SAT/ACT

I believe that the SAT/ACT or any standardized test cannot hope to gauge whether a student will preform well their first year of college.  Because I have only taken the SAT I will keep my discussion to that.  The SAT is a test and like any other test can be studied for.  I know of many friends who spend two years preparing for the SAT with review books, word a day programs and tutors.  They preformed phenomenally well on the test and went on to apply to reputable colleges with essays they spent a year working on.  However, their grades for much of high school were average and aside from the studying they did for the SAT they never really studied for their tests.  As a result many of them have had trouble their first year and have done poorly or in some cases transferred to easier colleges.  The SAT is not nearly as useful as high school records because consistency matters more then a single performance.  Students who show a willingness to study material and ask questions in class will most likely do far better of the course of a year then those who cram for a single test.  Another problem in the SAT is its use of sections.  Many colleges only look at the math and verbal sections and completely ignore the writing.  A poor performance in one of these categories can lead to a low score and writing which is so important in college is looked over because colleges have their own way they would like you to write.  Simply because you have a natural affinity for numbers could allow you to have a higher score even though you enter a major where very little math is required.  In addition a person can choose to retake the SAT as many times as they want and only their highest scores will be kept.  Scores a little lower then you expected them to be?  Study and take it again; and just to be sure ignore the other sections and focus your attention entirely on verbal.  while the idea of a single test that you cannot retake decides your future of college is equally idiotic the grade shopping prevents students from applying to a college that is appropriate for them and can lead to a poor performance.  The writing section of the SAT is also foolishly ignored.  Colleges instead draw upon high school grades and essays submitted to judge a applicants ability.  Unfortunately high school is much easier then college and you can hire tutors or consult teachers to improve you essay.  The essays that you are required to submit are often short so thousands of them can be more easily reviewed.  This is not the same expectation as in college where you are expected to write long essays.  School papers are also not up to the challenge of determining a students performance in the first year.  Papers in school often do not exceed a certain range and as a result when in college you can be surprised by new requirements of styles of writing.  Even to the Writing SAT cannot judge how a student will do on a paper that can take days or weeks to write but it can judge how well a student can think.  The SAT gives question and allows you to answer it in any way you see fit similarly to many midterms in college which is then ignored. In one of my classes last semester 40% of our grade came from our final which was a choice of questions based around American history.  This format was nearly the same as the SAT but a student who did poorly on the written section that was then ignored would very likely do poorly on it.  The SAT is a test that can gauge a students abilities but over the years has become easy to study and prepare for and as a result cannot be used to gauge a students performance in their first year of college.