Daily Times

As college applicants for the Fall of 2022 roll up their sleeves, the all-encompassing question clouding most minds is – should I or should I not give the SAT/ACT? Covid has ensured that students are grappling with unchartered territory both in their own schools as well as the colleges that they will be applying to. The good news? Colleges understand this. In the summer of 2020, a collective statement titled “Care Counts in Crisis: College Admissions Deans Respond to COVID-19,” was released by more than 360 admission leaders.

Signing the dotted line, were representatives from all eight Ivies and heavyweight public research institutions such as the University of Michigan, University of Arizona and the University of Texas at Austin. The document serves as a blueprint on the expectations of admissions deans from applicants applying to universities during Covid. If you had lack of access to standardized tests, the admissions office will factor that in.

According to Robert Franek, America’s leading college expert from The Princeton Review, after your high school GPA (think O-Level grades and predicted A-Level grades for us here in Pakistan!), the SAT/ACT scores are the second most important factors in college admission decisions. Many colleges have gone ‘test-optional’, either temporarily or as a permanent measure to shift the focus of the application to the student’s overall high school experience. But ‘test-optional’ does not necessarily mean ‘test-blind’ – it does not mean that the colleges will not look at the scores if a student decides to submit them – it simply means it does not require them.

With online schooling prevailing almost the entire academic year, the vast majority of students were not able to showcase their talents in extracurriculars during the pandemic. Whether it was playing cricket, participating in debates and MUNs or performing on stage, students’ opportunities to buffer their college profiles was severely limited in Pakistan. And that’s where standardized tests can give you an opportunity to shine.

Achieving high standardized test scores remains a crucial part of the admissions process. These scores are also often used to determine merit-aid eligibility. In some parts of the world like Hong Kong and Turkey, your SAT score is directly tied in with the tuition waiver from the institutions – even for international applicants!

So what happens if a student cannot take the tests? Or is unable to take them more than once if they are unable to land their target score? Or quite simply – scores badly. You can get admission into college without them provided you have strong grades and apply to a university that has gone the test-optional route.

I strongly recommend to all students to take the standardized tests. If you achieve a score below the 25^th percentile of the average applicant to the university, do not release your score! However, if your score is in the 75^th percentile and above bracket for that university, click the submit button! Websites such as prepscholar and niche give valuable data that students should use in making this decision. From the breakdown of the scores on Math and English, to the average percentile scores to the university’s acceptance rates, data is the best source to guide you rather than the senior in your school who bragged about getting in without submitting any scores.

Know that colleges usually have one of three options when it comes time to evaluate test scores: (i) they can consider all scores from all official test dates, (ii) they can consider your highest overall score from a single test date, or (iii) they can consider a composite of your highest scores on each section from all the dates you took the test – a process known as the ‘superscore’. The university’s website will have its test policy spelled out clearly on its website. If you are not sure which policy the university will use, just email or call the admissions office.

Most students in Pakistan think that college admissions only use the ‘superscore’. While this is true for many selective universities and is great for applicants since only their best test scores count on their application, this is NOT TRUE for all colleges. Make sure you check the university’s policy. If you are applying to any university that requires all your official score reports, you will want to be absolutely prepared each time you sit for the test.

Many Pakistani students, appear for the first, and even second time, for the test as a ‘mock’. This may prove detrimental to an applicant’s strategy especially when resources such as the PSAT and access to hundreds to practice tests exists.

Bottom line: take the tests and make sure you are on top of your game.