The ACT and SAT make a strong comeback

Just when we thought they were gone … they’re back and better than ever.

This week Dartmouth College announced it would once again require students to submit standardized test scores with their applications starting with the class of 2029 (students entering in 2025). The article mentioned that other colleges could soon be making similar announcements. Dartmouth joins MIT and all Georgia state colleges (including UGA) who went test-optional for a while but reversed course, and all Florida state colleges who have always required an ACT or SAT score.

Test optional was the “wave of the future”, brought in on the back of COVID (literally) when test centers closed and students couldn’t take ACT / SAT exams. So what changed so quickly over the past four years that’s leading colleges to revert to requiring standardized tests? Three simple letters: G-P-A, specifically the recently bloated GPAs, ushered along by the wonderfully popular “grade inflation”, which also got a big jump with COVID.

The not-so-quick and very general summary of it all …

When testing centers were closed due to COVID in 2020, colleges realized they could no longer require applicants to submit an ACT / SAT score. Fair enough. And initially, colleges believed they wouldn’t need them anymore - some colleges were already trying to get rid of the tests and this was the perfect excuse. The idea of using a “holistic approach to admissions”, looking at the student from lots of different angles (activities, essays, grades, recommendations), meant that these tests wouldn’t be required. But then something somewhat surprising happened. The removal of the standardized testing requirement coincided with a very large bump in high school grade inflation. Teachers weren’t giving out A’s and B’s and C’s and a few D’s; they were instead giving out almost all A’s and just a few B’s. High school transcripts contained cumulative grades like 103.5 and 118, which made no sense. Remember, 100 was supposed to represent the percent of total points a student scored, so anything over 100 is just silly (like giving 110% effort at the gym). At some high schools, 48% of students graduated “with honors”. More than 25% of students had a GPA greater than 4.0 (due to GPA bumps in honors and AP classes) at one school that claimed it had a 4.0 GPA scale. Simply put, straight-A students weren’t rare anymore. Top colleges saw their number of 3.85-4.0 non-weighted GPA applicants double or triple. It became almost impossible for them to determine which applicants had the knowledge of an A grade in a class and which applicants simply received an A grade in the class due to teachers practically no longer giving out any other grades. As said in the movie The Incredibles, “And when everyone’s super, no one will be”.

If only there was a test(s), a national test(s), that could measure academic achievement - not perfectly, but then again no test is perfect - so colleges could compare all these 3.85-4.0 GPA students and see which of them had the knowledge of a 4.0 student and which of them simply had a transcript saying they were a 4.0 student. And thus the re-emergence of the ACT and SAT.

And the SAT was ready for this. Neither the ACT nor the SAT feared the test-optional position being adopted by universities. Instead, the College Board (makers of the SAT) doubled down and completely revised their exam, making is shorter and putting it online. The ACT held their ground and didn’t make any changes at all. The SAT currently has four exams you can download from their site. That’s at total of 480 questions with detailed answer explanations. Then, If a student spends $25 on another book (Kaplan, Princeton Review, Barron’s) they could have an additional (up to) 700 questions and answers. That’s over 1,100 questions and answers, plus chapters of learning material, all for $25. Preparing for the test isn’t a monetary issue - it’s more about time and effort.

So they’re back. And needed. Students and parents simply have to accept it. Just like students have to study for their pre-calculus tests, their American history quizzes, and their AP exams, students now have to budget time to prepare for the ACT / SAT. For those students who earned their 4.0, there should be nothing to fear. For the other set of students with simply a paper 4.0 GPA …. this day was coming sooner or later, and it’s arrived.