The Standards behind Standardized Testing

My paper is about standardized testing and the many flaws in which it makes itself a not so standardized test. I touch the subjects of how the SAT and the ACT are a large source of inequality, primarily through socioeconomic status, but also through one's race. I chose to write my paper on this subject due to how it relates to my life and many of those around me who are similar to me in age. I believed I delivered many points on the flaws and problems in such a powerful and influential industry, due to their power in deciding college admissions. 

My research brought lots of surprising findings through articles and interviews and truly allowed me to become aware of what I’m going through to get into college. The racial inequality aspect is what surprised me the most throughout my paper. I was caught off guard by the consistency in which the average score difference has maintained itself throughout the years. On top of that, my research brought to light the gradual increase in the importance of GPA in the admissions process versus standardized testing. Although standardized tests are still valued by universities, they are starting to realize that GPA is arguably the best indicator of a good student. This becomes a large factor in my life and many of my classmates and just about everyone else trying to get into college across the country. It is still a large part of getting into college, and is taken seriously by just about every teenager in the country. I was also able to learn lots of strategies that students may use in their efforts to score as highly as possible on the test as they can. There have been countless intriguing points brought on by the test, but those that have intrigued me the most was the overwhelming amount of inequality surrounding the test. Socioeconomic inequality was something that I knew was a factor in the test but I never knew how great that inequality was. Socioeconomic inequality took form in peoples neighborhoods, textbooks they could afford, and their ability to purchase tutoring or private classes. The socioeconomic factor into one's test score can attribute to each question you get right which is not depicted through the number the colleges see which was the most interesting part of the topic that I found in my research.