Smith is a second-year undeclared student.
By Sophia Smith
Have you ever been in a large group that’s sharing an
inside joke, and you don’t know what it is? Did they keep
laughing and not tell you what it was, making you feel excluded? I
know I have. The large group was UCLA. And the joke was the idea
that the SAT I actually had value.
What’s sad, though, is that a lot of people are still in
the shadows wondering what we’re laughing at ““ and we
are laughing at them. It’s likely that the same people who
oppose affirmative action also oppose eliminating the SAT I with
the same line of thinking ““ which is no thinking. For even
the most reptilian of brains, the most simple, exclusively
reflexive mind knows that if something is causing it unnecessary
harm and it can remove it, then it should.
That’s what the SATs are doing to the UC. The SAT I,
especially, is a pimple on the ass of the UC system ““ a
pimple it can and should destroy. Why? For the following
reasons.
SAT I scores are sold to the highest bidder. I know my parents
bought me SAT I prep materials and tutoring, and it sure helped me
improve my score. I challenge anyone to take the SAT I with no
preparation at all aside from high school, and then take it again
after undergoing expensive SAT I prep courses and not score higher.
I’m sure a lot of Bruins did.
Well, put yourself in the shoes of someone who can’t
afford even a simple SAT I prep book, much less tutoring classes.
Why is it fair that you get more consideration by UCLA than someone
with equal academic potential but no money to undergo SAT I
preparation? But I guess it isn’t you so it doesn’t
really make a difference, right? After all, so long as Mommy can
keep swiping the platinum and buying me Kaplan and Princeton
Review, everything in the world is as it should be.
Don’t say that we should fix the public school system
rather than rid ourselves of the SAT I, either. These are not
mutually exclusive goals ““ we can do both at the same
time.
The SAT I doesn’t even test academics. It tests your
ability to memorize useless words, useless concepts and useless
tricks. And aside from your ability to regurgitate those
acquired-by-credit-card traits on the “test,”
you’re useless. Who cares how much real knowledge you can
actually apply and what other life experiences you have that can
help you succeed in college? So long as you know how
“ubiquitous” and “metastatic” are related,
you’re ready for life!
It boggles the mind how oblivious people can be to the fact that
we don’t live in an egalitarian society ““ that
advantages are always given to one person at the cost of another.
And yet UCLA is admitting people based on numbers skewed by this
disadvantage. The kindergarten mind might say, “Well,
that’s just the way it is, live with it.” But it
doesn’t have to be “the way it is.” Again, the
halfwit retorts, “Well, you can’t let everyone
in.” Yes, I’m sure that’s why they call it a
public university.
Sure, there will be those few poor outstanding students who
score well on the SAT I and voluntarily tokenize themselves in
order to perpetuate the travesty that is the SAT I. But pro-status
quo simpletons need to look at the bigger picture, which includes
working at both the university and pre-university educational
level.
Our situation is similar to the society present during the civil
rights movement. But instead of putting up “whites
only” and “no colored service” signs, we have
“rich only” and “poor need not apply”
posters on the doors of Murphy Hall. The SAT I resembles a poll
test and tax ““ only this time it’s biased against
class, not race. Poor students have to pay to take a test the
educational system doesn’t prepare them for ““ and when
they fail, they’re denied admission. And rather than account
for this while the system is being fixed, the university chooses to
ignore it.
Why can we continue to ignore this problem? It’s the
people with huge bank balances that make a difference in this
country. The SAT I resembles an elaborate charity. A charity for
rich people and a massive educational testing corporation.
It’s in their best interest to keep this ironic charity alive
because it produces massive profits for the rich and is a sure way
of getting their kids into colleges by keeping poor kids out.
If the UC decides not to ban SAT I use, it might as well just
start asking for bank account summaries along with transcripts
because it wouldn’t make a difference with how our current
admissions system is run.