Society help: After getting my PSAT scores, I want to have a little rant about our society and it’s treatment of intelligence - Help.com

They’re used because it’s the same test across the country. Schools may have different teaching methods and grading scales, but whatever you get on the SAT or ACT can easily be compared to your classmates. Your friend who has a “loose screw” should look into a liberal arts school because they tend to look at applications holistically, meaning if he writes a great essay and explains that he looks at things differently they will probably like that. Congrats on your high score… hopefully you can do as well on the real thing. did you qualify for the merit scholarship?

Congratulations on your academic rankings!

My own biggest problems with standardized tests are these:

1. Students don’t attend standardized schools with standardized curricula.
2. Some students are simply afraid of standardized tests.
3. Too many of the questions are worded stupidly, i.e., the test writers are trying to impress you with their level of learning rather than ascertaining your level of learning
4. It’s a big financial racket for the testing companies.
5. Such tests are not a valid predictor for males.

But I take nothing away from you. You are obviously very intelligent and accomplished.

The tests may not measure everything… but I could have gone to some universities for free simply based on my test scores and merit awards. Hey, why not, people are favored for different things, many of them ridiculous-seeming. If someone offers me a thousand dollars for having brown hair, I think I’ll take them up on it.

I usually don’t do too well in some of them, but I know why. It’s due to the fact that some exam papers are very cultural over here, especially the English paper and it has articles to try and make us feel sorry for the native people of my country when all they do is whine and moan. It’s sick.

I can really only see standardized testing being practical in the math and science fields. For the most part those are just about being able to cough up pieces of information, which is really a joke because they’re essentially testing you on your memory which hardly contributes to intelligence. Writing is very hard to judge in its own right. I mean yes, you have punctuation and sentence structure and everything, but writing is supposed to convey thought, and I don’t think you can really score anyone on how they think. Reading is just terrible, as no opportunity is given to defend your point. Seriously, you have to pick the answer that’s the easiest to defend for points? What lesson is that sending to kids? I just don’t know. Intelligence is something you can only define through practical action. Is it fair? Probably not. I don’t see anything changing though.

Nice job on your tests by the way. I got identical scores last year except writing and reading were flip flopped. Still waiting for this year’s scores. I couldn’t honestly care less now though, if you couldn’t tell. :)