Studying for the ACT was a painful experience. Partially because I couldn’t remember anything I’d learned in Algebra II or Geometry, but mainly because I couldn’t connect it to anything. Even in the English sections, which I enjoyed more, everything felt so detached from the problem-solving skills that I felt I really needed or the subject areas that I was really passionate about.

This led to tears and countless rants about how unnecessary standardized testing was. My main complaint was that this couldn’t possibly be the most valuable measure of my worth. I thought of college as a step towards my future and a step towards specialization in what really matters. As I continued to work my way through the practice modules, I would wonder how it could possibly matter if I could figure out a system of equations or where exactly to place a comma. 

Simultaneously, as AP exams crept closer, I started to dread studying for them. I remembered how awful studying for the ACT had been and how much of a toll it had taken on me. However, as I crammed US History review videos and practiced writing 40-minute essays, I realized that it wasn’t completely terrible. So maybe standardized tests aren’t the issue – the issue comes when the material feels unimportant to the student.

Standardized testing is defined as a method of evaluating student performance through uniform assessments that allow for comparison among individuals with similar characteristics. Both AP exams and tests such as the ACT or SAT fall under this description. However, they resulted in very different test-taking experiences.

AP exams feel purposeful – they sum up a year’s worth of content learned in a classroom while also testing critical thinking skills. The ACT or SAT are supposed to determine college readiness, but instead just test students’ abilities to recall niche pieces of information learned across years of education. This undermines a large part of the purpose of school — students take math classes to learn how to solve problems, not necessarily to know exactly how to solve for the cosine of an angle.

Therefore, exams focused on more purposeful, focused content may be the solution — they help admissions officers to get a clear picture of how many students perform across uniform learning objectives, but they are not focused on obscure content that trips up students who don’t remember one lesson from geometry. 

Some kinds of standardized tests can still be valuable. Being able to demonstrate a complex understanding of content learned in a class or showing a complex understanding of certain topics that are actually interesting to the student is extremely valuable. But four hours trapped in a hot room flipping back and forth between subject matters is not what demonstrates college readiness.