November 3, 2016

Dear Mr. or Mrs. President,

For many generations, kids all over the United States have been told that it is mandatory to either take the SAT test or the ACT in order to go to college or university. Furthermore, teenagers need to score near perfect if they want to enter a prestigious university, such as Stanford. In my opinion, our tests scores should not define how much knowledge we have or our level of competence. Our actions should do the talking.

During my sophomore year in high school, my dad and teachers stressed how important the SAT and the ACT were if I wanted to attend college. Upon hearing so, I began to bury myself in study guides and books. After I have taken the SAT test and the scores were released, my scores were not high enough to satisfy my dad or certain colleges. I cannot comprehend why people take our scores for who we are, like we have a set number. Shouldn’t our kinesthetic lessons be more important than our ability to read and memorize information? As a result of my undesired scores, my dad made me stay up even longer at night to memorize more information in the SAT’s. Little did he know that I was better at performing certain duties, like solving complicated puzzles physically, than memorizing information that I will undeniably forget after a period of time.

Each university has their own designated score that students must achieve in order to attend their organization. For example, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale would prefer or rather want their students to have either perfect or near perfect SAT scores. An average student scores around the one thousand range in the new SAT test while only a few prodigious students can achieve those perfect scores. It has been proven by scientific research that much of an individual's intelligence was passed down through heredity from their parents. Therefore, there is always a limit as to how much one can comprehend. However, experience is learned through kinesthetic training where the skill learned can be applied to real life situations. For example, a trained surgeon who has practiced physically would be better at his or her job than a surgeon who only reads and memorize information for an exam. Moreover, certain kids are very skilled at taking tests but are the opposite in real life situations. On the other hand, bad test takers can sometimes outperform others in their jobs.

Overall, Mr. or Mrs. President, I ask you to abolish the SAT and ACT tests. Not only are they a bad representation of a student's true potential, but those scores can hold some back from entering certain schools that they should be able to attend.

Sincerely,

Vincent