academic steroids

so this past spring, there was a ton of hype on the news about the olympics ranging from the tibet controversy to pollution in china. but perhaps what got the most press (at least on the radio) was athletes taking steroids to boost their speeds.

now, any ordinary and moral person would look at that and say, "those terrible cheaters. how dare they defile the sacred trust of sportsmanship?" after all, these people are cheating to get ahead. they are not relying on their years and years of hard work and suffering. they're doing what they can to get a quick boost ahead of the rest.

and now, we draw attention to something else that has silently crept into our society for academics. SAT and ACT prep classes. it seemed like only a small minority enrolled in such courses when i was in high school. after all, at $1,000 for a handful of classes, it was only for the rich elite. now however, it's a bit of a different story. it seems that everywhere you turn, kids are cramming for these big tests and taking classes and trying to do what they can outside of school to prepare.

but wait, what is the ACT and SAT suppose to be testing anyway?

aptitude - n. - capability or ability either innate or acquired

but since it is a standardized test, students today are not competing against a certain score or percentage, they are competing with each other. this in turn quickly boils down to how many ACT/SAT prep courses you can take, which outlandishly guarantee lavishly high scores if you take their course. and thus, the whole point of it is missed altogether. you see, it is now no longer how able you are. it is a measure of wealth and how many prep courses you can afford. it is now not about how much knowledge and intelligence you have acquired over the years. it is about how many tricks you can do on the test to help you guess the right answer.

kaplan is a steroid for academics.