Can't Get No SATisfaction

A week from today, about 2000 high school seniors will receive the coveted thick envelope and be offered spots in the Harvard-Radcliffe class of 1993. Unfortunately, many of these 2000, and the 10,000 unsuccessful applicants, will have agonized on an exercise that has pathetically little to recommend it--the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).

What a waste. Harvard should begin phasing out the SAT from the admissions process.

To the University's credit, the admissions office already downplays the importance of the SAT. Standardized tests rank behind secondary school record as indicators of one's academic potential, according to Senior Admissions Officer David Evans. In addition, prospective Harvardians are judged on extracurricular activitites and personal character.

The function of the standardized tests is to allow comparison of applicants with vastly different high school experiences. National tests such as the SAT and the Achievements allow colleges to create the coveted diverse student body, for without them colleges might not take seriously applicants from high schools without national reputations.

However, the utility of the SAT is outweighed by the problems it creates. It is an eminently coachable test, and coaching programs abound for those able to foot the $600 course bill. If success on the SAT can be purchased, then college admission is also partially up for sale.

Harvard gives the SAT less consideration in the admissions process, so an SAT score raised by a prep course would probably not translate into admission. But for many schools, the SAT score is the dominant criterion for admission, and the specter of buying admission through a prep course becomes a real concern.

BUT aren't all tests coachable? Yes, to some extent. However, the SAT is particularly susceptible because effective coaching often has less to do with English and math than outwitting the test.

Virtually the only way to coach an Educational Testing Service (ETS) Achievement test is to work on mastering the body of knowledge. However, SAT prep courses focus on how to take the test.

For instance, the Princeton Review SAT prep course shows students how to circumvent the reading comprehension portion of the test. The SAT always includes one passage on non-Western culture. According to the Princeton Review, students should always pick the most positive sounding answer choice in this section because ETS will generally avoid associating minorites and other nationalities with any negative judgments. Don't understand it, just pick the positive-sounding answer. So much for reading comprehension.

Math skills are also dispensable. Up until a few years ago, Princeton Review counselled students to solve geometry problems not by learning the material but by folding up their tests to create different size angles. Because ETS outlawed tearing and folding of the test booklet, Princeton Review no longer uses this technique. But through other methods such as predicting the sequences of answers, one can still get a good score without actually learning any material.

What good will any of these gimmicks do for students after they have taken the SAT? Harvard and other colleges that require SATs should realize that they are supporting these non-productive industries that impart no useful knowledge at all.

That droves of high-school students shell out $600 for this instruction indicates the extent of SAT-mania. Although some colleges, such as Harvard, weigh the SAT only moderately in the admissions process, high-school students and their families see the SAT as the golden key to college.

As a leading academic institution, Harvard should act immediately to change this harmful public perception. If Harvard stopped using the SAT as a criterion for admission, other institutions would follow and the mania so prevalent among high school students would ease.

This is not to say that Harvard should always set its course by the compass of public opinion as a general rule. However, in the case of the SAT, more is at stake. Fixation on the SAT siphons time and energy away from more productive learning that will serve students well into college and beyond. Reducing emphasis on the SAT is in the interest of Harvard and all colleges that seek incoming freshmen who know more than how to fold paper.

Beginning next fall, the admissions office could ignore SAT scores from a sample of the applicant pool. If students admitted from this pool succeed as well as other members of their class after freshman year, then the SAT will have been proven meaningless and expendable.

To replace the SAT as a national yardstick, Harvard should place more emphasis on Achievement tests. The admissions office might even require four tests instead of three and make the math and English achievements mandatory.

The SAT could be eliminated at minimal cost. The University should recognize its role as an academic leader and spearhead a movement to phase it out, promote productive studying and give high school students back their Saturday mornings.