Standardized Testing is Here to Stay

Many students plan to enter the work force after college. However, other students plan on attending professional school and whether Law School, Medical School or Graduate School are in their future, standardized testing is as well.

In 2005, the Career Planning Center surveyed the graduating class and found that approximately 16 percent were continuing their education; of these students, about 19 percent went to business school, 22 percent went to medical school and 16 percent went to law school.

Standardized testing plays a major role in law school, medical school and graduate school acceptance, according to Nathan Kuncel, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota, who surveyed 200,000 students whose performance in graduate school was directly linked to their high test scores, according to a U-Wire article.

“[The LSAT] is worth slightly more than one’s overall GPA,” said Dr. Alan Katz, a Politics professor and law school adviser. “It probably makes up 45-50 percent of the application.”

Katz said he strongly recommends that students take a good prep course, like the Kaplan or the Princeton Review, in order to prepare for these tests.

Similar to the SATs, standardized testing after college makes the acceptance process more efficient in that admissions boards can easily compare students from different colleges.

Yet, most students realize the importance of these tests and the influence on their career path.

“The MCAT is probably the most important factor in a med school application,” said Joe Fusco’08. “The test is the only way that med schools can evaluate applicants using the same measure.”

Fusco said he started preparing for the MCAT in January with a Kaplan Course and although pre-med students are required to take a core curriculum, the MCAT is a critical thinking test and simply “memorizing science concepts doesn’t guarantee a good score.”

Freshman Glenn Ghirardi, a psychology major, said he has recently decided to go to medical school and he will have completed General Biology, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, Physics and Applied Calculus by junior year, he will still need to prepare for standardized tests.

“It’s a bit nerve racking to think that I am taking these courses over the span of only two to three years in order to prepare for one test,” said Ghirardi.