ACT® and SAT® Testing to Make a Comeback as Pandemic Conditions Improve
I’m fairly certain that, by now, even those living under rocks have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; it has hamstrung most aspects of life. In our world, that includes ACT® and SAT® testing. While “post-pandemic” has erroneously been used to describe our current state, it is true that pandemic conditions have begun and continue to improve (furiously knocking on wood). With those improvements, we can categorically report that ACT® and SAT® testing is finally making its comeback.
That said, there are 3 points relative to ACT® and SAT® testing that we believe are worth mentioning now that testing normalcy is starting to return.
1. Cancellations have caused an ACT® and SAT® testing slump.
It’s easy and, well, kind of convenient to blame the rise in test-optional, test-flexible, and test-blind policies for the decline in both ACT® and SAT® testing. However, an undeniable cause for this decrease can be directly linked to the constant testing cancellations that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we all remember, when the pandemic hit there was a rush of panic. With little certainty or reliability, test makers of the ACT® and SAT® made the tough, but necessary, decision to cancel many scheduled testing sessions and defer future test dates in hopes of a quick return to normalcy. However, that plan did not exactly pan out, and many of those rescheduled test dates were cancelled due to ongoing pandemic-related safety concerns.
This limited access to the ACT® and SAT® was used by many colleges and universities as a justification to cancel, suspend, or make optional their admissions testing requirements.
Additionally and traditionally, there are many states that tend to lean ACT® or SAT®. Mid-pandemic, those states have really made a concerted effort to stay in those lanes, making their preferred exam more accessible than the other. This likely added to the decline in test taking as students didn’t have the traditional flexibility to try their hand at both tests.
In that same vein, some of the few testing opportunities available to students - particularly the classes of 2021 and 2022 - have been school-day testing. In these cases, individual schools select the exam administered and rarely provide opportunities for both the ACT® and SAT®. This further constrains students to take whichever exam is available and barring their ability to choose their preferred test.
All of these limitations had negative ramifications for students.
Even though the pandemic had a major effect on the class of 2020’s chances to get a final round of fall testing in before their application season deadlines, that year’s junior class was not so fortunate. It was the class of 2021 that became the unfortunate canaries in the mine for navigating pandemic high school graduation and college admissions requirements either sans standardized testing or with extremely limited access to exams. If 2021’s seniors hadn’t secured solid test scores by the end of winter 2021, their chances of doing so were likely destroyed.
The class of 2022 still struggled to find opportunities to take their exams. Test site cancellations, continued lockdown requirements, and overbooked exam registrations were all barriers for many students hoping to take the ACT® and SAT® - particularly in states that have experienced large surges in COVID-19 outbreaks (e.g., California and Florida).
It is through that lens that we must look at some of the results that show just how much the COVID-19 pandemic has impaired standardized testing.
According to the College Board’s 2021 SAT® Suite of Assessments Program Results, only 1.5 million students from the class of 2021 took the SAT® at least one time; that’s 700,000 less than the year prior. Why? Well, as the College Board found,
“Many students attempted to take the SAT but were unfortunately unable to due to widespread COVID-related disruptions, with more than one million test registrations cancelled as schools and test centers had to close or reduce capacity.”
And, as we previously mentioned, a large fraction of that 1.5 million were students who participated in school-day testing. The College Board noted:
“Students who took the SAT through SAT School Day represented a larger portion of the testing population when compared to previous years … Nearly 950,000 students in the class of 2021 took the SAT on a school day, slightly down from 1.1 million in the class of 2020. Overall, 62% of the class of 2021 took the SAT on a school day, compared to 49% of the class of 2020 and 43% of the class of 2019.”
And, while this data represents students who took the SAT®, we can safely assume that there are similar results for the ACT®.
“But, wait ... we’re still weathering this COVID-19 storm - is there a rainbow coming?” you ask.
Why, yes. Yes, there is.
As pandemic conditions steadily improve, you can expect ACT® and SAT® testing to make a strong comeback. Testing dates throughout the fall have become more reliable with fewer cancellations or postponements than in the past two years. Many more testing centers are open - even on weekends - allowing students to have more autonomy with which exam they take. No longer are students solely relying on restrictive school-day testing as their only opportunities. And while many colleges continue to advertise as “test-optional” and “test-flexible”, students who submit high-ranking test scores only strengthen their college profiles and their odds for admission. So, yeah, there’s a big, beautiful, incipient rainbow emerging for the class of 2023 and beyond. Needless to say, this is all great news for you and your test-prep business.
2. Test scores mattered for the classes of 2021 and 2022, but are pivotal for the class of 2023 and beyond.
As previously noted, the classes of 2021 and 2022 have struggled for access to standardized testing, which has been largely dependent on location and local impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with pandemic conditions improving and testing slowly, but surely returning to normality, ACT® and SAT® testing is gaining back its strength and value.
In past posts, we’ve expressed just how much a strong exam score can help students stand out in any application pool - whether their choice school is test-optional or not. Submitting a solid test score:
provides students with a unique advantage - especially when competition is fierce;
helps prospective colleges and universities contextualize students’ academic performance;
gives an extra edge to students applying through Early Application and Early Decision;
opens the door to reach schools; and
improves chances of automatic college admittance, financial aid, and scholarships based on academic achievements.
With all of those benefits in mind, it only makes sense for future college-bound and gap-year students alike to start prepping for the ACT® or SAT® now.
As mentioned, with testing centers and testing schedules back on track, students of the class of 2023 and onward now should have unrestricted access to the ACT® and SAT®.
With that said, this is the best time to create a strong, individualized test-prep plan to help those students attain the above-mentioned benefits by supporting their academic goals and objectives, so that they are able to submit their best possible test scores.
3. Local competition + target schools = target test score.
With testing making a comeback, scores are going to matter a lot - even at test-optional schools. As such, there are once again a lot of factors at play when students are designing their academic goals and objectives.
Regardless of their ambitions, student admission odds are affected by A.) their location, B.) their class of peers, and C.) the admission requirements of their choice schools.
This means that students have to consider the following:
How many students from my high school take the ACT® or the SAT®?
What is the average test score from my high school?
What is the average test score at my choice schools? Are most applicants submitting test scores to my choice schools?
The answers to these questions matter. Local competition is real. It's no secret that applicants from the same high school are compared to one another. Furthermore, in the interest of creating a diverse admissions class, high-ranking schools tend to admit only the highest-ranking student or students from a given high school, making room for high-performing students from other schools. Therefore, it behooves students to figure out the answers to A.) and B.) to both best prepare them for what they’re up against and ensure that their test prep goals (and expectations) reflect that.
As for C.), figuring out the average test score submitted by the current freshman class at each of the student’s choice schools is a must. This gives students a clear idea of where they need to set their goal posts. Basically, students are looking to achieve a test score that is above the 50% range accepted by the school. To find that magic number, students can search their target schools’ profile data.
Once these questions have been suitably answered, then a well-defined, individualized test-prep plan can be designed to help that student reach their target test score - or better!
So, with ACT® and SAT® testing bouncing back, this is the ideal time to capitalize on this boon for your test-prep business. To aid your tutoring business in this endeavor, Clear Choice offers a custom-branded, white-label test-prep curriculum that empowers you to create truly personalized and differentiated test-prep experiences for each one of your current and future clients.
Click the link below for a free demo and see for yourself how our suite of software, workbooks, practice tests, and score reports can help you take your test-prep to the next level.
