The Standardized Aptitude Test (SAT) has long been the most important hurdle for high school students to cross in order to improve their chances of getting into the college of their dreams. Questions have arisen over the years though regarding the fairness of the test. Most notably, foreign students whose second language is English struggle with the test compared to their local counterparts. Other groups who are disadvantaged by the SAT include people who may not have the funds to afford SAT preparation classes, those with bad test-taking skills and those who don’t have the money to spend on test preparation tutorials.

Indeed, some may consider the SAT an elitist test, as parents and students see the test as a way of establishing which college they will get into and how well they will fare. Most colleges and universities select their students based on their SAT scores as well so for those who have high academic marks at high school but perform poorly in the SAT may miss out on the college of their choice, all because of one test.

All SAT questions are multiple choice apart from 15 math questions. There are seven timed sections that need to be completed. Some of the questions presented, however, have little to do with the curriculum covered in school and instead test on topics that students should be familiar with. This means there is extra studying involved, since students must expand their scope of knowledge and prepare to answer questions that they might not have studied in the classroom.

Due to its multiple choice nature, it could be said that the SAT only tests how well a student performs at test-taking, rather than give students an opportunity to prove and display their knowledge. Students who can afford to take preparation classes study the tricks and traps of the SAT test, so while their scores may improve it doesn’t necessarily reflect a sound knowledge.

College admissions staff needs to find a fairer way to test students’ intelligence. Some colleges are already taking the step to make the SAT optional, and hopefully more universities will follow suit in the future. After all, it is unfair to determine that a student may perform poorly at college simply because of one test they took at high school.