David VanArendonk

Mrs.Brower

Adv Comp

2 December 2020

The Importance of Wealth in Your Test Scores

In today's world, our whole objective is what we can buy. That doesn’t exclude the

school system. The question we want to answer today is does your status of wealth help you

more on standardized tests compared to similar kids that are less fortunate. In today’s society

your status wealth wise, really does affect how far you will be able to achieve.

One of the biggest advantages for wealthier families are the resources available to them.

Nowadays, it’s easier for students on the lower spectrum to prepare for the SAT, but at the same

time kids that have a little more money to throw around can make the other kid look like he

prepared in no way. “Upper-class students automatically have an advantage when it comes to

this aspect of college admissions because they can afford prep books, private tutors, and other

study resources that cost money” (B ). With today’s generation, anything that you want to do is

gonna cost you something, and an education is one of them. The people that live more near the

upper class are able to use their money to jump ahead. In the next sentence of the article, they go

on and talk about how the kids on the other end of the spectrum are in a sense “left for dead” as

the chances of them going to get a higher education at a college goes down as they cannot afford

the same SAT prep as the other kids. The SAT in general is not the cheapest thing to take. Now

fortunately, this year was a weird year so people were fortunately allowed one free take for the

test, but typically the tests cost around $50. In the article they break down the prices for what it

takes to take the SAT and it might be cheap to some, but for others it can cost an arm and a leg.
For one, you have to pay $50 to register for the test, and that's without the essay which most

colleges want, and to write the essay part it costs an additional $15 to take. College boards QAS

cost around $18, and then if you want to get the SAT practice book that will cost you around

another $30.

Would you be surprised if the higher income a family has the higher the average SAT

score would be? Likewise as well, the lower income a family has the lower the average score for

the SAT would be. That would be true; in 2016 they had a study and it showed that each bracket

for income, the higher it was the better the score was. If the income was over $200,000 the

average score for reading and writing would be just over 600, and for income lower than $20,000

the average score for reading and writing would be just below 500. Another chart was drawn for

the average test score for race. The race that had the highest SAT score was Asians, and whites,

and the race with the lowest was black and indian. Race is another factor that can play into it.

“white families had the highest median family wealth at $171,000, compared to black and

Hispanic families, which had $17,600 and $20,700, respectively” (D ). Families that are white

have the highest median income, and because of that they are able to afford more to help prepare

there kids to get in the best situation possible. Parental education can be another factor in SAT

scores. In the last chart they found that parents that had a graduate degree had the highest

average test score while the families that had no high school diploma struggled the most. Wealth

is one of the biggest matters in the terms of colleges. “Wealthy students attend higher ranked

schools within more financially resourced districts. Richer families can afford more tutoring, test

prep and enrichment activities” ( D). With money, comes more opportunities, and because of the

opportunities available they are able to succeed more often. Last paragraph of this article they

talk about a plan that would help with the financial situation. It would be called the “baby
bonds”. The plan would basically allow every baby born in the US would receive $1,000 in a

bonded savings account by the Treasury department. Then every year the government would

make contributions to each person, but the amount would be determined by the wealth status of

each individual kid till 18. The lower the income the higher the contribution.

The SAT is something many people worry about. “I’m sure many of those who went onto

professional careers, as well as those working retail and waitressing jobs, can tell you how

important their SAT score was for them in determining their future” ( E). No matter the job, the

SAT affects everybody like crazy. Someone in the business world could have done bad on the

SAT or ACT but still succeed in today’s world because the test is almost pointless. Same with a

retail worker, they could have scored high on the SAT or ACT but still ended up working a

minimum wage job for the rest of their lives. The thing about the standardized test is that it is

only supposed to help determine how you will do the first year of college, and not the rest. The

test are supposed to test how ready someone is to move to the next level of education in college.

In the studies shown for the tests they have shown once again that it benefits caucasians, and

wealthier families. An interesting thing found is that even when black families had an income of

$100,000+ , they still surprisingly did worse still than a white family with an income of less than

$10,000.

The SAT or any standardized test is stressful to study for or take in general. There are

tons of people that will have jitters or anxiety as the day comes that may determine the short term

future for them. “He spent a lot of time talking to them about life and about anxiety and what it

was like to be a young person in an affluent, highly ambitious, competitive family” (F ). Now

out of context that quote would make no sense, but in context there is a guy that has a tutoring

center that is called “PrepMatters” , and he is helping people improve their test scores. The thing
about this program is that it is not cheap. The tutoring center charges around $400 an hour,

which is not a small price to pay, so you do have to have some money to afford it, but the people

find it actually works in helping them prepare for a test. The owner of the company is Ned

Johnson, and while you would think tutoring for a SAT test all they would do is cram

information down your throat, and make sure you know every little detail about the test, but

that’s not the case. Ned is great when it comes to stress psychology, and he believes the main

reason for people not doing so hot on the SAT is because of stress, and anxiety. To help with that

he does little and fun games that will help take off the stress and stuff they would be able to do.

The test has changed over the past century, as before the 1950’s the A in SAT stood for aptitude.

Unless you were naturally gifted with a high iq, there was no point in studying for it. Then there

was a teacher named Stanley Kaplan who was the first teacher to start teaching the SAT and

because of it the scores started going up. The big question for standardized tests would be which

one would they take? They switched it up, the SAT was mainly popular on the coast and the

ACT was more popular in the midwest, but nowadays the SAT has taken over and stomped the

ACT to the ground as it is not used as much anymore. The thing that is benefiting kids who may

not be the best on tests, and your lower income but you have solid grades maybe, a lot of

colleges are starting to go test optional nowadays. There are already 100’s of liberal arts colleges

that have gone test optional, but some bigger schools as well are starting to switch to that as well

like the University of Chicago.

The stress of a standardized test can be insane on any student, intelligent or not. One

example of that is Julia Tomasulo who was a star athlete, and had excellent grades but took the

ACT 3 times, and still didn’t get the score she desired to get (she did get close tho). Now, 3 times

may not sound like a crazy amount, but the surprising factor is that her parents spent $3500 for
tutoring alone. The good outcome for this is that she still got into her first choice college. The

parents weren’t worried about her test scores as much as they could see the stress she was

developing from getting the test score she wanted. That’s one of many reasons people want

colleges to go to test optional. “if SAT and ACT results were the sole basis for admission, 53

percent of students who were accepted wouldn’t have gotten in” (G ). Out of all the kids

accepted into colleges, only 53% of people would be accepted if it was solely off of the one test

they take! That’s pretty insane to think about, Tons of kids wouldn’t be in college nowadays if

they solely made college off of one test, but fortunately more and more are going to test-optional,

and no colleges solely look at test grades, One of the biggest stresses a high schooler will go

through will be this one test, and they shouldn’t have to worry about this test as much

considering it won’t make a break a college for them.

In today’s world, standardized tests are overcomplicated tests that make things worse

compared to better. In the end, one test won’t make or break your career for something, and is an

unnecessary stressor. Colleges are making the right move as they are moving where the test isn’t

as impactful, and at the same time 1 in 4 schools are making it completely test optional which is

good for many students. The students on the wealthier side can still take the test and score decent

on it still and do what they want, but this gives the other students opportunities as well. The more

important part of the application for the other kids is the actual other part and not the test. The

test is a good thing to test first year’s knowledge, and how they will do right away in college, but

in the end there is no true way to tell how they will do.
Sources:

A. Perry, Andre. "Students Need a Boost in Wealth More Than a Boost in SAT Scores." The

Hechinger Report, 17 May 2019,

hechingerreport.org/students-need-a-boost-in-wealth-more-than-a-boost-in-sat-scores/.

B. Peyrebrune, Lucie. "The SAT is Designed to Benefit the Rich." Silver Chips, 31 Aug.

2019, silverchips.mbhs.edu/content/the-sat-is-designed-to-benefit-the-rich-32008/.

C. Perry, A. M. (2019, July 15). Students need more than an SAT adversity score, they need

a boost in wealth. Brookings.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/05/17/students-need-more-than-an-sat-

adversity-score-they-need-a-boost-in-wealth/

D. Gaughan, K. M. (2020, October 30). SAT’s hinder upward mobility of students in low

income and racially ethnic families. The 1851 Chronicle.

https://the1851chronicle.org/2020/10/30/sats-hinder-upward-mobility-of-students-in-low-

income-and-racially-ethnic-families/

E. Abdullah, G. (2020, January 22). How college test prep favors wealthy students. KERA

News.

https://www.keranews.org/education/2020-01-14/how-college-test-prep-favors-wealthy-s

tudents
F. Beek, S. V. (n.d.). Breaking down privilege and the SAT. Tower.

https://tower.mastersny.org/4900/features/privilege-sat/

G. Tugend, Alina. “Record Number of Colleges Stop Requiring the SAT and ACT amid

Questions of Fairness.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 9 Oct. 2019,

www.pbs.org/newshour/education/record-number-of-colleges-stop-requiring-the-sat-and-

act-amid-questions-of-fairness.