Standardized Tests: Needed?

I hope you all enjoy yourselves at the football game this weekend. While you will be outside, feeling the cool wind hit your face and watching us lose to Iowa State (I mean win! win!), I will be inside a cramped room with 100 other suckers like me, taking the test that separates the boys from men, girls from women: the FE, or Fundamentals of Engineering exam.

For those of you science majors, this is the engineering equivalent to the MCAT, except with a lot less preparation (on my part, at least. Heh.) For the morning, four-hour portion of the exam, we are to be tested over "general," fundamental subjects for any major, such as mathematics, chemistry, statics, fluid mechanics, and thermodynamics (though I didn't have to take thermo. So those questions ought to go well). The afternoon portion, also 4 hours, is the choice of the test taker. There are several subjects to take, including civil engineering, environmental engineering, and general. I'm going for the general portion.

Are standardized tests really needed though? What do they measure? I suppose tests like the FE and MCAT are needed. If I pass the FE, I get my Engineer-In-Training license. But to pass, I only need to pass roughly 50% of the exam. Not that I'm complaining, but aren't these low standards, especially for engineers? What about with the MCAT? What if you have a terrific student, volunteers at hospitals and really has a burning interest in medicine, and just is a terrible test taker? Is it fair to judge his medical future by just one test?

I remember dreading the PSATs and SATs. I'd done well on both-above average, but not absolutely stellar, Ivy League worthy. I used to make the mistake of judging one's intelligence by the score they'd gotten. Of course, the SATs are supposed to measure how well you do in college, but does anyone really ever remember that?

It seems like everyone I'd ever met based the SAT on general intelligence. "Oh wow, 1560, they must be really smart." Well, yes, I'm sure that's true, but some of the smartest people I know don't have such fantastic scores. One of my good friends, who has atomic weights from the periodic table memorized and is practically a chemistry genius, didn't have a great score. My little brother, logical, one who used to study Einstein's theories in the sixth grade, made a much lower score than I did. Again, is it fair to base one's intelligence on one test? No, it's not, but unfortunately, in this highly competitive world, there has to be some form of weeding some of us out-fair or not.

This topic has no right or wrong answers, and as much as I complain about it, Saturday morning at 7 o'clock I will report to the testing center while the rest of you get to sleep in. Here's a preemptive "BTHO IOWA STATE!" because I'm sure I won't be able to say it as I ponder calculus problems Saturday morning.