Testing in the Admission Process

Hi everyone, welcome to today's Swaney session on testing in the admission process you see a couple of you eagerly logging in, which is wonderful.

And we'll just give everyone a little bit of time to get settled and make sure we've got folks logging in. I just posted this in the chat box, but if you would like to introduce yourself in the chat, feel free.

Name where you're from, or pronouns whatever you'd like to include. I'd love to hear who's in the session and.

Kind of where you are in the process. Thanks for joining.

And I'll introduce myself again. Very, very likely, but I'm Taylor Baird. I'm a counselor here in the office of admission and will be leading today's session and I'll be multitasking a little bit with the chat. So will kind of run through logistics in a moment.

Just have kind of this system and we have a moderated chat today, but just wanted to let you know that I'll be presenting and then also hoping to answer questions in the chat and then verbally answer some questions in Q&A at the end of this session. So definitely want to make sure.

There we go. So if you hear any clicking through this session, it's me.

Wonderful thank you all for joining and introducing yourselves.

Perfect.

Normally it just takes one brave soul to get the introduction started.

And I always like to share with students. These could be your future classmates. So good to get to know each other now.

Sound.

Yes, and I loved when parents joined this session. Parent guardian. If you guys are able to be on the call, that's wonderful.

Perfect.

So I still see a few hopping on the call, but I'm going to go ahead and transition over to this slide. Like I said, just kind of orienting you.

To this platform, if you never joined a session with SV4 very different than you know Google Hangout or a zoom. So just to let you know you are not on camera. I'm sure you have to do that by now, so it's really. This is a live session, live chat, live, Q&A. I'll be able to see that.

But you can just sort of sit back and relax and taken the information aside from chatting. Any questions that you might have.

I'm Taylor Baird accounts in the office. I said that once before. For those of you who logged in early but want to make sure to introduce myself and I'm leading the session, but will also be moderating the chat so I've been improving all of your introductions. But as we move through some of the content in the presentation, just know that the questions will automatically populate or so if you type in a question or a statement, or just general enthusiasm. We do have to just kind of quickly review that and share it with the group, so no worries.

That you kind of see it in. Sort of a faint Gray. It's there no problem if you double submit, but it'll take a moment for it to come over to the full group. And then if you do have any sound or video problems, that quickest fix is just try to refresh your page. It doesn't seem that any means having those issues. You can always chat me and to get out keep that one private and try to kind of multitasking. Figure that out for you, but I think we're all set for today.

So we'll go ahead and dive right in.

And this is part of our summer Tiger tip series, so some of you guys you might have been along for the ride since the beginning of summer. Or you might have been tuning in for recessions even you know throughout junior year or even earlier. So if you have. Thanks for coming back and you're sort of oriented to this platform. But if you're just joining us for the first time, just kind of recapping on the tiger tips, it's really.

The you'll learn about swaney and then we want to share information about our school specifically. But really, the point of the tiger tips is to just sort of get you prepared for the admission application process. So we try to share a lot of neutral information and just kind of equip you with knowledge and facts to kind of.

Hopefully empower you and sort of boost your confidence in the process of you know what you know and what you're taking into the fall. Really getting into applications. So this is our 7th tip and it's about testing in the admission process, which might sound a little ambiguous, so we'll kind of go through multiple facets of testing or not testing, so that's another component of this. We do have a tiger tips website, so everything that we've been doing, whether it was an online session or some tips.

Are included in a blog post or on our podcast, so we do have a website and I'll link that in shortly or towards the end of the presentation where you can kind of go back and revisit any tips if you've missed them or if you have to leave early today. Or you know, maybe students registered and couldn't make it. We do record these sessions, so I'll be posting this recording hopefully early next week. We try by Friday, but hopefully by Monday if you wanted to tune in and re watch sections.

Or see anything in the chat will have that for you.

Just so just so everyone else.

Wonderful.

And I know I shared the chats moderated in such, but if you do have a question that you just want to get off your mind sooner rather than later so you don't forget it, you can chat that in at anytime.

But I want to start just with sort of a brief introduction, sort of our vision for this session.

It's not the session really isn't to advocate for one particular test or for testing in general, but again, to just equip you with the knowledge of what tests exists when you might encounter them, and then just sort of the difference in then and how you might approach testing in your college admission process and what might be expected of you from Swanee or for different from different institutions. So obviously we can't speak for every college, but try to give you some general information.

As well.

So the two sort of know streamlined, well known, standardized admission tests are the AC T, and then call it towards S 80. So that's probably factual knowledge you came in. Knowing today's session for international students, I know we have a handful of international students joining today, which is wonderful. You can still take the essay T or AC T outside of the United States will kind of go through the registration process shortly and that maybe.

A little bit different or have some additional steps if you're taking that abroad or internationally, but this would still be very much a part of your college process, potentially in discerning which one of these exams you might want to take or to practice, and then how that might come into your final process.

And then I won't have two deeply into the history of testing is clearly like an ongoing conversation within education and within cognition.

Which I think is a healthy dialogue. So kind of summarizing the origin. I would say if you want to do kind of more extensive research and kind of make up your mind about testing, that's wonderful. Kind of encourage you to again like empower yourself in that process. But standardized testing and sort of these. The idea of two standardized entrance exams or admissions tests really came from.

Partially the real wealth. Every student is sort of a different high school experience, different curriculum then this would be a way to.

Kind of look at students in a standardized way that the test is, you know, the same questions in the same amount of time. Asking in the same way for everyone who takes that exam.

So that can be very nuanced, right? But just sort of the history of that.

Is kind of why I think.

College entrance exams and these two in particular have gained so much traction and sort of importance and.

Uhm, I think in some ways like stress around them for students, so it can definitely be a great component of your application, but will kind of walk through. You see the Third Point, but even that a lot of colleges and an increasing number in the past year or two have chosen to sort of deemphasized test scores. And there are very different policies per school of do they require a test? Do they even look at a test? If so, you know which one and and in what ways, so hopefully just kind of like breaking that.

Down for you in today's session.

And jumping back to the middle, they want to read that verbatim to you, but there are like a hinted at earlier, different ways that schools might look at standardized testing. Specifically, AC T and S80. So we'll go into terminology in the next slide. But just so you're aware, there are some schools where testing is still being, you know that is a really important part of their evaluation process, and if so, they might actually have a specific threshold.

Or minimum score that you would need for admission.

And then there are other schools, so this would be sort of our Swanee fill fits in where we would approach it in a holistic sense of if scores are included, then the scores are a part of the entire picture of the application, so there's no hard set and minimum will kind of publish a mid range of typical scores for admitted students, but it's not that kind of make it or break it up how you might choose to include a school on your list, or even if you are below a minimum or.

The range you know. Still some room in admission and disability and really seeing here you are as a student outside of that.

So I don't see any questions at this point in time that surrection will go as far as the introduction, but again, just sort of unpacking the importance of testing and sort of that trend of how they've been deemphasized in some regards. In some ways still very important to the process, but just wanted to equip you with that before we move forward.

Alright, so testing terminology. I'm going to go through these and I will be linking in some some items as I can multitask.

But there I didn't sort of like include a comprehensive glossary here, or a lot of definitions for you to like copy and paste. Or hopefully like we don't need to fix it on that. But again, just sort of breakdown terms that if you haven't already seen them or been curious about them, things that might come up in the next couple of months as you get into the fall.

Deciding what tests you'd like to take or retake, or you know, it's really unpacking what a different school might require.

So All Star on the left hand side just sort of.

Policy wise or dislike terminology of how a school might talk about testing. So what's missing on this list which is obvious would be where testing is required. So there are some schools like I just mentioned in the previous slide. That testing will still be required. So to submit an essay T or an AC T score, you'll rarely find that a school is going to mandate one over the other, so you know kind of blanket answer. There would be. 1 isn't better than the other.

A lot of schools truly do not have a preference, but they still might require a standardized test as part of your admission process.

So what we'll be talking about on the left side is is schools who are not necessarily requiring the testing.

So Swanee would be an example. We are test optional and there's a big question of, well, what does optional mean?

So in the case of, I draw the difference of an optional essay and optional essay is so optional, but could be advantageous right to submit to a reader has a little more knowledge about you, or you've taken the time to complete that. When is school says they are test optional or they have chosen that full policy. They really are test optional.

There are some caveats of like maybe they are test optional in the admission process, but you may potentially need scores to be considered for academic scholarships, but in terms of admission, if it says test optional, you can really trust that there is not going to be a disadvantage for you to be applying without standardized test scores.

So if you are feeling I'm sure about that or confuse, I really encourage you to just, you know, raise your hand or reach out to the counselor at whatever school you're applying. That is it. Absolutely fair question. It's not a dumb question, just two ******** about you know what? What does that mean? If you have any recurring questions?

But to kind of walk away from today's session, saying, OK, if Lonnie says their test optional, they really are, and I'm not going to be put in a different stack or application isn't going to be read in a different way because I don't have any test scores or looked at differently.

So the caveat to that and already mentioned scores one could be that a school could say yes, we do not require standardized testing for admission. However, in place of that standardized test score, they might request an additional essay. They might have an interview component. There may be something in place of those test scores that they'd like to see in order to get to know you better. You know, as a student, as a person, or you know academically, so that is something that you might.

Run into.

Uhm, and again it could be test optional through admission, but then for a competitive scholarship or very specific program at that school. Or you know, within a different senior college they they might request test scores at that point. So again, always good to just defer to the particular school that you're applying to and just feel really comfortable and confident to ask questions if you don't understand 'cause it, it's much better to ask the question then.

Either like expend that energy on your end incorrectly and or distress yourself out. So we want to reduce that.

And then there are some schools and this is the second bullet point that would be test flexible. It's still sort of a short list relatively, but that is a process where they might not require the essay T or AC T. They may have some flexibility as that kind of insinuate of they could look at a different type of test or different sort of aptitude test or entrance tests that you could use in place of having to set for the essay TRACT.

So that could be beneficial just in like the test format. It could be just like the timing of the test.

Just something that you may have already been taking for school that gives you again that flexibility up. OK, I don't have to sit for one of these major tests.

And here's something else I can use to fulfill that requirement.

So we'll go that the last three bullet points are on the left are very similar. It's really just word choice and sort of.

You know that not leaving any ambiguity, so test blind is a term that you might have heard before, so that would be where school is not looking at Test scores in the process. Even if you have them, or even if you've submitted them.

So they're kind of, you know, the same like turning a blind eye. They're looking away from that, UM, in in the process. So that's very similar for test free and score free. But again, menology wise, it's just a little clearer. Or maybe a little more approachable that.

It just takes the ambiguity way of like I don't. I don't need to test, so that was really helpful in this past year with COVID-19 and less access to testing sites, it sort of was some terminology used to reduce that stress of I really don't need to test. It's OK this application is test free or score free and I'm going to be evaluated using curriculum and transcript and other items, but essentially those three bullet points are very similar of.

The weight of the test score, even if you have it, is not going to be a component that's considered in your application.

So hopefully that is a you know it's in some ways long winded, but also still very brief if you have questions. If though about any of these terminologies.

To me, or put it in the chat and then also just again per school website. If a school has a very particular terminology or policy, it's very likely that they're going to give you some additional context, or like it really explained that on their website, so use that as a resource, reach out to their staff or your particular counselor that you might have met, or just you might be connected with them through email and or even a quick Google. I think as long as you're looking at sort of like.

Educational websites or again on a college.

Like college campus or college website on the admission page, you can trust the information is going to be accurate.

Alright, so pause for a moment. Take all that in.

And then the right side sort of separated them because the terminology over on this side is more related to actual. Like if you are testing taking a CSAT or whatever it is.