We've long since passed the days of SAT prep courses, but we remember how painful they were. Laundry lists of obscure vocabulary words. Dozens of not-so-profound analogies. Geometry - ugh. Thank goodness those days are behind us.
With any luck, they'll be gone before they start for our youngest brothers and sisters, thanks to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
A group of admissions officials was brought together to rethink the process used to determine who's in and who's out of our nation's universities.
The all-star admissions panel apparently concluded that standardized tests like the SAT and ACT are no longer as important as they once were for getting into college.
It's about time. We realized how useless those tests were five weeks into our first semester at UF.
Studying for the SAT isn't studying. It's memorization. There's no way to prepare for a UF blue-book essay test other than keeping pace with your readings, attending class and then furiously relearning everything you spaced out on the first time you read it.
The SAT and ACT don't require that sort of focus. They require you to make flash cards and to know there will never be more than three consecutive B answers - four in a row just looks weird.
It could be argued that standardized tests accurately represent a person's knowledge at the exact time they take that test, but what does that say in respect to a person's potential? What about their work ethic? Those are the things that matter in college.
We're glad to see these tests' values are finally being evaluated for what they truly are.
