Int. Seminar Rough Draft

Outline

SAT is a standardized test for high school students to take as a justification of their academic ability. Many colleges exam the scores and evacuate the applicants’ abilities. The SAT focus on four different sections within three categories: the math category that contains calculator and non-calculator sections; the writing section that test students ability to read, analyze, and discuss the article the students read within a limited amount of time; and then there is the critical reading section that test the students’ ability to read and analyze different types of passage that talks about different subjects such as “natural sciences”, “humanities”, “social science”, “literary fiction”, and “personal narrative”. SAT has always been considered an essential way for colleges to learn about the students performance and level of success at high school; however, there has been many controversy regarding to the fairness of the test. While many still believe in the effectiveness of the SAT and think that the poor performances are resulted in the lazy attitude of the students, others think it is also because of external reason other than the students themselves.

In the increasingly competitive society, standardized tests like the SAT are believed to be the first crucial step in society for your adults. However, the SAT across the nation puts economically underprivileged students at an unfair situation because of their different economic backgrounds since they usually live and study in poorer environment, cannot have as much academic opportunities as the richer students, and have more stress than other students.

Argument 1:

List the extra time and the money that the SAT would cost. The whole system is design to disadvantage certain people.

Evidence

A:Poorer students usually live in much smaller spaces where they have to share with other sibling and they have to take care of other kids so it is hard for them to concentrate and study. They usually have less time to study.

B. They have to take part time jobs which occupy a lot of their time.

C. They cannot afford private schools so they have less privileged education than those who can afford private schools.

BP I:

The journey of education can be stressful and costly. Just like what the article “Why It’s Time for Colleges to Rethink SAT” says, “SAT scores are a better predictor of a students socioeconomic background than how well they will perform in college”   In order to get SAT Prep, the students can look for varies organization suck like the Princeton Review. However, according to Prepexpert, for “2400 Expert”, sixty hours of tutor cost $599, which is $10 per hour. For Princeton Review, it is $699 total and for Kaplan Test Prep is $699 as well. The amount of money that students need to spend on extra tutors create an unfair competitive situation for those who can afford tutors and those who cannot. Also, the education background for students with economic background and those without also set up a unequal situation, which the SAT system tend to neglect. The wealthier students often go to private school or public schools by choice that have less students in each class and the students with less economic advantage do no

ve a choice but to go to the public schools they belong to. Public schools do provide excellent education in some case but averagely, according to “National Center For Education Statistics”,

Studying for SAT us a time consuming process, the students need to not only study for regular subject at school but also need to take time to do practice tests and memorized SAT vocabulary for the SAT. The number of students who take the SAT is on the rise, just New York alone, there was a fifty percent increase from last year. However, among those students who
take the SAT, only very few can afford personal tutor for better scores on the SAT. Poorer students live in poorer and less safe environment therefore cannot focus and concentrate as well as the students who have better economic background.

Argument 2:

Other than the expensive tutors and the living environment, the SAT also designed books for students to study with fairly high prices.

They cannot have as much learning opportunities as the richer students

  1. They cannot afford tutors.
  2. They cannot pay for practice books and tests to study.
  3. They cannot afford to take as many times of SAT so they have less chances to do well on the tests.

Argument 3:

They have more stress than other students.

  1. They have to worried about students loans.
  2. They have to study as well as to take care of their families.
  3. They have to study harder to make up the time they missed by working.

Counterargument:

Some people might say SAT exams students in many criteria so it is a complete and three dimensional test. And many parents and authentic people think that SAT is the doorway to colleges. According to a website, especially when the students’s other quality such as volunteer experience, after school activities and so on are similar or on the same level with others, earning a good score on the SAT is a great way to stand out. The excellent score on the SAT can also earn students scholarships. Many people also think that since students come from different academic background, some students go to laid back schools but some students go to much more rigorous schools, the SAT provides a platform that test all students at the same level and provide a common standard for all the students.

However, the SAT does not consider students’ ability and situation in a complete way therefore fails to analyze a student’s potential in a fair way. The SAT neglect the fact that students are from different economic and academic background so it would not be fair to put them in the same test.

Conclusion:

People often follow the authentic ideas and believe in it without a doubt but never think about whether the ideas are right or wrong. The same problem happens when it comes the issue of education. People tend to believe and follow what others do since they do not want their children to fall behind. Just like the SAT, as more and more people believe in the credibility and the promotion ETS has made, and blindly assume that SAT is the major way to exam students’ ability. People should stand outside the misconception about the perfectness of SAT and critically think about the flaws and disadvantage that the exam has put students into. It gives students distress by allowing only few students to be able to afford tutors, and providing unfair opportunities.

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