The SAT (and ACT) More Important Than Ever Due to Grade Inflation

We provide tutoring and test prep to students throughout Connecticut.  But given my specific practice, I have deep knowledge about Shoreline, Connecticut schools.

If your child attends one of the stronger schools in the area – Guilford High School, Daniel Hand High School, Old Saybrook High School, Lyme-Old Lyme High School, Valley Regional High School (Essex, Deep River, Chester), and East Lyme High School among others, then I have some good news and some bad news.  I’ll lead with the latter because I want to end on a high note.

Grade inflation has created a plethora of students that have an average above 90, on the 1-100 scale, or if letter grades are given, somewhere in the A- range or if on a 4.0 school, somewhere above 3.5.  Why is this a problem? Take a look at US News & World Report.  Colleges are graded upon the strength of their student body.  Class RANK – along with SAT scores – is the critical determinant.  And many schools do not tell their students their class rank until too late.  I was recently working with a student who had a 91 average.  The parents assumed he was in the top 25% of this class (that number is important for college admission).  He wasn’t.  He was somewhere around the 40%.  His parents – expecting that he had a shot at Boston College, Northeastern, Boston University and other large New England colleges -had to be told that unless his SATs were off the chart that he faced long odds at admission.

I started noticing grade inflation years ago. Some of the students I worked with had 95 averages but seemed like they would be B to B plus students.  That’s bad news for college admission since having a 90 average is no longer special.  Indeed, it is below average for competitive colleges.

The good news: in most cases, students who get the “real As” do very well on comparative tests. Hard to believe – I know – but the SATs and ACTs end up being more fair than grades in such cases.