High School Students: Determine Success With Or Without the SAT
Ready or not, October marks that time of year when college-bound high school juniors prepare to take the PSAT, which serves as practice for that dreaded and sometimes feared SAT I. Before you work yourself up into a full-fledged anxiety attack at the mere mention of the word “SAT”, consider this:
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing lists over 730 four-year colleges in the United States that no longer require the SAT I or ACT for admission. That’s right – over 730 colleges! Moreover, a rising number of colleges are beginning to place a bigger emphasis on grades and personal accomplishments over scores.
The belief that you’ll never get into a good college and you’ll never be successful in life if you don’t master the SAT is a total myth. I’ll give you a personal example: Both in our twenties, my husband and I are not SAT success stories. I scored a mere 1070 on the SAT in 1996 and never bothered to retake the test. I hate standardized tests and never do well on them. Yet I still went to an excellent college in Western New York on an academic scholarship and graduated at the top of my class. Today, I’m an accomplished writer with national and regional credits. My 27-year-old husband never even took the SAT! He went to a two-year college for graphic design that didn’t require the SATs. After he received his Associates degree, he transferred to a four-year college and earned his Bachelors degree with honors. Today, he’s a successful print/web designer. We are not the exceptions to the rule.
I’m certainly not telling you to waltz into the SAT exam room with an “I-don’t-give-a-s#@$” attitude, but keep things in perspective. Whether you ace the SATs, fail them big-time, retake them three times, or decide never to take them at all, you can be successful in life. I will repeat that: You CAN be successful in life with or without the SAT, or the ACT for that matter.
Questions:
• What SAT score or ACT score do you consider “good enough?”
• Do you plan to retake the SAT or ACT if you don’t get the score you hoped for?
• Do you believe you can be successful in life without the SAT?
• Any stories on this subject that you’d like to share?
Feel free to leave me feedback at the end of this entry with your thoughts. I always value students’ opinions!
Further reading:
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing
Taking aim at admissions anxiety
How Much Homework Is Too Much?
On September 4th, Time Magazine ran a Viewpoint article titled, "The Myth About Homework," that brings up some interesting points. Like how "a rising tide of dull, useless assignments is oppressing families and making kids hate learning." The author cites a 2004 national survey of 2,900 American children conducted by the University of Michigan, which revealed that the amount of time spent on homework is up 51 percent since 1981.
Students:
• How many hours per night are you spending on homework?
• How much homework is too much? Should there be a nightly time limit on homework and/or no homework over vacations?
• Do you think too much homework kills curiosity? Why or why not?
• If teachers stop dishing out so much homework, do you think your classroom performance would suffer?
• What would you do with the extra free time after school if you had less homework?
Leave me a comment below and share your thoughts. Your opinions matter and should be heard!