Stacy Maldonado

Psychology Final 10th

Research Paper
Mr. Paulson
06/16/2015
Now days almost every college or University
asks for the standardize test, mainly the SAT
(figure 1). The SAT test measures three mayor
areas: Critical Reading, Mathematics, and writing.
The test is based off North American teaching
program, but it is required for every student that
would like to attend to that University, including
international students. If the student, international or not does not fulfill the college/ university
minimums score they are not accepted and that makes them lower their expectations of education
according their test scores. What if the student was not well prepared? Or that the student may have the
capability of succeeding in that college/university he was not accepted on? Does the SAT classify the
students future? How efficient is the SAT test?
The Sat test has many aspects where the student can doubt about. When the student makes the test
he/she must turn in a family income, and a research that was done a couple years ago proved that
students from families that received a high income tend to receive higher scores on the test. The average
scores of the children of professionals are higher than the children of white collar workers, which in

return, are higher than the children of blue collar workers. The representatives of the SAT denied that
this was true, but not only do the children off the wealthy score unusually high on the SAT, they also
have, by virtue of their wealth, increased access to the test preparation materials and coaching schools
that can help them improve their score better than the average student who cannot afford that type of
help, that the majority of times is very expensive. In addition to the socioeconomic bias of the test, it is
also prejudiced against non-whites for example a ETS study of students at integrated colleges found that,
in six schools for which that information was available while SAT score means for blacks were lower
than those for their white counterparts, their mean high school ranks were higher (Davis & Temp 2)
Wealthy whites do not see SAT results as proof that the poor are mistreated, they see them as proof that
mistreatment of the poor is fair.
This

chart

(Figure

#2)

shows

the

difference between submitters and nonsubmitters that graduate at a public

school. As is clearly shown, the SAT does
not define how smart the student is, or the
chances he/she might have of graduating
because they did well on the SAT test.
What makes it ironic is that there are
more graduated students who did not submit their SAT scores and graduated. This gives the researchers
evidence that the SAT is not necessary to order to succeed in college.
As a conclusion the SAT test

is not something that should be necessary to apply in a

college/university because as mentioned the SAT is influenced by the socioeconomic and multicultural
BIAS. International and non-international students should not be required to do the SAT because clearly

the test is not completing the task of measuring what it was first intended to measure. New researchers
should think on how can the SAT test can be improved, or renewed so other student can easily access the
preparation course and the test in any country no matter what the student was taught when he/she was at
school.

Works Cited
The SAT aptitude or demographics? : "The SAT Aptitude or Demographics?" The SAT: Aptitude or
Demographics?N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2015. <http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/sat.shtml>.
SAT on Wikipedia (figuure #1): "SAT." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 June 2015.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=SAT>.
Research paper on the SAT and source of figure #2: William Hiss. "OPTIONAL STANDARDIZED
TESTING POLICIES IN AMERICAN COLLEGE." Graduation Rate Comparison at Public
Universities (2014): 32-33. Web. 18 June 2015. <http://www.nacacnet.org/research/researchdata/nacac-research/Documents/DefiningPromise.pdf>.