A Possible Solution to the Standardized Testing Debate

“The video games also adapted to my inputs and choices in real time, which meant they could capture my strengths and weaknesses, a fuller view of my aptitude than just a number from how many multiple choice questions I got right.”

To use standardized tests, or not to use standardized tests, that is the question. Some colleges dropped the requirement; others have reinstated it. Critics of standardized testing argue that it blocks a wider range of talented young people from applying to college. Its proponents point to how standardized testing scores correlate strongly with college performance and enable low-income students to demonstrate their preparedness and aptitude. The protracted nature of this debate reveals at least some incompatibility between today’s state of affairs and the decades-old tradition of standardized testing. Although the SAT underwent somewhat significant changes in 1995, many of the fundamentals of standardized testing—as well as the circumstances surrounding it, from test-day anxiety to vocabulary flash cards—have remained the same, even as American society has changed so much since the mid-1990s.

Today, the tests are facing an “opt out movement,” which gained popularity in 2015. Nearly 200,000 students in the state of New York “boycotted” standardized tests last spring. And we cannot blame them. Young people today have been brought up by smartphones, video games, and social media influencers, not just their parents. That is what is wrong with this new generation—a popular sentiment, yet nothing new. Perhaps every generation in human history has looked down on the next. Enough of that and of forcing the old on the new. And though it is common to critique standardized testing from the perspective of racial bias (though this is very much disputed), I would argue, today, the fundamental problem is actually with its structure and form. Standardized tests must change at their core, and their becoming video games may be ideal.

Video games are well suited for assessing aptitude because they can examine players for skills that colleges and employers value, often skills the games also already make players use. A 2022 study by Timothy Jordan and Mukesh Dhamala and published in Neuroimage: Reports found that video game players generally make quicker and more accurate decisions than non-players. Recent studies support that gaming can enhance attention, memory, and impulse control. Although there are academic drawbacks to spending hours per day playing video games, the reality is that games requiring certain cognitive skills probably can be reengineered to measure these skills.