Andreski 1

Taby Andreski

Professor Fields

English Composition 2

26 February 2019

Standardized Testing

Standardized tests have been something every high school student and college student has

had to undergo at one point in their life. It is installed in a student’s brain that one test can

determine their acceptance into the college a person has always wanted to get into. It can also be

the determining factor into getting accepted into a specific tech school program or not. People all

around the world are wondering if the ACT/SAT should carry the weight that it does. Students

grow up and have so much pressure put on themselves to pass this test just so they can get

admitted into a college/program; although the admission process does look over many factors

such as their high school GPA, class record, but the standardized test is weighed higher than the

rest. ACT/SAT scores help colleges compare students from different high schools. An accredited

website states, “The scores show strengths and readiness for college work. (Pay for College,

2019)” That is not always true, something that needs to be accounted for is students and their test

taking ability. In order to understand the overall impact, one’s ACT/SAT score has on college

admission it is important to determine how this test effects the mental health of students, whether

or not these tests accurately measure intelligence, and what the overall benefits or determinants

of this test is.

Many studies have shown that 40-60% of students admit to having test anxiety as some

point or another, and around 38% record having it all the time (Morton, 2015). Students can truly

study for days, but their brain power will be focused on test anxiety, rather than the test itself.
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This shift of focus is the cause for the saying being a bad test taker. In April of 2013, Annie

Murphy Paul wrote an article about how to be a better test taker. In that article, she explained that

test anxiety is a huge factor that demonstrates how many students have the inability to do well on

tests even if studying for numerous hours a day. The student’s brain is so focused on anxiety, that

they simply cannot remember any of the answers for the test (Paul, 2015). As the years

progressed there has been many further studies and information that leads to the conclusion that

more than half of this population are, “bad test takers”. These facts indicate that people may

believe this standardized test is about how well you can take a test; not how smart a student is.

Every student has something special and intelligent about them that many argue cannot

be determined by a standardized test. In an article written by The Room 241 Team states how

majority of the standardized testing is multiple choice questions. Having multiple choice

questions is more of a guessing game for students, rather than open ended questions. Having

conducted an interview of three UWGB students asking if they believe multiple choice or short

answer questions tested more of their intelligence, they all said short answer does (Gasperini,

2019). The point behind open-ended questions is that they allow students to display knowledge

and apply critical thinking skills (The Room 241 Team, 2017). Many students are engaged in

extracurricular activities and showcase their knowledge in many other ways than one

standardized, multiple choice test. Someone’s intelligence can’t be measured by their grades

and test scores, because he or she, as a person, is so much more than numbers and statistics

(Mantripragada, 2010).

Some students have a very poor GPA, very low work ethic, but excel on one

standardized test because they have very little test anxiety. The ACT/SAT can somewhat be a

holy grail for those types of students. They believe that they can barely pass high school because
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if they do so well on this test they will automatically get accepted. This is not 100% true because

in that case admissions would have to look at those grades and account that for something.

Although some colleges or an acceptance into a program sees the high-test score, they

automatically assume that one has extreme intelligence. The point being made is even for those

students who believe the ACT/SAT is the holy grail, it is not. The students score could be skewed

higher or lower simply because they had to guess.

One of the largest issues that comes along with a standardized test being the determining

factor into the admission process, is the extreme stress that puts on an individual. When someone

is told they have to do well on the test, it is automatically all they can think about. When a person

is stressed out, it inhibits many things. The person will not be able to concentrate anymore,

whether it be in the classroom or outside of school. It affects a person’s sleep patterns causing

them to be more tired and drowsy. It can also inhibit a person from eating ultimately leading to

engage in improper eating habits. Researchers studying cognitive impairment, report decreased

memory capacity in stressed individuals. Also, studies employing MRI technology indicates that

chronically stressful conditions correspond with selective damage in the human brain (Hayes,

1994). When students are stressed because of a test they can engage in unusual and improper

behavior because of the brain sending these signals of stress. Many students will act out or even

begin vomiting in class or out of school.

Stress not only triggers unusual patterns and behaviors, it can potentially lead to many

fatal illnesses. Scientists have known for years that there's a connection between stress and heart

attacks. For over 50 years studies have shown a connection between stress and stomach ulcers as

well as depression (McLeod, 2010. In any of those cases, it could end up deadly for an

individual. When a student is stressed for this test, they often tend to keep their head in a book or
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laptop causing them to be sitting for a long period of time in an ill posture position. This can

often times lead to disk tears, spinal stenosis and scoliosis as a person grows up. As far as short-

term stress effects that the student may endure is a weekend immune system. With a weaker

immune system, a person is much more susceptible to infection. Stress can also have an indirect

effect on the immune system as a person may use unhealthy behavioral coping strategies to

reduce their stress, such as drinking and smoking (McLeod, 2010). One standardized test could

end up taking a student’s life.

Some people do believe that standardized testing should be the key factor in the

admission process even after knowing that. The “people” with the strong opposing views will

often be the dean of colleges or programs, teachers, and also some of students as well. The

students that are in favor of the ACT/SAT being weighed so high believe that this

standardized testing provides them with a chance to set themselves apart from their high

school (The Room 241 Team, 2012). Some children strive to show off their hard work and do not

have test anxiety being a factor that affects them. Teachers and administration will argue that

standardized testing acts as an equalizing force, providing colleges with certain data points that

compare students and their “education level.” They believe that one score does define the person

and that is the only factor that separates one student from another. Many of times they believe

that a standardized test does measure overall intelligence but have forgotten to take in any other

aspect that could make that student have a much greater strive to do well than the one who

scored well on one test. The state and teachers argue that standardized test give them a pathway

to follow while teaching. Without having the structure of a standardized test and the information

on it, a lower level teacher could be teaching the same content as one teaching at a much higher

grade. They believe that having this guidance also keeps students who move from one school
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district to another from being behind or ahead in their new school (School and Childcare Search

service, 2013). Teachers are teaching standardized test because that is what the law regulations

are. Many of times what is on these standardized tests do not help a child in their everyday life

and overlook extremely important aspects. It is by law, that a standardized test is the requirement

still to this day, but changes are slowly coming.

Taking a look at the pros of standardized testing, the stance against standardized testing

still is much greater. Weighing the pros and cons, the cons are much more impactful and serious.

40-60% of students have extreme test anxiety (Morton, 2015). That is something that simply

does not go away and affects testing scores extremely. The person’s brain is so focused on stress

and the anxiety of the test that they cannot remember anything that they had put so much time

into studying, or student may simply be a bad test taker. While majority of students have and

possess test anxiety, one test should not determine anything, except how stressed it can make

someone. Every individual is unique and possess characteristics that separates them from the

rest. Standardized testing is multiple choice questions and does not let the student show who they

are and all of the accomplishments they have made. One may excel in critical thinking, problem

solving, life events, and that will not be shown with one standardized test score. The admission

process is doing nothing but comparing numbers and picking the highest one, rather than

evaluating other extremely important things such as GPA, previous grade records, community

movements, extra-curricular activities and other accomplishments of that student. Having so

much weighing on one test, students begin to stress. Stress is extraordinarily unhealthy and can

affect an individual’s mood and cause unhealthy behaviors (McLeod, 2010).

While gathering this research it was very hard to find why people thought the ACT/SAT,

or any standardized test was weighed so high. This is important because it goes to show how
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many people cannot find any research in why this test is weighed so high. The way to fill in that

blank would be conducting more interviews from college administration and also coming up

with a new standardized test that does measure overall intelligence. The main thing that was

discussed in articles was how the ACT/ standardized test was blue print for teachers. They know

the end goal in high school is for the student to do well on the ACT and get a good ranking for

the school. These are just the very few pros of this test that is weighed so heavy and it sure does

make a person re-think the true meaning behind that test. Again, without knowledge as to why

college administrators believe standardized testing is so important, students will continue to face

unfair road blocks.

Searching the web and conducting interviews still was not enough to prove to anyone

why the ACT is, or should be, weighed so high. This is the gap that sprung from research on this

paper, it is time to do some digging to figure this out. It is only right that a student should know

why they have so much pressure on them to take this standardized test that is a determining

factor into that college or university they have always wanted to get in to. There was no true

explanation in the reasoning behind their theory on this ACT, nor did it prove in any way that it

measures overall intelligence. It is less of a measure of intelligence than it is a measure of college

preparedness, and even then, it doesn’t give anyone the entire picture. While innate intelligence

might play a role, scores are also affected by many other factors that do not have much to do

with a person’s overall cognitive abilities at all (Lindsay, 2019).

This gap has an extreme impact on the research done for whether or not college

admissions should weigh this test so highly in the process. If one cannot come up with proper

information as to why the ACT should be weighed so high, one cannot prove there should be a

multiple-choice standardized test that will be a factor in determining your admission. After
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emailing the admission office of Fox Valley Technical College on why they depend so much on

the standardized test score for admission, the answer was still not solved. Their response was a

short synopsis of the answer that has been received. The admissions director mentioned in the

email that the ACT is so important to universities because admissions officers use it to judge a

person’s academic preparedness for college. She also mentioned that a college or technical

school may differ because of the stereotype that it would be a “starter” college for one. Also,

mentioning standardized tests for programs in the tech school are very much like the ACT

questions in a way. With that being said, she did mention something that really was an attention

grabber. She had claimed that a person’s ACT score is also important to universities because if

you're admitted, your ACT score will be incorporated into their annual ACT statistics (FVTC

admissions, 2019). This makes someone think, colleges are basing their own ranking on a

standardized test score but forgetting the very important other aspects that define a person. A

student risks their own health from the pressure of this test to get a college a high ranking.

Someone really needs to reconsider if this test is worth all of the life threating health conditions

it brings onto students.

The gap of this research is still not completely filled with one answer from Fox Valley

Technical college admissions. This gap of why the ACT is weighed so high and is crucial for

students to take it, many still are pondering, this is because majority of the people do not believe

that it should be. The only thing that a standardized test such as the ACT or the SAT measures is

the ability for a person to cram all of the information in their head and regurgitate. When

students pack information in their head within a week or two, they forget everything that they

have “memorized” because it’s the brains way of recovering after the stressful cramming (Should

We Have Standardized Tests, 2019). That ties back to the health aspect as well, many students
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cannot recover from this stress and it can become fatal to their well-being. Judging by the rate at

which students crams it’s reasonable to say almost everyone cram for this exam, as it is so much

to know in such a little amount of time. After that “cramming”, they inherently forget what they

had “learned” afterwards. Therefore, this test does not measure the student’s overall ability to

think critically. Thinking critically is a true measure of intelligence, the ability to read

information, which turns concepts and make the decision from that. Needless to say, does not

measure any other attribute of a student. Either admissions, public education, or the government

really needs to find out how it is possible for this test to measure overall intelligence and if it

should be weighed how it is in admission processes before too many students risk their health

over it. Once, someone can find this gap in the research, students will get the true facts on this

test like they should.

After the interviews and research conducted, the best way to fill this gap is for every

student or anyone who has taken a standardized to do research. Universities seem to need a test

score, so the proposition is to come up with a new ACT. Education programs should come up

with a new test that really does measure overall intelligence and not just how well a person can

cram or guess. The main difference is to have open ended questions incorporated. Yes, it will be

harder to correct but if a college really wants overall intelligence, it would be worth it. For

example, “An open-ended question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the

subject's own knowledge and/or feelings” (Media, 2019). This test format would be the opposite

of a close ended, multiple choice question that many just guess on. This new ACT should also

incorporate questions if the student was in any clubs, national honor society, or played any

sports, as those things give a good grasp on a person as well. These extra curriculars shows hard

work, not just who can cram better to answer multiple choice questions. The new ACT could
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measure overall intelligence in the future if it were to be changed. This test would have many

backing it and having no doubt as to why it should be weighed so high in college admissions.

This new, open ended ACT/SAT test would be the best option to measure overall intelligence

for students. Instead of taking a guess on a multiple-choice question, this will show the ability of

someone and the capability their mind has. A test will never show 100% capability, but this

would be a lot closer than a close ended question. Close ended questions tend to confuse people

when many response choices are offered, misinterpretation of a question can go unnoticed,

distinctions between the student’s answers may be blurred and clerical mistakes or marking the

wrong response is highly likely. Those multiple-choice questions are doing nothing but forcing

the students to give simplistic responses to complex issues, these choices are not choices that

they would make in the real world (Close Ended, 2019). In real life, there is no multiple-choice

questions that a person will get to pick from. Life is about using intellectual and cognitive

abilities to work through a problem. This shows the character of the student, and that should be

more important to a university than one composite test score that was not thought out. What

needs to be thought of is if the university wants someone who can take a test or someone who is

truly passionate about education and wants to succeed in the future. Along with the open-ended

questions, there should be a portion where the student would be able to submit extra-curricular

activities that the student engages in; this shows the character of that student. Seeing those

additional attributes can also help a university in choosing someone who will support their

community and be an asset to not only them, but to other students.

There are so many positive benefits of this new test, but one might see some cons that

should be discussed. Although the closed ended questions are no way to determine overall

intelligence, some might argue that well-written questions can move students to higher-order
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thinking, such as application, integration, and evaluation. Another argument could include the

test with multiple choice question has an inclusion of a broad range of topics, whereas open

ended questions may lack the range (Multiple Choice, 2018). The main argument for support of

the multiple-choice questions all falls back on how well the question is written. This is

something that is never guaranteed. A question may be worded where one student comprehends

it, whereas the other is pondering what it means. A higher level of thinking should be with

expression and truly thought out responses, not just circling what the person interpreted as the

correct answer. The other benefit, some may argue, is the sense of accomplishment a student gets

knowing they studied extremely hard for something and it all payed off for them. Not only does

it give that person a sense of accomplishment, but also provides a pathway for them in how they

should handle future college endeavors such as tests and homework assignments. This is very

true and anyone who has had to put a lot of time into reaching a goal would understand how

amazing that accomplishing feeling is. That accomplishing feeling however is not achieved by

everyone who has worked very hard to do well. Some students can study for hours and this test

anxiety that has been explained will take over and instead of the accomplishing feeling, they get

a feeling of depression. This will further future health effects that could be deadly to this student,

simply because of this multiple-choice standardized test being scored so highly.

This new open-ended research study and new ACT model should be looked into by every

university/technical college. The college admissions should look into how little a test, with

nothing but multiple-choice questions, has on the student’s overall intelligence. It should start

with being introduced to the universities and then high schools. Highschool is when this

standardized test is taken, the teachers see first-hand how badly stressed out students can get

because of the ACT test. Many weeks before the test date, student have lost all focus on anything
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else and are completely engaged on only studying for this test. Teachers can see the overall

appearance and attitude of the child change the closer it gets to the test date. Not only can the

high school staff and teachers see physically, they can see mentally how this studying for one test

that is scored so highly affects them. If the universities nor high schools do not take any of this

pertinent information in consideration, it may have to be looked at an even higher level. The

government may also have to step in to get this test either completely nonexistent, or to change it

to more open-ended questions. If this test does not get taken care of, students, parents and

anyone who can understand how harmful this ACT is, need to get together. Making speeches at

high schools or universities on how detrimental this multiple-choice test is can help get

admissions thinking. Signing petitions or even making use of social media such as a Facebook

page or blog post could be a huge resource in getting the word spread. Once this test gets passed,

there should be studies conducted to see how the statistics are of the universities and also the

mental health of students compared to the ones who had to take the standardized multiple-choice

test.

To save many students lives it is mandatory to get this ACT changed. A new format is

necessary for future success in universities. Implementing open ended questions and sections of

achievements/extracurricular activities show more about a person rather than a close ended

multiple-choice question. Letters need to be written to universities and admissions to all colleges.

Teachers need to pay close attention to how the tedious stress of the ACT studying is playing a

role on a student’s mental and physical health. Anyone who has had to endure this pressure,

needs to speak up. The future generation needs to show who they really are and not be defined by

one, meaningless score. When this ACT gets changed there will be so many advances in not only

student’s health but the universities in themselves. One will not dread their high school years
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because they know they will be faced with this huge test, rather than enjoy their youth and

engage in all of the extracurricular activities that they can. One test does not determine a

student’s future or their intelligence, everyone is so unique and special in every single way.

Work Cited

Admissions, Fox Valley Technical College. “ACT/SAT.” 17 Mar. 2019.

“Closed-Ended Question.” Closed-Ended Question : Survey Anyplace,

help.surveyanyplace.com/en/support/solutions/articles/35000042308-closed-ended-

question.

Gasperini, Lexy, Angeli, Erin, Holsten, Kassie. "ACT/SAT." Personal interview. 19 Feb. 2019.

Lindsay, Samantha. “What Do ACT Scores Measure? IQ? Income?” What Do ACT Scores

Measure? IQ? Income?, Mar. 2016, blog.prepscholar.com/what-do-act-scores-measure-iq-

income.
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Mantripragada, T. (2017, June 10). Why Standardized Testing Doesn't Define You. Retrieved

April 12, 2018, from http://affinitymagazine.us/2017/06/09/why-standardized-testing-

doesnt-define-you/

Media, College. Open-Ended Questions, www.mediacollege.com/journalism/interviews/open-

ended-questions.html.

“Multiple-Choice Tests: Revisiting the Pros and Cons.” Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching &

Learning, 12 Feb. 2018, www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/multiple-

choice-tests-pros-cons/.

Pay for College - Where to Find College Scholarships, bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-

in/testing/8-things-to-know-about-how-colleges-use-admission-tests.

(n.d.). Retrieved April 05, 2018, from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/stress.aspx

“Should We Have Standardized Tests like SAT and ACT in Order to Get into College?”

Debate.org, 19 Mar. 2019, www.debate.org/opinions/should-we-have-standardized-tests-

like-sat-and-act-in-order-to-get-into-college.

SiOWfa15: Science in Our World: Certainty and Controversy. (n.d.). Retrieved April 05, 2018

from https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/09/10/can-people-be-bad-test-takers/
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T. (2017, December 08). Do Standardized Tests Accurately Show Students' Abilities? Retrieved

April 05, 2018, from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/news/do-standardized-

test-show-an-accurate-view-of-students-abilities

Tests Stress = Problems For Students. (2016, November 29). Retrieved April 05, 2018,

from https://brainconnection.brainhq.com/2000/07/12/tests-stress-problems-for-

students/

Thompson, R. (n.d.). Too Much Test Stress? Parents, Experts Discuss High-Stakes Standardized

Test Anxiety. Retrieved from http://news.wjct.org/post/too-much-test-stress-parents-

experts-discuss-high-stakes-standardized-test-anxiety