But is it all really necessary? But is it all really necessary?

by Kerry Richards

This is the time of the year for juniors when test after test is being thrown at us. All promise to give us a better future. They promise to help us get into college or earn college credit. But is it all really necessary? This year alone I have had to take three three-hour long AP tests, the SATs, and upcoming I have the ACTs and the SAT IIs. All of these tests seem to stretch on for hours upon hours. Hours I will never get back. I feel like I could be getting so many better things accomplished in this time. After all, how effective are these test? I spent two years of my life preparing to take the AP US History Exam and all this boils down to three hours. To how well I can answer multiple choice questions and write a few essays. This just doesn't seem fair. None of the work I did over the past two years has any bearing on what comes out of it. Sure it was preparing, but in the end, the test and papers I had been writing seemed useless. As for the SAT and ACT, can one test really measure everything? I know this argument feels like it has been beaten to death, but it’s a valid question. These two tests are designed to give the best score. They supposedly measure different kinds of intelligence so a person can do well on one and not so great on the other. So how can these tests even begin to be compared to each other? Honestly, it doesn't seem to make much sense. Overall, its basically a sham. These tests are just one measure of how smart someone is. It doesn't seem fair to put so much reliance on three hours of ones life. Although I'm sure the College Board isn't complaining about the unbelievable sums they pull in each year.