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Pro v. Con: SAT scores accurately reflect a student’s ability

Chioma Iheoma, Opinion Editor

March 11, 2013

Pro v. Con: SAT scores accurately reflect a student's ability

This is the pro argument for whether or not the SAT is a good measure of intelligence. To view the con click here.

Despite the tons of essays, short answers, and college applications that college-bound seniors/juniors have to go through to get into college, the one thing that is most popularly despised is the SAT.

For years the usefulness and fairness of the SAT has been argued. Some don’t believe the SAT is an accurate measurement of a student’s intelligence. The SAT isn’t meant to serve as a mere test of a student’s intelligence but it is a test of the information that a student has been taught and has retained during his/her high school career.

The SAT is considered to be unfair by some because it measures book smarts rather than common sense or “street smarts.” What some people forget is that colleges do not only look at the SAT score to test for a student’s intelligence.

A person who scores a 2300 on his/her SAT is probably not going to write application essays at a third grade level or have recommendation letters declaring him/her to be completely stupid.

Colleges aim for the students who have excelled in challenging classes. The score that a person gets on his/her SAT reflects that. The SAT is a blanket exam which tests how much information colleges would hope their applicants have retained. The students who take challenging courses are exposed to more information than their counterparts so that if both students retained all that they have learned, one will still get a higher SAT score.

The Collegeboard conducted research in 2008 which followed high school seniors from their taking of the SAT to the end of their freshmen years in college when they received their GPA. Those who scored highest on their SATs received the highest GPAs.

The correlation between intelligence and SAT scores should be taken into account when measuring how well the SAT measures intelligence. While the four hour test is not favored by those who must take it, it is pretty accurate.

Chioma Iheoma is an Opinion Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

Chioma Iheoma