Long, strenuous hours of standardized testing are all too familiar to students who graduated from high school in the U.S. Much of Ohio University’s student body today can recall late-night cramming sessions, prep books galore and long lunch table conversations on “confidential test questions” throughout high school. It isn’t uncommon to have spent hours preparing and strategizing test-taking techniques, in hopes of scoring a test score high enough to boost chances of college acceptances and scholarships.
Students begin their freshman year of college excited to extend the interests and studies they pursued in high school. Taking experiences learned before college and translating them allows for growth, but the relevance high-school activities and accomplishments hold once in college is often debated.
Furthermore, the relevance of ACT or SAT scores after college acceptance has also been long discussed. It is common for standardized test scores to be forgotten about once students are accepted into college, which prompts the question of whether test scores are that important at all.
“I don’t think I’ve ever once been asked about anything related in high school… (it’s) mostly just how I’m doing in college so far,” Anna Smith, a senior studying plant biology, said.
Kate Wiselogel, a freshman studying English, also has a similar perspective.
“I mean, through the application process for college I was asked about a lot obviously, but in everyday life, those things tend to never really come up, I would say,” Wiselogel said.
It’s safe to say that asking about someone’s high school test scores in college isn’t normalized, so how is intelligence really measured in college? Is it through grades or GPA? Through extracurriculars and community involvement?
Ella Cruz, a freshman studying English, subsrcibes to the notion that intelligence cannot always be measured.
“I think intelligence… it doesn’t involve just your IQ or your test scores because test scores are biased,” said Cruz. “Testing is biased toward people who have the resources and people who can afford tutors. (And) intelligence to me is more about emotional intelligence, your interests … and what you’re passionate about. That’s how I measure (your) intelligence.”
Cruz isn’t the only one to call out a potential bias in standardized testing. Colleges have been moving toward test-optional admission processes at a rapid pace since the COVID-19 Pandemic, with a record of 1900+ schools not requiring any test scores for fall of 2024 admissions, according to FairTest.
This increase in test-optional applications is argued to allow students of all different backgrounds to be considered for competitive schools and scholarships, accounting for circumstances that may have curtailed a student’s test scores.
Aside from opinions about standardized testing, there has also been a recent emphasis on the importance of different intelligence that testing does not measure.
“I don’t care what facts you know, I care about what interpretations and personality you bring to the table,” Cruz said.
It seems that society is moving away from basing individual intelligence on just one statistic, and this could potentially allow students to prove their abilities in many more ways than before. The shift in thinking hopefully shows a future of students growing more confident in their own abilities and considering other factors before considering the intelligence of those around them.
