If you are a student at some type of higher education institution, you may have gone through the scary phase of having to take a standardized test to apply for a college, a scholarship program, or better yet, to complete high school program. Normally good scores on these tests guarantee good scholarships or admission into an institution because standardized test scores are used as a conclusive measure of one's abilities. But because these scores ignore years of hard work and effort and focus only on one test, it's time to recognize that standardized tests are not an accurate measure of one's knowledge. It is often argued that standardized tests such as the SAT and the ACT prepare students for college. While it is impossible to deny the contrary, are we admitting that years of homework, experiments, and research work are not worth more than a day of testing? Have we finally come to the conclusion that all the time spent in high school isn't enough to acquire the skills needed to stay in college? I certainly don't think so. In my country there are three education systems that you can pursue. The American system, the UK system and the West African system. From personal experience, I recall a friend who tested the latter system as one of the best in the country, but it would fail to match the most highly selective colleges in the United States with his SAT scores. In a similar situation, I didn't excel in the West African system but passed the SAT with impressive scores even though I didn't pass the American system. Where do the disparities in these tests come from? This is because certainly different tests measure different abilities. The SAT is basically math and English but... middle of paper......s/class-lotta/post/report-finds-2-of-4-tests-in-act-poor-predictors-of- college-success/2011/07/19/gIQAOiPFOI_blog.html>.Alison Wade "Is SAT tutoring worth the cost? A longtime tutor speaks." LearnVest. Learnvest, April 4, 2012. Web. May 4, 2014. "How do I sign up for the ACT?" Registration. ACT Incorporated, revised January 1, 2014. Web. May 4, 2014. "Standardized Testing - ProCon.org." ProConorg Securities. The Procon Community, February 5, 2010. Web. May 4, 2014. .B. Ronan, Gayle. “College freshmen face a big dilemma.” msnbc.com. NBC News, November 25, 2005. Web. May 4 2014. .