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Today’s Ypulse Youth Advisory Board post comes from Akanksha Aurora, a teen in India who is currently facing the universal struggle against standardized tests. Akanksha shares some insight towards what makes the process especially frustrating for international students. Remember, you can communicate directly with any member of the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com… or just leave a comment!

Standardized Tests: An Educational Battlefield

For students all over the world, the combination of seemingly innocuous letters has menacing connotations: the SAT, otherwise known as instant nausea.

The weeks before the SAT can be best described as a fevered blur of stress, highlighters, vocabulary lists and mathematical formulas. I think it started out innocently enough, as an assessment of merit-based admission into Ivy League schools that supplanted the automatic admission granted to rich, socially connected prep school graduates. But for most high school students today, it signifies grief and injustice. My friends often tell me that the SAT attempts to summarize our individual personalities, talents, idiosyncrasies and abilities within 2400 points; and fools us into believing that that’s all we’re worth.

Beyond the questionable ability of the SAT to measure the qualifications of an individual applicant for admission, several studies (Chronicle of Higher Education, reg. required) have shown that SAT scores (this includes the scores on the “new” SAT) unlawfully discriminate against ethnic groups. One study showed that white students scored significantly higher than other groups; and the scores have a direct positive correlation to family incomes entered by the students!

This is troubling for Indian students. In India, less than 2200 on the SAT would be considered low or average as Indian students are frequently upset when they do not score among the 90th (or above) percentile on any test. Expectations are high here – in fact, “high” is an understatement. The typical Indian parent has always urged their child to work hard; essentially turning them into a machine who is expected to produce the best results on any test or exam. This has subsequently led them to buy into the myth that the SAT results are actually a measure of intelligence – and because every parent wants their child to be intelligent, the vicious cycle continues.

Well, all I can say on behalf of students everywhere is this: ETS, we hope you’re happy. Congratulations on devastating dreams and aspirations all over the world.

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About Akanksha Aurora

By the time she got to the much-dreaded, self-esteem destroying wasteland also known as high-school, Akanksha began to develop an interest in writing. Suddenly, all the words she ever knew began to creep into her dreams, and discover all her darkest thoughts and feelings, before silently but permanently immersing themselves within her soul and transforming themselves into fiction. In addition to that, the French language is her drug and acne is her worst enemy. She laughs a little too much and is a romantic in the extreme sense.

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Categorized under: Collegians, Education, Youth Advisory Board

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