Taking A Stand Essay: Taking A Stand

Taking a Stand Essay It’s 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning and most people are still curled up in bed. Instead, you’re sitting in a classroom with about 20 other students, who are also panicked about the same test you are about to take. The 20 other students in the classroom, however, are all from different economic classes, races, religions, and genders. Despite that, each and every one of you are grouped together to take the same test. The test administrator instructs you to begin, and every student, equipped with a #2 pencil, begins swiftly reading and vigorously filling in bubbles. You’re panicked and sweating because you know the test you are taking is going to determine your future and what colleges you’ll get into. What I just described …show more content…
The answer is no. As humans, we are very diverse creatures. Grouping all potential college students together and telling them to take the same exact test is unjust for a variety of reasons. If a student is not superior in math or reading, that does not mean that they are not skilled in other areas—areas not possible to even test on the ACT or SAT. Similarly, each student comes from a different background, having different experiences and qualities of educations. With different backgrounds of culture and education, student’s problem solving processes will be different. Consequently, to try and create a test that does not give an advantage to a certain race or culture is nearly impossible. Additionally, many students suffer from what is known as, test anxiety, extreme stress experienced from taking tests that creates barriers in performance. Reversely, certain students’ brains may be, for some reasons unknown, geared to take tests better than others. This does not mean these students are any smarter than their peers, they are simply better at taking tests. There are too many variables for these tests to be universally fair, and subsequently should be no indicator for college …show more content…
It helps students stand out from the multitudes of other applicants, and it makes the application process easier for colleges. However, both of those points are over shadowed by the fact that the tests are not completely fair for every student; therefore, these tests cannot be used to determine their future. As a result, colleges need to stop requiring these unfair and biased tests. Additionally, they need to begin to use things such as high school grades and extra-curricular activities to choose from the pile of college applicants. As a society that is working towards equality for all, it is conflicting to require a test that does not provide equality for