Was test optional, ultimately, a disservice to kids or was it the right choice?

[ucbalumnus]

@roycroftmom

While test scores may not reflect any one student’s academic ability accurately, in the aggregate over thousands of students, they will reflect a relative academic level to which professors teach. A school with average SAT scores of 1550 has a different type of learner than those with an average score of 1350, and courses are adjusted accordingly, particularly in STEM subjects.

Here is another example of how student test scores do not necessarily correlate to academic rigor or content taught in the college:

WUStL: 33-35 ACT, 1450-1560 SAT
UCB: 29-35 ACT, 1330-1530 SAT

However, there was a recent thread started by a WUStL student looking to transfer due to disappointment with the academic content when comparing the WUStL courses with “the same” courses at UCB (student and twin sibling at UCB were both at home doing distance learning at their respective colleges): Should I transfer out of WashU? . This is despite the fact that WUStL has higher student test score ranges than UCB does, which you claim means that WUStL should be teaching at a higher level, which is the opposite of what the student posting the linked thread found (apparently in math, physics, and/or CS courses).