6 Myths About Standardized Tests
Prospective college students should know the truth about the SAT and ACT.
September 16, 2011 RSS Feed PrintAn upperclassman told you the ACT is way easier than the SAT. Your aunt tells you that no one can get into an Ivy without taking five subject tests. What's a stressed-out high schooler to do? Chill. As a test-prep geek and founder of the educational consulting firm PrepMatters, I'm here to debunk the common myths of standardized testing.
Myth 1: Standardized tests are IQ tests.
Knowing the meanings of laconic, loquacious, or lugubrious does not prove you are smart. Nor does knowing how many real roots there are for a quadratic or the rules of logarithms, apostrophes, or parallel structure. Mastery of that information demonstrates knowledge, not intelligence. In her remarkable book Mindset, psychologist Carol Dweck details the benefits of approaching learning with an understanding that intelligence is not a fixed commodity but something that can grow through
