The Test & The Art of Thinking - The Unecessary Struggle to Ace an Unecessary Test

The SAT and its cousin, the ACT, is one of, if not the, most daunting trials for students. These admissions tests are a major source of stress and pressure for those looking to get into universities of good standing, and they’re practically unavoidable. Prestigious schools seemingly only accept applicants with exceptionally high scores - thus ensuring a high ranking for themselves - and an entire industry has been built around preparing for the test. Education reform after education reform has molded high school curriculum into adhering to these tests. Filmmaker Michael Arlen Davis, in his new documentary The Test & the Art of Thinking, dives deep into the history and inner workings of the SAT to reveal what many students have probably already decided for themselves: These tests are a poor representation of one’s actual intelligence.

The film goes back in forth between a chronological timeline of events that go from the SAT’s disputed origins up to the present day, and interviews with students, teachers, parents, tutors, college deans, and the test-makers themselves. Some information - like how many view the original intent of the test to be equivalent to eugenics - may be enlightening but not terribly surprising. Surely a significant amount of people know that these standardized tests are a burden for students, and how little it matters how much they actually know. What is surprising is how candid the tutors are with their displeasure for the test. They make it clear that it’s specifically designed to trick you and pressure you. It’s not a knowledge test, it’s just a get-the-answers test.

A scene from The Test & The Art of Thinking

The SAT isn’t testing what you know, it’s testing how you think. For far too many, it’s simply unfair. Michael Arlen Davis explores the disadvantages that people have. You could be a brilliant student but a poor test-taker. Wealthier families can afford tutors and study guides while others cannot. Other obvious factors like race certainly come into play, although the film frustratingly doesn’t go into this. And for all the stress, the test may not even be the best indicator of how smart someone is. One shocking segment is dedicated to when it was revealed that longer essays received higher scores no matter what, even when the subject matter of those essays were complete nonsense. The test has since been revised, but one tutor points out that after so many revisions, how can the College Board - who creates the test - still be trusted when they’ve stated that previous iterations are inadequate? What does that mean for those who had to take those earlier versions?

The Test & The Art of Thinking offers much to learn and think about but offers little in terms of answers. While many might view the documentary as slanting harshly against standardized testing, it still finds room for counterpoints that suggest it’s the best we’ve got. At the very least, we’re currently stuck with it, as college admissions, school curriculum, and the test prep industry are all intricately linked. But the film still ends on a modicum of hope, showing how some schools are making the tests optional and others are accepting a variety of different scores. There are certainly many ways to measure people’s intelligence, and it’s far past time that we stopped believing that a single test can be the sole judge of who gets to enter the halls of higher, quality learning.