Standardized testing is the second stop on our college application safari. This series of five episodes is focused on the primary elements of a college application and geared towards students who are applying to college in the fall.

These “Big 5” application components are what colleges use to assess a student's application as they make admissions decisions. Not every college will use all 5 elements, and in an age of testing ambiguities it’s important to understand your options for standardized testing and for sharing your scores with colleges. 

We begin with a look at the history of college admission testing, and the hows and whys of their use in the application review process. College testing options are more flexible than they have ever been and there is a lot you should think about in terms of choosing, preparing for, and using testing in your own admissions process.

Our perspectives here are not as test-prep experts, but are based firmly in the application advising that we do with our students. How to pick the best test, considerations for timing and test-preparation, and how to determine whether you will use test scores, or not, in your application. 

This week's tips focus on helping you to better understand the alphabet soup of standardized tests. We orient you to the test requirement language used by colleges and we discuss the slowly growing number of schools that are moving from the test-optional days of COVID, back to requiring test scores of all applicants. Finally, we dip into how to determine if you should share your scores and what your options are for reporting your test scores.

Time Stamps:

0:37 What Are We Learning This Week?  A brief discussion of highly-specialized undergraduate degree programs and movements by some universities to re-organize these offerings back under larger degree categories.

6:59 Big Picture: Standardized tests! What role do they play in the admissions process and how has testing evolved over the last decade, in particular.

17:25 “Stump the IEC (Independent Educational Consultant)” Can Katelyn name the 5 most popular Advanced Placement (AP) exams? It’s a surprising list for one important reason.

21:04 Tips and Strategies to help you better understand your testing options, how to pick a test, considerations for test prep and timing, and finally how to determine whether or not to submit your test scores with your application - it’s not always the same strategy choice for all of the colleges on your list.

More Than A Transcript © is a production of Whitney Bruce College Consulting and College Options, LLC. It is supported by Susan Lanigan and Katie Bruce, with artwork by Heidi Rehbock and original music by Will Morrow.

Visit our website at www.morethanatranscript.com for resources or to ask questions.

Thanks for listening!