Benett Tomandl

Professor Jennifer Vanderslik

English 100 16
15 October 2014
What if I Was Wrong?
Education is a vital importance to the progress of any state. It is imperative that a state
encourages strong education. Originally, it was my belief that the easiest way to encourage this
was to lower the cost of college and to eliminate faulty test processes such as the ACT. Contrary
to my original idea, Education can be advanced much more significantly by increasing the
money a college has access to and also by continuing to test kids.
My original thought on testing was formed with much bias. Testing has not been a strong
suite of mine throughout high school and I believed my poor results on the ACT would
completely derail my after high school dreams. This was not the case however; I found that
many other things would support my dream after high school. My assault on testing was solely
derived from the abject response I had to the poor quality of my own test taking skill. Contrary to
my original concept, these standardized tests do not completely dictate the possibility of
acceptance at most colleges. Colleges also look at many other things when considering student
acceptance. Although it is un-nerving for those who do poorly on such test, there are many other
ways colleges judge students for acceptance that are based on the students skills such as GPA,
work experience, and athletic participation.
My theory that scholarships are completely controlled by testing is also flawed. In my
argument I stated that many government and institutional scholarships are controlled by the
ACT, this could not be further from the truth. Many colleges offer scholarships to students who

showcase strong abilities in fine arts and other skills non-academic. Students who excel in areas
such as these have equal opportunity at scholarships even though they may not shine at testing;
this makes it a false statement on my part to say that scholarships are solely given out to high test
scorers and not anyone else.
By removing tests, wed be eliminating a crucial step in the consideration process for
colleges. Colleges use test such as the ACT to show the general knowledge in schools base
subjects. By removing tests, my plan would be eliminating important numbers that although
dont completely determine ones ability to think, do however, showcase the students ability to
recite stock information taught throughout school. The numbers these test support give colleges
the ability to determine how hard students worked in school and also how well they absorbed
information. It would be pernicious to colleges acceptance process to eradicate testing.
In all removing testing would not create any callous effects to the states education
process but simply make it a more difficult and strenuous process for colleges to judge
applicants. The tests do not alter the after school education one may be attempting. By having
such tests, states are not slowing down education.
Additionally to tests, I argued that the price of college was too steep and that these
lingering debts would force people away from the idea of an after high school education.