Congrats! If you’re a high school student, you’ve most likely checked off your standardized testing for this year (actually, scores just came out this week too!). As a sophomore, I was especially happy to get the PSAT off my shoulders, with the hope that it had made me better equipped to take the PSAT my junior year… and then the SAT. However, recently, I started hearing that we might be taking the ACT next year. It certainly seems that Illinois is moving toward returning to the ACT. The Board of Education is working to make a contract official for the ACT following the expiration of the agreement to use College Board’s SAT on June 30th.
This transition brings up a plethora of questions, including why this switch is happening now. Furthermore, if moving to the ACT is a given, how will the Board of Education have to structure this so that students can fully embrace the unique distinctions between the two tests? One thing to note that may be a factor in veering away from the SAT is a lawsuit settled in February regarding the selling of students’ private information, for which they ended up paying a $750,000 fine. Prior to 2016, Illinois had used the ACT for 15 years. Colleges certainly don’t prefer one test over the other, but College Raptor documented state preferences based on population percentages, and Illinois is listed as a mostly-ACT-favoring state. Suppose we continue to progress into an entirely different method of standardized testing. In that case, there has to be at least one gap year to not handicap students forced to adapt to a different format, as Chicago Public Schools vied for.
The purpose of standardized testing is to provide a tangible number for colleges to review that would sum up an individual’s academic merit. But concerns about this score measuring a student’s worth have arisen and crescendoed post-COVID. At the first glance, standardized testing seems like a non-discriminatory tool that overcomes economic, cultural, and racial stigma. However, it can be biased toward those with easier access to tutors and online resources, as well as having the option of a test retake. Despite valid arguments, many elitist universities have backtracked on test-optional applications, including Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, and MIT.
Unless you are planning to attend a U-California school, where they claim test-blindness, your test scores are probably going to have some sort of impact on your college admissions. Therefore, it’s important to know whether the SAT or the ACT is better suited for your strengths. Primarily using US News, I’ve created a table comparing the two tests. As you get your results back, remember that a test score is just a test score, and it won’t make or break you so keep calm and don’t stress too much!
