SAT against the exam

How do American graduates go to universities in a pandemic?

Graduates of American schools in 2020 were in the best situation than their Russian peers. The fact is that SAT (Scholastic Aptitoud Test) and Sat Subject Tests, analogues of Russian exam, are held several times a year, the deadlines of the foster commissions of universities are usually in December-Yanswar. Future students back in March-April received answers from those universities where they submitted applications.

Unlike Russian practice, American schoolchildren hand over standardized tests in the fall, enter the university in the spring, and graduate from school in early summer. In the United States, standardized exams serve only for the purpose of entering universities and are not final exams, as in Russia.

This year, Russian graduates of schools pass the exam in July, after voting on amendments to the Constitution. At the same time, the organization conducting Sat (College Board) canceled the exams in the spring of 2020, the dates of testing for graduates of schools in 2021 were scheduled for August 29, September 26, October 3, November 7, December 5. In April, the idea was considered to conduct exams online using proactoring services that allow you to control the behavior of applicants, but in early June it was decided to abandon the online format due to problems with access to the Internet for many school graduates.

Universities were proposed to make a request for the provision of testing results as optional.

The problem is that due to the abolition of restrictive measures in most states there is a sharp increase in the number of new diseases-on June 24, this number was 34 thousand new cases per day. Among the states where there is a stable decrease, New Jersey (here from April to the end of June, the number of new cases decreased from 3 thousand to 200) and New York (from 10 thousand to 500) with a sharp increase in the number of tests.

Given the problem of pandemia, American universities turned out to be quite flexible not only in the transition to remote teaching, but also in determining the criteria for the selection of applicants. Two hundred universities, including Harvard, New York University, Texas University in Austin, George Washington University, California Universities, Ratgers University, gave them the opportunity to not take either Sat or Sat Subject Test when submitting documents in the fall of 2020. When selecting future students, factors such as school ratings, letters from teachers, volunteer activities, etc. will be taken into account.

However, this strengthens the problem of inequality of opportunities, aggravated against the background of racial unrest. The fact is that schools in the United States are funded from property taxes in a particular school district; respectively,

• Children from prosperous areas graduate of good schools with high -class teachers who have a good reputation in the foster commissions of universities,

• Children from poor areas have no chance of entering the university, with the exception of those who can count on a sports scholarship.

The problem of standardized testing is that it also gives an advantage to children from wealthy families. Firstly, parents hire tutors who dragged offspring for a test. Secondly, parents, having access to highly paid psychological/psychiatric services, provide for their children letters from doctors with a diagnosis of this or another learning deficiency, which allows you to take exams with an increased amount of time or without a limit. From my own experience in passing and preparing for GRE (General Records Examination, an exam in the magistracy/graduate school in the USA in 2008-2016) I can say: when I solved mathematics with a set limit of 30 minutes from a special textbook, I could correctly solve half of the tasks, when I solved the tasks without temporary restrictions, correctly solved two -thirds of the tasks. I could not receive a letter from a doctor, giving me the right to pass the exam in preferential conditions.

The Russian leadership, represented by the Rosobrnadzor and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, neglects the health of graduates and conducts the exam in the midst of the pandemic.

The only right aspect of the decision on the exam is its cancellation for those who are not going to enter universities.

It seems that in the future of the exam can be carried out with the same goal -setting as SAT - an assessment of the competencies of university applicants.