As winter comes to an end, the SAT season has already begun. The SAT is the scholastic aptitude test that colleges have used as part of their admission requirements for years. Colleges use the SATs in conjunction with students’ transcript, which includes their grades, courses, GPA, and rank to see if that student will be successful at their school. The SAT has recently become a digital exam and is significantly shorter than it used to be; but, more or less it is the same thing as it was previously, consisting of just English and math. Students at BHS had their first opportunity to take this standardized test this year on Saturday, March 8th.
“The SAT was better than I expected it to be, but it was very stressful especially since it is timed,” said BHS junior Michaela Scheer.
“In my opinion, the SAT was okay given that it wasn’t that much harder than the practice tests offered by the college board, but it was definitely harder,” said another BHS junior who took the SAT.
The SAT has now shifted for most colleges to what is called test optional, meaning the exam still exists, but it is not required on their college application. Students may still submit scores if they believe it will benefit them, but it is not a requirement.
“I think that colleges not having the SAT as a requirement is better than requiring them because one test score does not define how smart someone is,” Michaela said.
Before the pandemic in 2020, many colleges had already gone test optional, but when the pandemic hit, students no longer had the ability to go to test centers and take the SATs causing every college to go test optional for at least a year or two.
“Most colleges have remained test optional. The exceptions are MIT, Georgetown, and a couple of Ivy League schools. Brown is bringing back SATs this year, and they were even test optional for a few years,” said director of guidance Mr. Garofolo.
Most Braintree High students are looking to apply to college in the Northeast region. Around 90% of these colleges in this region are still test optional. Though, many colleges, especially outside the Northeast, have recently been requiring the SAT as part of their college application process.
“The SATs are a large factor in college admissions given that they rely a lot on numbers, which should definitely be changed. In my research of my top schools, I kept finding that colleges would sometimes only look at the rest of your application after seeing your GPA and SAT/ACT score, which really added pressure on me to prepare for the test,” said another BHS junior.
“I think that colleges making the SAT optional can be a good thing as long as colleges pledge not to assume the scores of students who don’t submit,” the junior continued.
However, this system can be seen as flawed.
“If you go and look up the stats for certain colleges, their SAT ranges may be 1510-1570 only because students who have gotten these scores have submitted their scores. As a result, a student who scores a 1400-1450, may feel as if their score isn’t good enough to send to their college when this is exactly what the college wants to see. I remember on a recent college tour, this exact problem was explained by my tour guide, who said they wanted to see 1300+ when, online, their scores range from 1470-1510 or so,” the junior continued.
The Braintree High guidance department highly encourages juniors to take the SATs at least once to see how they do. By taking the test once, students are already covered in case they do apply to any said colleges that require an SAT score submission; not only that but, if one does pretty well on the SAT, they can take it a second time to increase the score, or even take it again if they didn’t do as well on the first one. There is still the option for students to not take it if they know that they will be applying to a college that doesn’t require it and are confident in their academic report. There is also a secondary option other than the SAT.
Mr. Garofalo explained, “The ACT exam, the American college testing, in this part of the country is a little less prevalent than the SAT, but that’s a secondary option for someone who took the SAT and didn’t do as well, but still thinks they want some standardized scores. But just last year, less than 5% of our seniors took the ACT. So around here, more kids take the SAT.”
Although SATs may be seen as a big stressor for students, they can also be very helpful and useful to many. Some students who haven’t been doing as well in previous English or math courses are able to turn to the SAT and have the ability to receive a good score. If this were to happen, colleges are able to realize that this said student can do better than what they showed us when they were in high school.
“[The SATs] are never more important than your four years of your transcript, which represents your four years of your academic grades, the rigor of your courses, and the results that you show in the classes,” Mr. Garofolo clarified.
“To second that, where they could become important is because again, is if that gives you a slight leg up because you did perform well in the test, and now it does get you into a college of your choice, and maybe it gets into a college of your choice that also ends up giving you some more financial aid. That’s where they can become important,” Mr. Garofolo continued.
Overall, the SATs are not as important as they used to be, making the test a little bit more stress-free. Although the overall importance of this standardized test has been altered, it can still be very beneficial to those who take it and succeed in receiving effective scores.
Mr. Garofalo ended, “They are somewhat important, although not as important as they used to be.”
