SAT scores would eliminate me from possibly going to college. I scored under 1000, before they doubled the score count. I did pretty abysmal on it, especially the math portion. Conversely, I scored a 70 on the ASVAB in 2004.
Standardized tests are pretty poor for testing a person’s core intelligence. If a certain subject doesn’t require niche knowledge about it in an argument, I can leave anybody in the dust. This is coming from somebody that spent 5 years in high school, and had to finish in another state’s specialized program.
Education today only teaches a certain set of skills. It cannot make somebody smart. Probably the smartest ones out there are those that self-educate in certain areas. My friend taught himself how to work a computer, and he’s going to tech college for it; he’s even told me he could teach a few of the classes he’s learning right now because he advanced beyond them in his own learnings.
Yes, but that is a niche situation. For the most part, if a student is competent in English reading, writing, library skills and speaking; mathematics; economics; government and the law; and basic science and popular technology; they will be able to accomplish a college degree.
And these can be objectively determined for the most part before admission. As you pointed out, however, the SAT and ACT are not the best way of doing so.
We HAVE to send a lot of folks off for advanced babysitting, because we’ve EXPORTED our mnaufacturing jobs outta this country.
Those assembyline folks are NOW in grad school, awaiting the perks of working the driveup window!