After a majority of colleges and universities in the US adopted test-optional policies for the 2020-21 application cycle, high school seniors have been left questioning the value of their SAT and ACT test scores. Hundreds of colleges and universities implemented these policies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the total number of test-optional schools to over 1,600. 

Though every student’s experience is different, this rise in test-optional schools can, in part, be attributed to the difficulties high school students faced in taking and preparing for testing during a pandemic. “I had a lot of difficulty in the spring and summer trying to schedule an ACT as every test I registered for ended up being cancelled,” says Senior Olivia Pikarski, who experienced three test cancellations before finally taking the ACT in October 2020.

Susana Mirano, another senior, speaks similarly of her experience registering for the SAT. “Registering for the SAT was personally very hard… The testing dates were very inconvenient because I [wasn’t given] enough time to get my scores back, see what I did wrong, and study and take it again,” said Mirano. 

Experiences like these and many others have led students to question the value of the tests overall. “I did not think taking the SAT was worth it. I was only able to take it once and I did not like my score, so I went test-optional,” said Milano. She went on to comment how she hoped that many colleges would remain test-optional because of the difficulties that those with learning disabilities can face in standardized testing. Disability rights activists have been working for years to expand test-optional schooling, and scored a massive court victory in 2020 that banned the University of California system from considering test scores in the application process on the basis that test scores are inherently biased against the disabled and other minority groups. Research shows that these groups are more likely to lack the resources necessary to do well on standardized tests in comparison to more wealthy, non-disabled students. 

The futures of the SAT/ACT are now in question, and many colleges are now committing to test-optional policies for at least the next few application cycles. Though student attitudes are unlikely to play a major role in these decisions, it will be interesting to witness how they develop throughout this process.