and tournaments? Sports? Music? Debate? Math competition?
Is the access problem worse now than it was before the pandemic? If it is, would it be because some testing centers that existed pre-pandemic are now closed? If so, why? Lack of sufficient demand as perceived by the testing companies?
2 Likes
The testing centers are the HSs, it’s on the HSs to provide space and schedule proctors for the tests. CB and ACT don’t have their own testing centers in the US AFAIK.
I do perceive it is much more competitive to get a seat in Chicagoland now than pre-pandemic. Counselors tell students to logon as soon as registration happens and sometimes that’s still not enough to get a seat at one’s own school or some place relatively close.
3 Likes
You’re right that they are generally located in local high schools. But do we know if fewer of them now operate as testing centers? If so, why?
Maybe because the school administration doesn’t believe in testing anymore, and may believe that testing adversely affects the outcomes for their kids.
Also do SAT scores figure in teacher assessments? Just curious…
2 Likes
deleted