standardized testing., is it accurate? necessary? Options

[winsome]

For all of us still trudging through public schools and those whose tax dollars fund our education...

Does standardized testing (SATs ACTs etc.) accurately measure a student's capacity, and, more importantly, should it be as integral to education as it is currently?

[winsome]

Accurate? SAT IIs are, SAT Is are not.
Integral? They should be, certainly.

You can't really study for the SATs. You can study for the PSATs, which are more achivemenet-based. The SAT is a reasoning test. In my school, our top PSAT scorer only got a 1400 on the SATs. Of the two people who got higher than 1500 on the SAT, neither of us study.

There are so many differences betwene schools that standardized testing is the most equitable way to resolve them.

That is, of course, unless you perfer to go back to the 1950s system, where you got into university based on what high school you went to.

My thoughts exactly . Accurate: No. Integral: Yes.

Last year my PSAT score was high, and next school year I am first in line to retake it for national merit. But, after taking a practice SAT I this summer I fell far short of my projected score. My class will be taking SAT IIs for college entrance, so hopefully my scores there will improve (I have no experience with SAT II whatsoever, so I'm not sure how I will do... I need to pick up one of those Princeton RV books).

However (in)accurate the score, it is still the best way to compare my/my school's abilities to those of others and (hopefully) help to set my college app apart from thousands of others.