Dear Editor,

The education system, specifically California’s public system, is in fact not providing students the tools to do well on standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT. Many topics and concepts in the standardized tests do not follow the curriculum anywhere in the public system.

Having gone through the aggravating process of taking both kinds of standardized tests, I know I could have not gotten as high of a score without help from outside resources other than school. I understand schools and teachers don’t have time to teach topics such as rules of grammar which is not in the curriculum. However, incorporating it into the class for at least 5 minutes each day could go a long way.

A greater problem arises when you consider the money that goes into getting good scores. Due to the fact that public schools do not cover standardized test concepts, students must turn to expensive services to receive that education. For example, I took the Princeton Review SAT course advertised by school and paid a lot of money to get 18 hours of education.

This course helped me a lot but is hard to afford for parents of many students. Additionally, private schools offer grammar lessons and other topics directly in sync with that of standardized tests. In this sense, the private schools better prepare students that pay a lot of money to receive a higher score.

This difference puts public school students at a disadvantage on tests that allow them to get into better colleges.

-Anonymous Student