Before students are admitted to colleges, they are subjected to at least one of the following entrance exams PSAT/NMSQT, SAT Reasoning test, ACT, and SAT subject tests. The tests are administered as a strategy of implementing a common yardstick for measuring a student’s academic ability and predicting how the student will fair in college. The use of these college exams is motivated by the fact that most secondary schools around the United States do not share a common grading policy and therefore the entrance exams are needed to act as a common grading policy for students across the country. However, most students approach the entrance exam dates as if their futures hang in the balance. They put themselves under a lot of pressure trying to study for the exams and mentally thinking about failing and whether they are intelligent enough to pass the exams. Nonetheless, contrary to popular beliefs among students, the exams are not indicative of a student’s intelligence but are just among the several elements that make up their profile. Although the examinations provide a standard sieve of establishing who can attend college, it is also limited in determining an individual’s intelligence level.
College entrance exams do not measure a student’s potential since they cannot measure divergent thinking and creativity. According to Suzanne Brier’s article titled “Grades Don't Measure Intelligence," “Many times, tests are inaccurate representations of one's aptitude… Everybody has varying strengths and weaknesses, however, if someone fails to succeed in one subject, many will perceive them as being less intelligent…” Brier in her article reveals the fact that many factors may affect students in the course of taking the college entrance exams that may lead to their failure. Factors such as anxiety, sickness, and harsh or stressful environments may contribute to the failure of the students. As a result, the exams fail to measure the student’s creativity since they end up being labeled as failures when in the real sense it is the circumstances surrounding them that lead to their failure. As a result, students who are sharp end up losing the chance to explore their intelligence and apply it in colleges because of the failure in the entrance exams. With this in mind, it is clear that college entrance exams do not measure and individuals intelligence since students taking them are subjected to a lot of external pressure that may break them down and hinder their full performance in the exams.
Furthermore, college entrance exams fail to measure true student intelligence since exams, in general, are inadequate tools for measuring people’s intelligence. Peter Tait’s article dubbed “Intelligence cannot be defined by exams” echoes the similar sentiments as he claims that “The problem of measuring intelligence per se is that it is an inadequate guide to human capability and that many of the ways we use to measure working intelligence are woefully inadequate…” Tait explores how flawed exams are as tools for measuring a student’s intelligence. He explains that most of the highly intelligent students slip through the net or just choose to think differently from the conventional way of thinking and as a result end up in the wrong side of the examination requirements. As a result, once they take the exams, they fail and are viewed as unintelligent when in the real sense they are brilliant individuals. For instance, some students are great in music but do not understand a single thing in other subjects like mathematics. As a result, this shows that different people are intelligent in their own way and although it may not be the conventional intelligence, they should not be denied the opportunity to explore their talents and skills just because of an exam.
College entrance exams are not a measure of intelligence since most of the people who fail end up holding essential positions in public life while those that pass end up becoming painfully deficient in other aspects. Evelyn Lee’s article titled “Standardized Tests Don’t Measure Intelligence or Ability” expounds more on this by stating that “In addition, these scores may not mean much scholastically speaking. Aspects of an application such as high school GPA are the main determinant of how well a student does at a university — not SAT scores…” although the college entrance exams exist to measure students capability of handling higher education and gaining greater skills, it is evident that they fail to achieve this because they do not possess the capacity of gauging an individual’s intelligence level. An individual may lack what is referred to as ‘book smarts’ but may possess ‘street smarts’ which would allow them to establish business empires or even do other great things despite being labeled as failures by the college entrance exams. This is the reason why a lot of well-educated individuals usually end up lacking jobs or even being employed for all their lives while those that are labeled as failures generally end up establishing their own businesses and becoming hugely successful. The conventional method of measuring intelligence is extremely flawed since it fails to show the true capability of a student. With this in mind, it is evident that college entrance exams are not capable of measuring the real potential of an applicant since the conventional standard of measuring intelligence is not correct as it is subjective since it does not take into account all of the factors involved.
In summary, it is evident that college entrance exams are used to gauge which students are best suitable for college life and the challenges of a college education. However, although those that pass are praised for their intelligence, the students that fail often view themselves as failures and those around them also see them as unable to amount to anything. However, upon a close analysis of college entrance exams, it is evident that they do not offer definition or representation of accurate intelligence since they fail to account for various elements that may contribute to an individual’s performance. As a result, the results received from these exams are usually flawed. This is evident from the countless number of people who have failed them yet have managed to become more successful than their counterparts who actually managed to pass them. Furthermore, there are many cases of individuals who pass the exams and go to college only to drop out after a few years since college education usually becomes harder for them to handle. From such examples, it is evident that these exams do not represent the actual test of intelligence as they are not accurate. Given this, it is vital for individuals to realize that failing such exams does not necessarily mean the end of life but it just means they need to prove to work hard and prove the tests are wrong.
Works Cited
Brier, Suzanne. “Grades Don't Measure Intelligence.” The Odyssey Online, Odyssey, 14 Nov. 2017, www.theodysseyonline.com/knowledge-does-not-equal-intelligence.
Lee, Evelyn. “Standardized Tests Don't Measure Intelligence or Ability ‹ Pepperdine Graphic.” Pepperdine Graphic, 27 Sept. 2016, pepperdine-graphic.com/standardized-tests-dont-measure-intelligence-or-ability/.
Schuschu, Monika. “How Good Are the ACT/SAT at Predicting College Success?” CollegeVine, CollegeVine, 25 Dec. 2017, blog.collegevine.com/how-good-are-the-sat-act-at-predicting-college-success/.
Tait, Peter. "'Intelligence Cannot Be Defined by Exams.'" The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 17 June 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11678216/Intelligence-cannot-be-defined-by-exams.html.
