How to Get Away with Cheating
It may seem a distant memory now. SAT’s, ACT’s, extra-curriculars, grades, essays, applications are all elements of a nightmarish, tempestuous time in my past. Now as a college student, those burdens that so heavily bludgeoned our sanity are harmoniously over.
I was thirteen when I started high school. At the time I did not understand the importance of getting good grades or paying much attention in school, despite the constant urges from my mother. I lived for soccer with my friends and going to the movies on Friday nights. Yet in my Upper West Side private school in Manhattan, all of my peers with pre-pubescent beards and hormones understood the challenge ahead.
Come junior year and I was still basically the same as my first. My grades weren’t terrible but weren’t exceptional either. I knew I could be doing better, doing more, but I wasn’t ready yet. I guess it’s because I was too immature or young or maybe still focused on becoming captain of the varsity soccer team. But it was when my parents sat me down at home that everything changed.
They told me I had to get my “shit” together or I wasn’t getting into college. The SAT’s were coming up, I had barely been studying with my tutor, and they forecasted a “zero” on the next exam. Dramatic, I know, but nonetheless daunting and understandable. They advised me to emulate valedictorians at school for encouragement. And so I did.
The next day I decided to “get my shit together,” as my parents so eloquently put it, and examined other students in class and their work habits. What I quickly realized disheartened me. Many of these spoiled children with astonishingly wealthy parents had extra-time accommodations on exams. In fact, it was strange to see a kid without one and a half time on tests. When I would hand in my exam, sometimes not even complete in time, the rest of the class would take their time and finish as if there was not a care in the world. No pressure, no stress, nothing.
I asked a friend of mine: “How does one get extra time?” and he responded with an elaborate and expensive process regarding psychological diagnostic testing, lawyers, parents, etc. And most of the kids didn’t even need it! Thus, according to Goldstein and Patel in The New York Times, if a student wants extra time, all one needs is money (Goldstein, Patel). Students fake mental disabilities with doctors to be granted extra time on tests at school and national exams like ACT/SAT with accomodations like testing alone or even at home. I once heard of an accommodation that lets you sit in a comfortable chair otherwise they couldn’t focus. Ridiculous! High school testing, grades and college admissions are stressful as is, yet knowing that the very same peers you are competing against are, in essence, abusing disability accommodations is not frustrating and exhausting but also vaguely insulting.
According to the Wall Street Journal, an average of 1 in 4 students attending affluent private schools in the Northeast Region of the United States have disability accommodations, whereas in lower-income communities the number is closer to zero (Belkin, Levitz, Korn). The process of acquiring extra time is extremely expensive, mounting to tens of thousands of dollars. Low income communities in New York and Boston, the majority Black and Hispanic, do not have the means to be granted extra time, even if they need it. It is why the rich, predominantly white, schools have the highest number of disability accommodations per student. And although one cannot legally disprove their disability, speaking from experience, many students either over-played their condition or acted all together.
Yet it seems as though the times are changing. According to Alina Tugend in The Hechinger Report published by PBS, a record number of colleges stopped requiring the SAT and ACT amid questions of fairness. Many institutions have made the applications test optional, and others simply do not accept them. Universities argue that this could level the playing field for lower-income students. Applications will be reviewed in a more holistic approach, rather than numerical, to measure the income, circumstances, and opportunities given to each applicant. The article suggests a rise in low-income Black and Hispanic acceptances (Tugend). Now that thousands of dollars are no longer being spent on tutors, SAT practice books, testing, etc., the future of the College Board seems dim. Now with millions of Americans filing for unemployment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we can only guess the future for universities and the admissions process.
Much to my chagrin, this is undergoing after my time. The money I and my parents spent, along with my classmates and all high school graduates of 2019, is gone. Perhaps well invested, but nonetheless no longer in our wallets. College applications are a stressful time, and it can be even more stressful and upsetting when those around you are cheating. And although the good news is that SAT’s are no longer in the picture, creating a more equal playing field for all backgrounds, the real problem rests untouched: abusing disability accommodations. Because although standardized tests are now optional, high-ranking universities would still like to see them; and as long as students have the money and time, they will continue to exploit the system.
Works Cited
Belkin, D., Levitz, J., & Korn, M. (2019, May 21). Many More Students, Especially the Affluent, Get Extra Time to Take the SAT. Retrieved May 04, 2020, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/many-more-students-especially-the-affluent-get-extra-time-to-take-the-sat-11558450347
Goldstein, D., & Patel, J. (2019, July 30). Need Extra Time on Tests? It Helps to Have Cash. Retrieved May 04, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/extra-time-504-sat-act.html
Tugend, A. (2019, October 09). Record number of colleges stop requiring the SAT and ACT amid questions of fairness. Retrieved May 04, 2020, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/record-number-of-colleges-stop-requiring-the-sat-and-act-amid-questions-of-fairness
