Month: April 2025

Standardized Testing

Do standardized tests have problems? Sure. However, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research – standardized test scores, particularly how well you do on them correlate very strongly to your first year performance in college – even more so than GPA.

Second, in contrast with standardized test scores, high school GPA has relatively little predictive power for academic success during a student’s first year. Comparing students with a perfect 4.0 high school GPA to those with a 3.2 GPA – a gap of the same magnitude in the distribution of applicants as the test score gap discussed above – predicts a difference in first-year college GPA of less than 0.1.

I find this fascinating, and I think the move to test-optional admissions policies in college actually does a great amount of damage to the quality of student at an institution. I also find that High Schools who do not emphasize and assist in preparation for doing well on these standardized tests do great damage to their Seniors. We need to provide our children with every opportunity to succeed as they look toward college, and doing well on standardized testing is part of this, it’s common sense.

For reference here is a link to the study: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w33570/w33570.pdf