Yesterday in class we talked about how society is becoming increasingly more data driven. But I want to specifically elaborate on our discussion of the ACT and how it affects college admissions. Today, as most New Trier juniors know, the ACT scores from the required April test came out. I am now in the computer lab where everyone is chekcing their scores with a furious passion. Even though I was one of those students just seconds before, I realized that this is completely ridiculous. No one was happy with their scores. I hear sighs of regret in the background. New Trier is completely obsessed with data and it consumes our lives every day. But how accurate is this data?
I have a very strong opinion when it comes to the ACT. I feel that the ACT is not a good indicator of someone's abilities and knowledge, and all it measures is how much money you have. People with tutors pretty much buy their ACT score. The first time I took the ACT, I took it without any tutoring; cold-turkey as they say, and I did okay. Not spectacular, probably the average score for New Trier students. After that I got a tutor and raised my score four points. But I didn't do anything special. Sure, I took about 100 practice tests. But anyone could do that. My higher score does not show that I am magically more intelligent than I was before, it simply shows that my parents could afford to hire an ACT tutor for me. My dad and I got into a pretty heated debate about this once, and let's just say he would kindly disagree with me. He thinks that if you have the money to afford a tutor, then everything is fair game. Although I disagree with him, I understand where he's coming from. He's worked really hard his whole life in order to give his family the best. And being able to afford an ACT tutor for his teenage daughter is just the pay off for all of his hard work. But it puts everyone else who can't afford a tutor at a disadvantage. And in the words of my dad, "That's life".
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Hey Zozo--
ReplyDeleteLike you, I was in a lab that day. Everyone was online during French (in the language lab) checking their scores. I did alright, better than some of my friends, but worse than others.
I also took the SAT in March. That was terrible. Maybe I don't think the way they wanted me too, or maybe I had memory loss problems. Anyway, I did okay in reading but not well in either math or writing. But for me, not well is still kind of okay for some other schools in the nation.
The SAT is very weird. According to the Princeton Review, who blatently hates the SAT, it was set up by white elitists who wanted to be able to prove that whites were more intelligent than those of other races. I think that it is very strange that the College Board would still use the test, although of course its been altered several times, when it's well known to have been founded in racism.