Page 173 - WhyAsInY

sons (anD Mostly DauGHters) of tHe Blue anD WHite
three years was spent on numerical series, analogies, reading compre- hension, and the like; and in innumerable tests, all about aptitude and achievement, and all aimed at getting students into college. There were the PSATs (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Tests), the SATs, Achieve- ment Tests, the Iowa Tests, the NMSQTs (National Merit Scholastic Qualifying Tests), the New York State Regents Scholarship Tests, the New York State Regents Exams in all core subjects, and Advanced Placement Tests, among others. Whether geared toward aptitude or achievement, virtually all of the tests looked alike and induced an enor- mous amount of tension. (The only categorically different test that we had to take, one that was not tension inducing, was the Kuder Preference Test. It was intended to tell you what occupation would be most com- patible with your desires; my view was that it was designed to measure with precision how much you really liked kuders.)
Unfortunately, high school was then, and probably still is, a place where the focus is very much on tomorrow, a concept otherwise unknown to teenagers. In my day, virtually all people spent time and their parent’s money taking Stanley Kaplan’s classes or those of Weiss and Shlakman (remember them?) when it came to preparing for the SATs. I initially refused to take an SAT prep course but ultimately broke down and took three or four night classes at Brooklyn College.
One wonders how anyone had time for class, much less extracur- ricular activities. If you wanted to go the college of your choice, you needed grades, grades, grades, and you were strongly advised to partici- pate in school activities. I did well, actually very well, on my SATs, which were the most important of the tests, as every college required them, and I did better in the math part than in the English part, some- thing which you might have guessed if you’ve managed to read this far. There was also a writing-sample portion of the SATs, something that was introduced for our class. Not all colleges required you to participate in taking the writing sample. Amherst did; its Dean of Admissions had created it.
With all of the foregoing under control, each student would have an appointment with the College Placement Office. Inasmuch as there
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