As junior year is wrapping up for the class of 2027, standardized testing stress is through the roof. For many, certain point thresholds are roadblocks on their journey to building a college application. For many Parker students, standardized tests fall outside the comfort zone.
I often hear of a culture of grade inflation at Parker, and I think there is definitely truth to that. Ambitious aims for college come with test scores attached. A problem facing my class and the coming classes is the end of the test optional application. In 2020, as ACT and SAT dates were cancelled en masse, essentially every school in the country became test optional for applicants. In the years since, test optional colleges have become rarer every year. Currently, only 13 out of the top 50 schools in the U.S are test optional, and Parker’s consistently ambitious students usually aim their sights on that list. These high expectations are in many ways valid, but in one major way, flawed.
At Parker, we are privileged to have a school where the majority of our students have access to test specific tutoring. Studies show that students who report having been tutored for the ACT average a score between four to six points higher than their first test compared to students who don’t receive tutoring, who see only negligible improvement. But tutoring’s benefits come with real caveats.
The tutoring industry can be a source of real frustration. Students are often told they’re capable of a 1,500 or a 34, yet no amount of studying seems to close the gap, not out of laziness, but instead because studying alone cannot always overcome a student’s testing skills or realistic ceiling.
For many students, point thresholds may not be set by ambitions but by realities. The ACT and SAT weren’t designed to measure your ability to study, they were meant to measure your comprehension of topics learned up to your junior year, as well as your logic and reasoning abilities. The concept of studying your way out of reality is a very “Parker” phenomenon, one that is reinforced by the remarkable college admissions results we see here year by year. While systems are designed to keep those who can afford tutoring and private education atop the hierarchies of education, the pressures put on those at the top to maintain their status by getting a 35, proving that they deserve their spot at XYZ top 20 school, is painful, and when unachievable, suffocating. At the end of the day,though, the ACT and SAT tests are one way colleges can hold each applicant to one standard, which is fair. Sadly, this measurement is one that lacks nuance and often fails to accomplish its purpose. I’m not here to say your test score doesn’t define you, because sadly, it kinda does. But it only defines your resume, not your intelligence, not your effort, not you.
