Its merely humbug seen from my standpoint of my view, being a grumpy old norwegian that has never set a foot in the united states, and probably wont...

an attack on the u.s way of life and thinking maybe the first thought youll get when viewing this documentary, a well made film that doesnt dare to take a side, so you will have to bear over with my assumptions...

its a fact that the ivy league and higher educational intitutions of the united states are driven on a financial win basis, if you can pay we accept, if you cant, do the sat test and win the prize of a scholarship, and youre the lucky one. Its made for the rich and merely that.

Norwegian higher ed system admits student on the basis of high school grades basicly, age and other experience may give you some extra benefits, but there are no standard tests to be imatriculated in the high ed system here, and that benefits everyone, and gives the aspiring student a no or go feeling over the 12 years of preeducation what to become and where to go to become that...

i was admitted to nursing college at age of 19, the average age of the whole group was 29, that meant i hadnt any benefit of age or any other things than my grades and doing the compulsary military duties that norwegian men had to go through back then.

But i got in, without doing a test, a test that i most surtainly wouldve failed today due to dementia and soforth. So my conclusion would be, slay the sat and act test, and use the grades that has been given these godgiven creatures over 12 years of schooling, grades given by bright and intelligent teachers, grades that are completely undermined by a set of tests that are so lottery fashioned and illogical as can be.

Ive done IQ and brilliance tests as part of the military pre session programs (no pun intended i became a torpedoboat gunsman in the first part of the service) and have just for the fun of it done some of the sat tests on websites, and im proud to say that i have come through just a little over the midlevel, in fact im not an algebraic, and im not born with english/american as my language, its just a sign of how serindipidous such a test maybe...

so my grumpy old opinion is use the grades, and view this film, its open and its highly relevant, maybe a symptom of disease to a nation, search me...

Greetings again from the darkness. "And you may begin." Thanks to this documentary feature film from Michael Arlen Davis, we now know that 3.5 million high school students graduate each year, and 80% of them have taken a standardized college admission test at least once. The vast majority of those students experience anxiety and feel the pressure that comes with needing a certain score to have any chance at gaining admission to the school of their choice.

Why do these tests exist? What do they measure? How are scores used in the admissions process? How accurate are they in predicting academic success at the next level? These topics are discussed during the film through interviews with academics, tutors, parents, and students. Surprisingly, the professional tutors - or testing coaches - provide the most insight. Each has their own philosophy, but the key takeaway is that standardized tests don't evaluate what you know, but rather how you think and how well-prepared you are to take such a test.

Carl Brigham, a Princeton Professor of Psychology and member of the advisory council of the American Eugenics Society, is credited with creating the original SAT, though it's been re-designed a few times since. We hear from John Katzman, who founded the Princeton Review in 1986 as a business to teach and tutor students on how to best prepare for standardized tests. From there, many others, including private for-hire tutors have become part of this ever-expanding industry. This goes to the core of just how important test scores are viewed in the college admission process.

In 2001, Dr. Atkinson of the University of California system announced they were looking to drop the SAT from the admissions evaluation, and this year's COVID environment has pushed other systems and schools to consider alternative methods as well. It's pointed out that the tests are not dissimilar to IQ tests, yet most agree a test score is not an accurate measure of intelligence. Standardized tests are described as a "get the answer" test, and the better students hone this skill, the less anxiety or stress they feel, and the more options they'll have for advanced education ... or all of the above.