For three grueling hours, I sat there calculating math problems, figuring out analogies, and answering comprehension questions. When it was finally over, I let out a sigh of relief and thought to myself-thank God I'll never have to do that again.

Little did I know that I would be taking the SAT's once again. I got my score back and was disappointed. I thought I had done better. I didn't do poorly, but I didn't do as well as I had anticipated.

I decided to enroll in the Princeton Review hoping their techniques would raise my score. I sat through two-hour classes twice a week and shelled out quite a bit of my savings. I used Princeton Review's practice books in my spare time. I did all of the required homework. I thought that if I did everything they said, my score would rise.

It came time for my second chance at showing the ETS (Educational Testing Service) that I could master this test. This time, when my scores came, I was again disappointed. After all this time, effort and money, my score rose by only ten points. It was too late for me to take the course over, so I had an SAT score for better or worse.

But, I soon discovered that I was in the top two percent of my class. I had graduated with honors. I was admitted to the college of my choice and any self-doubt I had about my academic ability due to my SAT scores was gone.

Now, I'm in college. I've done great in all my classes, made the dean's list and have become a student leader. In other words, those scores indicated absolutely nothing about my success at college, nor will they indicate anything about my success in the future.

However, this story does not have a happy ending. These scores may not have indicated how well I did academically in high school, but they did seem to indicate what scholarships I was entitled to. The past four years of hard work in college had provided me with little recognition and no scholarship to speak of.

The Outstanding Student Recruitment Program, also known as the Merit Scholarship and The Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholars Award are two scholarships created by the state of New Jersey. The Bloustein Scholarship is awarded to students in the top ten percent of their class with an SAT score of 1260 or higher. The Merit Scholarship is offered by The College of New Jersey and is "designed to reward high school graduates who have achieved academic distinction." A recipient's class rank has to be above the 85th percentile and he/she must have an SAT score of at least 1200. TCNJ offers scholarships that range from $2500 to full tuition.

I, on the other hand, think its possible to achieve "academic distinction" without a score of 1200 on the SAT's. According to the qualifications for a Merit Scholarship, I would have received $2500 if I scored 1200 on the SAT's. Essentially, I was four questions away from receiving $10,000 for my college career. The fact that fellow classmates who had not done as well academically received scholarships enraged me.

When this argument was brought to the attention of the New Jersey Higher Education Student Association, they quickly responded, "No comment." I thought back to all of the time and effort I put into each of my honors classes in high school. I was dedicated to doing well academically and I succeeded. Yet, I received no financial recognition for my efforts. The only answer as to why I have received no scholarship and to why the SAT's are so important is, "No comment."

Ruth Palmer, Professor of Secondary Education and Education Administration at The College of New Jersey, offered me some insight on the significance of SAT's. She said the SAT's are only one way of assessing a student's ability. Palmer feels that the SAT serves its purpose as a standardized test, however it is just one out of many factors taken into account. She said it is important to examine the SAT's from the perspective of what the ETS is looking for, a certain commonality among students. For example, the average SAT score at TCNJ is 1250. She continued, "There are multiple ways for people to learn, and therefore multiple ways for people to be tested."

Shelley Krause, member of the admissions staff at The College of New Jersey, agreed. She said, "intelligence involves many different factors. You can't tell a student's willingness to accept a challenging academic environment from a standardized test."

She explained that the state decides the criteria for New Jersey scholarships. Krause said, "in an ideal world you would take many factors into account, but the state wants the criteria cut and dry."

Krause explained that one advantage of having SAT scores, as a criterion for scholarships is that you can make people aware of exactly what they need to qualify. She thinks part of the reliance we have on SAT scores as a criteria is because scores are concrete numbers. She said, "It seems easier to talk about quantitative rather than qualitative aspects."

However, she also said that using SAT scores as scholarship criteria, "doesn't take individual discretion or subjective factors into account." Krause said that people are always going to be at a disadvantage because of the way scholarships are set up. She said, "When you draw a line like using SAT scores as a criteria for scholarships, some students are going to be on the wrong side of it." Unfortunately, it turned out that I was one of those students.

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