Nation the Scholastic Aptitude Test Has Been

¶ … Nation

The Scholastic Aptitude Test has been a method of assessing and bringing equality to all high school students across the world who want to attend an institution of higher learning. This test is an attempt at bringing all potential college students to the same level so that they could all have one thing in common that could be analyzed in terms of scholastic ability and as a way of providing some insight into how a student could potentially perform in a university setting. The problem with this issue is that not all students are adequately prepared for such a test (Freedle 2003). This test defines what institution of higher learning a student can attend, yet it does not bring everyone to an equal level when some students who are smart and can potentially excel in college, do not do well on the test, and limits their choices. This is the case in Puerto Rico. Students wishing to go to college face the issue of not being adequately prepared or do not have the test taking skills necessary to get the scores that they deserve. The problem does not lay in intelligence, but instead in test taking skills. In order for the Puerto Rican nation's problems to be resolved, adequate test taking courses need to be implemented in order to improve scores on such an important test as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

In order to solve this growing problem, the need to improve scores need to be assessed. One idea on how to improve this growing problem is by implementing courses in a high school curriculum that is geared towards test taking. In order for anything to change, a student needs to be able to know how to take a test (Lang 2010). The Scholastic Aptitude Test is not just about how much someone knows, it is also about how well a student could write their answers down and fully understand how to get everything done in the alloted time given. Especially in Puerto Rico, where English is not the first language, it is essential for time management to be something that would be improved on in these proposed courses. When it comes to the verbal portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, since a lot more time is needed to mentally understand what the question is asking, what a word means, and how to really apply everything, time management skills could be taught to specifically address the issues in this department (Jones & Egley 2007). Being able to practice ahead of time, not just with the Scholastic Aptitude Test itself, but with other types and variety of tests, will help a student get used to the idea of being timed, and will give the student an opportunity to get used to taking exams with the stress of a time constraint.

There is more to getting a good score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test than just knowing the right answers and having good time management. There is a method to being able to handle and translate test questions while being able to stay leveled at the same time. The idea of "how" to do anything is a concept that one must master before any results will be shown (Lang 2010). Since improving Scholastic Aptitude Test scores is a growing problem in the nation, it must be essential for every student to be adequately prepared to know how to take the test (Freedle 2003). Even though this sort of test is supposed to be a measure of one's innate intelligence, it really just measures how well one can take tests, and if mastering how to take a test can be taught in a school curriculum, the problem of the Scholastic Aptitude Test scores in Puerto Rico could be one step closer to being resolved.