The dreaded SAT exam: the one hurdle every student had to deal with just to ensure that they weren’t left behind in the scramble for top colleges and universities. 

We remember: the late nights when we struggled to stay awake studying, the days where we pondered whether our scores were good enough for our top choice and, who could forget, the almost haunting thought — that this was the most important test of our lives?

The content the SAT draws on is actually not as complex as it is made to look. It assesses students on the fundamentals of algebra, reading comprehension and writing mechanics. On the surface, the SAT exam sounds like an exam that was perfectly designed, but it is far from infallible. 

Colleges tend to exclude prospective students on the basis that their test scores do not correlate with university cutoffs. However, students are not at fault for this, as students are far more than just a number.

One of the fatal flaws of the SAT: It lacks the personalization aspect necessary to provide colleges with a sense of how unique students are beyond the numbers of the test. Students are not standardized. They have identities that go on to make up the universities they aspire to attend. So why do colleges seem to place a heavy emphasis on standardized test scores?

It typically seems that individuals with more money fair better on the exam, as they have access to more resources to excel at the exam than their less affluent counterparts.

Affluent families can afford more courses, practice materials, tutoring and other resources to help their motivated children prepare for the exam, while less well-off students are ultimately left at a disadvantage as they have fewer resources to practice the mechanics of the test. 

I don’t believe that the SAT needs to be abolished, as it serves as a gateway to many prestigious colleges and universities.

Without a litmus standardized test, it would prove much more challenging for universities to differentiate between the numerous students applying to attend there. 

It has become known that Mayor de Blasio and New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza want to do away with specialized testing in an endeavor to “desegregate” the New York City school system. 

However, in doing away with such testing, de Blasio is essentially doing two detrimental things. He makes elite high schools easier to enter, thus eviscerating any sense of competition in the schools system, and he unjustly diminishes the hard work that other students in the past have had to suffer through by taking away an exam that those students had to endure before. 

Instead, legislators can opt to invest in increased study resources for the exam and distribute these resources indiscriminately, despite affluence. This is so because access to education is an inalienable right that all American citizens deserve.

However, this is often ignored as disparities in wealth seem to dictate who gets to go to college, such as the now-infamous Varsity Blues Scandal. 

To avoid this debacle, instead of ensuring that we abolish standardized testing, governments should focus more on making the opportunity for a fair education equal for everyone. No one needs an easy pass when applying for top colleges, as it is very competitive. 

The perfect complement for standardized tests would be standardized test prep. No one should be left out in the cold in terms of test prep.

Hitherto, we should keep the system we have but amplify it in a manner that it works for everyone and not just America’s most wealthy. 

By providing free standardized test prep for all Americans who opt to take the SAT, we would not only be saving our parent’s pockets but putting more students’ minds at ease, knowing that they have as fair a chance at excelling at the exam as everyone else.

We need standardized testing as we need competition within the college application process. However, we also need equitable opportunity.

Money should not be what buys something as valuable and priceless as knowledge. Instead, the chance to succeed should be the only price worth paying.

Noah Osborne, FCRH ’23, is a journalism major from Harlem, N.Y.