Post by altinfo35 on Nov 16, 2011 22:50:47 GMT -5
Collegiate Consensus: An Examination of the Tyrannical Creators of the SAT
There are several rites of passage that a young adult faces between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. At sixteen, teenagers start learning how to drive. At seventeen, he or she can get her license. Then, the most pivotal moment of a teenager’s life appears on the horizon; the college process. Between calculating one’s GPA, going on college visits, and taking the SATs, teenagers often find themselves in crisis when the middle of Junior year hits. After all, to most juniors, their score on the SATs could be the determining factor of the rest of their life. However, this hyperbolic type of thinking is purely a result of the attempts of the College Board to heighten the legitimacy and importance of the college admittance crisis. Ruling by fear, the College Board manipulates and takes advantage of the college admittance crisis and could therefore be thought of as a modern-day tyrannical consensus.
The College Board did not start out as a tyranny, but as the organization became aware of the crisis, it sought to take advantage of it for monetary gain. The founders of the College Board saw a need for a uniform college entrance exam in the 1980s, and jumped at the opportunity to create one. However, all the additional tests and products that ensued such as the PSATs, the SAT subject tests, AP courses, standardized AP tests, and SAT prep books, were purely a result of the College Board manipulating the anxiety of students. The more anxious they could make the students about getting into college, the more over- priced practice books the student would buy, the more SAT tests they would pay to take, and the greater the chance that they would sign up for the SAT mailing list that effectively promotes other College Board products. Essentially, the College Board has lucratively created a monopoly on the college admissions process, which, along with the anxiety that it places on students to be successful, fuels the success of the organization. The Board retains and strengthens its power by the use of this anxiety which has convinced more and more people to become constituents of the College Board consensus.
All in all, an organization whose start stemmed from an idea to simplify college applications has turned into a profitable business because of the manipulation of crisis and institution of fear. This trepidation has heightened over the years because of the fluctuating points system by which the SAT is graded, in addition to the growing number of tests that students must take to apply to college. Now the SAT is scored on 2400 points which provides for a higher margin of failure. Along with the SAT’s convoluted way of measuring intelligence that forces students to study “to the test”, students must now study harder to get a good score. For this reason, SAT followers are switching over to the ACT. The makers of the ACT saw the crisis of those who were unsuccessful at the SAT and in turn looked to take advantage of the crisis and profit from it. Those who fall in line with the rhetoric of the College Board can also be constituents of the ACT, because students can take both tests. In this manner, the makers of both tests have struck gold. The college admissions crisis is an inexhaustible source of revenue.
Word Count: 566
There are several rites of passage that a young adult faces between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. At sixteen, teenagers start learning how to drive. At seventeen, he or she can get her license. Then, the most pivotal moment of a teenager’s life appears on the horizon; the college process. Between calculating one’s GPA, going on college visits, and taking the SATs, teenagers often find themselves in crisis when the middle of Junior year hits. After all, to most juniors, their score on the SATs could be the determining factor of the rest of their life. However, this hyperbolic type of thinking is purely a result of the attempts of the College Board to heighten the legitimacy and importance of the college admittance crisis. Ruling by fear, the College Board manipulates and takes advantage of the college admittance crisis and could therefore be thought of as a modern-day tyrannical consensus.
The College Board did not start out as a tyranny, but as the organization became aware of the crisis, it sought to take advantage of it for monetary gain. The founders of the College Board saw a need for a uniform college entrance exam in the 1980s, and jumped at the opportunity to create one. However, all the additional tests and products that ensued such as the PSATs, the SAT subject tests, AP courses, standardized AP tests, and SAT prep books, were purely a result of the College Board manipulating the anxiety of students. The more anxious they could make the students about getting into college, the more over- priced practice books the student would buy, the more SAT tests they would pay to take, and the greater the chance that they would sign up for the SAT mailing list that effectively promotes other College Board products. Essentially, the College Board has lucratively created a monopoly on the college admissions process, which, along with the anxiety that it places on students to be successful, fuels the success of the organization. The Board retains and strengthens its power by the use of this anxiety which has convinced more and more people to become constituents of the College Board consensus.
All in all, an organization whose start stemmed from an idea to simplify college applications has turned into a profitable business because of the manipulation of crisis and institution of fear. This trepidation has heightened over the years because of the fluctuating points system by which the SAT is graded, in addition to the growing number of tests that students must take to apply to college. Now the SAT is scored on 2400 points which provides for a higher margin of failure. Along with the SAT’s convoluted way of measuring intelligence that forces students to study “to the test”, students must now study harder to get a good score. For this reason, SAT followers are switching over to the ACT. The makers of the ACT saw the crisis of those who were unsuccessful at the SAT and in turn looked to take advantage of the crisis and profit from it. Those who fall in line with the rhetoric of the College Board can also be constituents of the ACT, because students can take both tests. In this manner, the makers of both tests have struck gold. The college admissions crisis is an inexhaustible source of revenue.
Word Count: 566
