The societal benefits of standardized testing are easy to undervalue. After all, clever advertisements from larger test prep companies frame their messaging to simplify most standardized tests into a laundry list of tricks kids can simply commit to memory. Hence, recognizing the benefits of standardized testing starts with acknowledging that the SAT and ACT measure essential academic skills. To give that claim context, allow me a brief anecdote.
YouTube has certainly figured out what I do for work. I often get test prep ads when I open my YouTube feed. The gist of the ads usually goes something like this:
Your SAT scores reflect how good you are at taking the SAT.[1]
I’ve worked as a test prep tutor for more than twenty years. My colleagues and I have read and heard these sentiments before. One of the more famous ones was popularized by the CEO of Princeton Review, who claimed that “the SAT only tests your ability on mastering the SAT.”[2]
This viewpoint, long marketed, has become pervasive among parents, students, and counselors: the SAT (and ACT) are exams defined by tips, tricks, and strategies largely divorced from actual learning. This perception appeals to consumers who believe they can gain an advantage by purchasing test preparation to help them “hack” the tests. However, for the most part, this perception is incorrect. Both the SAT and ACT involve clearly defined, essential academic skills that are easy to find within virtually all high school curriculums. This blog will identify several of these important skills.
Exploring Why Standardized Testing Is Important to Student Success
Understanding why standardized testing is important means seeing how it measures readiness and pinpoints areas for improvement. After all, academic skills do not exist in a vacuum. They represent a student’s ability to succeed in the classroom and the workforce as a critical thinker and an effective communicator worldwide. If standardized tests do, in fact, measure these skills, they serve a dual purpose. First, they are a tool for institutions to measure readiness to judge who is more or less likely to succeed at those institutions. Second, they serve as a tool for students and schools to identify areas of strength and needed improvement. By crystallizing crucial academic skills for students, the schools that teach those students, and the institutions that decide whether to accept those students, standardized tests can be a tool that improves society.
Standardized Testing And Strong Vocabulary
The first benefit of standardized testing is its focus on high-frequency vocabulary.
Both exams, in slightly different ways, test English vocabulary. When people hear “vocabulary,” they often think of “SAT words:” obscure words that few, if any, would ever use:
- lugubrious
- apocryphal
- parsimonious
You know – rare, polysyllabic words that just roll off the tongue. However, these sorts of words very rarely appear on either test. The tested words consist of high-frequency words regularly seen in literature, journals, and scholarly articles. Furthermore, vocabulary is not an isolated skill: a study by Johnson O’Connor found the following:
Vocabulary test scores correlated directly with existing rankings on the corporate ladder. Top executives had the highest average score, while lower managers achieved the lowest average scores.[3]
As such, one’s vocabulary has a wide-ranging predictive capacity for academic and workplace success.
The Pros Of Standardized Testing In Reading Skills
Among the pros of standardized testing is that it presents challenging reading materials that mirror scholarly texts found in real life. New to the Digital SAT is the format of short paragraphs with a single question attached. Among the most difficult are the social and natural science passages, which receive complaints from students for their abundance of technical terms. These paragraphs usually briefly describe an experiment or study, its research question, and its findings. While the descriptions are taken out of context, such descriptions are very frequently present in newspaper articles, journal articles, and non-fiction books. Furthermore, descriptions in these places will often be accompanied by graphs or other representations of data, the interpretation of which is directly tested in the ACT Science section. Basic descriptions of experiments or studies, along with accompanying data representations, are present in almost every field of study, whether physics, psychology, business, or history.
Standardized Testing Assesses Writing Proficiency And Crucial Communication Skills
Standardized testing emphasizes punctuation and grammar, the essential foundations of clear and effective writing. Punctuation and grammar are also included in both tests. Grammar is one area in which students usually haven’t learned all the material before they enter tutoring. With the advent of tools like Grammarly that can correct grammatical flaws in one’s writing, students often ask why they need to know grammar at all. However, those sites only identify and fix basic mistakes, and they certainly do not suggest how grammar can be used effectively to improve the quality of one’s writing.
A mastery of grammatical rules means a mastery of the ability to connect ideas, form boundaries between them, and express their relations precisely. Practically, good grammar is essential when writing a cover letter for a job in the real world. In these letters, poor grammar may be enough to rule out an application in an increasingly competitive job market; conversely, excellent grammar might make one stand out. Certain mistakes seem tiny and irrelevant when the meaning is clear, but grammatical mistakes – like it or not – cast doubt on the thoroughness and communication skills of the writer.
One might be able to get through high school using Grammarly, but as one seeks to express more advanced ideas, strong grammar—the ability to create sentences that are not just “correct” but effective—takes on increasing importance.[4]
Standardized Testing Benefits Core Math Literacy
Standardized testing addresses core math skills that address everyday problem-solving and benefit students’ financial lives. Let us switch our focus to Math. Certain math topics with manifold real-life applications are deeply embedded in the SAT and ACT curriculums. For example, understanding percentages applies to almost every financial decision you’ll ever make (e.g., credit cards (and rewards), mortgages, car loans, compounding, etc.). Understanding basic statistical concepts like mean, median, standard deviation, and probability is essential to success in both the social and natural sciences in college and beyond. Understanding and interpreting data representations like scatter plots, frequency tables, and bar graphs is required to grasp many newspaper articles, journal articles, and textbooks. It is very hard to question the relevance of these topics mentioned above.
Granted, some math topics (e.g., Pythagorean Theorem or Quadratic Formula) are not needed in real life – memes to this effect abound. Another successful day without using the Quadratic Formula! However, these topics are universally taught in high schools, and standardized college entrance exams are supposed to mirror what students learn in school. So, one could certainly object to the scope of math curriculums in schools, but one cannot blame the SAT/ACT for testing what all students are taught. The tests do mirror well what is taught in schools (e.g., systems of equations, circles, trigonometry, quadratic equations, probability, ratios, etc.), and the old-school “logic” or “reasoning/IQ test” problems are mostly a relic of the past.
Standardized Tests Be Kept To Foster Tech Skills
Standardized tests encourage technology usage, mirroring modern academic and workplace demands.
In Math, both tests reward those who use technology effectively: the TI-84 for ACT (and SAT) and the Desmos calculator for SAT. Many times, students, parents, and teachers have questioned the validity of these calculators, asking if the students are even doing “actual math” anymore. However, in today’s classroom and workforce, the ability to use technology to facilitate tasks is of paramount importance. Maybe it won’t be a calculator, but young adults increasingly must use technology to complete any significant task.
The rise of ChatGPT and AI, in general, perfectly illustrates this trend. While there was much commotion about its use in academics, it’s here to stay, and its utility for completing academic work will only grow as we all become more familiar with it. Mastering a calculator is a proxy for the ability to use technology broadly.
Standardized Testing Is Good At Building Procedural Skills
A final reason standardized testing serves a positive role is that it pushes students to develop procedural thinking, which is transferable to various roles. Finally, let’s even admit to some degree that the SAT/ACT involves some test-taking skills that are not particularly applicable to real life. As critics have often stated, when in life are you presented with four short choices for which you must use the process of elimination to find the best one?
However, almost all jobs involve unique and idiosyncratic procedures that can’t be used outside the job. In some cases, yes, preparing for the SAT involves learning unique and idiosyncratic techniques. However, learning a set of systems and procedures is an essential abstract skill, and people who can do so successfully – through a structured, diligent study plan – will be more likely to succeed in most academic and work contexts.
Understanding The Overall Benefits Of Standardized Testing For Society
When appreciating the benefits of standardized testing, we see that these assessments support societal growth and academic progress by encapsulating fundamental skills for school and workplace success.
Students often find standardized tests tedious and pressure-packed. Taking a standardized test feels like as much fun as going to the dentist. However, just like one needs healthy teeth, however unpleasant the process might be, one needs adequate academic skills to thrive in the world, and one needs a way to check on the adequacy of those skills periodically. Standardized tests serve exactly that function and more.
No one should argue that standardized tests should be the only way this is done. In many cases, it shouldn’t even be the primary way. But it is necessary as a sorting mechanism and an informative one. As such, the presence of standardized tests is beneficial for society.
About the Author
Ben Sexton, owner of Sexton Test Prep & Tutoring, founded the company in 2005 in MetroWest Boston. His company offers SAT/ACT, SSAT/ISEE test prep, and academic tutoring for grades 5-12. Ben began tutoring in 2003 and expanded his business in 2012, now managing a team of 20 tutors and two managers. He holds degrees from Skidmore College and Boston College. Ben also serves on the NTPA Blog Committee. He enjoys boxing, strength training, and following Boston sports in his free time.
About the Editor
Marc Gray, owner of Odyssey College Prep and Education Director of Powerful Prep, streamlines college admissions with advanced aptitude testing. An active blogger, he writes on college admissions, test prep, and aptitude testing. As Chair of the NTPA’s Blog Committee, he updates members on the latest in test prep, college admissions, aptitude testing, and community news.
References
[1] The Princeton Review. (n.d.). 4 SAT myths. Retrieved December 9, 2024, from https://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/4-sat-myths
[2] “Curious What People Think of This Scatterplot of College Admission Results.” College Confidential, 7 Jan. 2025, https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/curious-what-people-think-of-this-scatterplot-of-college-admission-results/3679385/101?page=7. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.
[3] Ragland, Greg. Discover the Astonishing Correlation Between Vocabulary Size and Success in Business and Life. Vocabulary Zone, https://vocabularyzone.com/career-success/discover-the-astonishing-correlation-between-vocabulary-size-and-success-in-business-and-life/. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.
[4] Gray, Lori. “Why Grammar Should Matter to You: From Résumés and Cover Letters to Narratives, Make Sure Your Grammar Holds Up.” Voices Berkeley, 22 Feb. 2021, https://voices.berkeley.edu/why-grammar-should-matter-you. Accessed 8 Jan. 2025.
Last Updated on February 13, 2025 by Marc Gray