Opinion for 10/24
Students will have the opportunity to retest specific sections of the ACT in order to
acquire a Superscore starting with the September 2020 test. A Superscore averages the four
best subject scores into the student’s highest possible composite score from many tests. In the
60 years that the test has been administered, this is the first opportunity to do this.
Retesting specific sections allows students to submit their highest scores to universities
and colleges. The ACT is an entrance exam for most higher education institutions in Kentucky,
and at schools like Murray State, scholarships are dependent on this score. The higher a
student’s GPA and ACT score, the more financial aid they will be awarded through merit-based
scholarships.
President Bob Jackson said the University administration has been investigating the
ACT change to determine how it will respond.
“We’ve been looking at removing the ACT component on certain scholarships,” Jackson
said. “Western just did it, but only on certain scholarships… we would not remove it on all
scholarships.”
Shawn Touney, executive director of marketing and communications, said the
acceptance and scholarship process will be reviewed.
“Murray State University will continue to assess and review our current admissions
standards, inclusive of ACT options, as well as scholarship requirements in order to maintain its
reputation in providing a highly impactful educational experience for our students that is
recognized nationally for both quality and value,” Touney said.
The ability to retest certain sections will be a great opportunity for students. In the midst
of the largest college debt crisis in history, there is a lot of pressure on students to obtain money
in any way they can. A major way to do this is to get a good score on the ACT in order to earn
more scholarship money.
The ACT, designed to assess well-roundedness and readiness, contains four subjects:
English, reading, math, and science.
Universities continually raise the standard for merit based scholarships, so performing
well on the ACT is important. These changes will make it exceedingly easier for students to
study for a specific subject area and not worry about studying for the entire test.
Often, students do well in certain subjects, but another area drags their score down
significantly. From past experience, it was unfair to need to study for one subject but jeopardize
the other three scores in the process. It felt unreasonable for one struggling sub score to
ultimately determine how much financial aid a student would receive and the amount of debt
they would pay in the long run.
The general anxiety accompanying standardized tests can alter a person’s score.
Allowing retests eliminates nervousness to both acquire a better score in one area and maintain
it elsewhere. Focusing on one subject alone will display precise knowledge of the material.
In this way, students can showcase their knowledge more accurately. In college,
students take general education requirements, but they do not test on them altogether. Allowing
students to retest will better gauge levels of intelligence in a more realistic way.
According to the ACT website, the main purpose of these changes is to improve the test-
taking experience and increase the prospects for college admissions and scholarships. It will
also increase the trend of students taking the test multiple times. The organization has
investigated the Superscore over the last two years and whether the practice would be valid and
fair.
“Our findings surprised us: they revealed that Superscores were more predictive of how
students would perform in their college courses than other scoring methods,” according to the
ACT website.
How the cost of retaking a specific section rather than the whole test will differ is unclear.
But hopefully, it will allow students to earn more scholarship money in the end. Hopefully, this
will decrease national college debt and reward people for getting a higher education rather than
making it closer to unobtainable.
For students who tested under the old system, it is frustrating to have missed out on this
opportunity and to potentially save money. However, older students should try not to be bitter
about the changes. It is a toxic sentiment to wish hardships on others when there is a chance to
create a better situation for future generations. It is better to learn from what has been done in
the past and use it to constantly evolve and improve.
This is similar to the debate of making college tuition free. Older generations dislike the
idea because they had to pay for college and neglect to see the benefits for others. Throughout
history, people have always strived to improve every aspect of life, and this is simply another
improvement.
This is similar to the debate of making college tuition free. Older generations dislike the
idea because they had to pay for college and neglect to see the benefits for others. Throughout
history, people have always strived to improve every aspect of life, and this is simply another
improvement.
It will be interesting, though, to see the course of events after September 2020.
Universities could raise their required scores for admittance and scholarships due to the
changes, thus creating a more competitive atmosphere.
Perhaps it amounts to the same standards that previous students faced but with inflated
numbers. At the end of the day, what matters is students getting their degrees. Other programs,
such as KEES, are dependent on ACT scores, so seeing how these changes ripple outward and
affect different things will be revealing.