The University of California (UC) system is exploring a possible return to mandatory standardized testing, after being test-blind since the fall of 2021. These considerations follow more than 3,000 UC faculty members signing petitions to review their testing policies over concerns about students’ academic abilities.
The UC’s Academic Council requested that the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) conduct a “rigorous, evidence-based” evaluation of standardized testing followed by the UC’s A-G framework. BOARS will present its report on standardized testing to the Board of Regents by June 2027, after which a decision to reinstate mandatory standardized testing could be made. Due to the timeline, changes would likely affect current high school sophomores and younger.
“Any implementation timeline would follow a Board of Regents vote and provide prospective students and families time to prepare for any change in admissions requirements,” then UC Academic Senate Chair Ahmet Palazoglu said in a July statement.
College and Career counselor Mai Lien Nguyen mentioned that test requirements could discourage certain students from applying, especially those who have not had strong preparation or opportunities. “If the test requirement returns, students with a strong score would fare better in the admissions process. There are still more students with strong test scores than some UC campuses can admit, so admissions could still remain competitive,” Nguyen said.
The Academic Senate, the UC’s governance organization, announced a review of its standardized testing policy in June, after years of operating test blind. “Recognizing the significance of this issue, the Academic Senate is revising its timeline while ensuring the forthcoming review is thorough, evidence-based, and informed by faculty expertise,” Palazoglu said.
Some M-A teachers think that standardized testing will help level the playing field for prospective students. “I don’t know that the grade, an ‘A’ at school X is equivalent to an ‘A’ at school Y, and I think that’s a really difficult thing for colleges to have to reconcile,” AP Calculus teacher Steven Kryger said.
Advocates for reintroducing mandatory testing hope that test scores will give colleges more insight into applicants. “If you’ve mastered the material, you should again do at least minimally well at some point on the SAT exam. The reality is, as you go across the state from teacher to teacher to teacher, you could earn an ‘A’ without mastering the material,” Kryger added.
UCs shifted to a test-blind policy in 2020 following a unanimous 23-0 vote by the UC Board of Regents for their fall 2021 admission cycle. The decision came with warnings from the Senate’s Standardized Testing Task Force that eliminating standardized testing could make it harder to identify academically qualified students and account for grade inflation.
“Without the SAT, our introductory courses are forced to reteach elementary and middle school material. This wastes opportunities, misallocating resources rather than increasing access,” Mina Aganagic, physics and math professor at UC Berkeley, said in a UC Board of Regents meeting.
UC STEM professors say that high school grades are not enough to determine college readiness, especially because grade inflation has changed what it means to receive an ‘A’ letter grade, even in some AP classes.
That has not been the case with standardized testing. Even though grades have increased, according to the 2025 SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report, the average SAT score has generally declined, raising concerns about the readiness of incoming freshmen, regardless of their GPAs.
Professors also point to the number of students who rely on artificial intelligence to complete assignments. According to a 2025 College Board report, the percentage of students using AI for schoolwork increased from 79% to 84% from January to May 2025. With discrepancies in the policies that different high schools have for AI use, it can be difficult for colleges to assess a student based on their transcript alone.
“There’s the potential that some kids who don’t have access to some of the review stuff could suffer a little bit,” Kryger said. “But I think [bringing back testing] is going to benefit a lot of kids in terms of their ability to show that they’ve mastered certain material.”
Admissions is an imperfect system, and some say testing is a fair, useful method for assessing how a student will perform at a college level. However, standardized testing could serve as a barrier for low-income and minority students who lack the same access to expensive tutors and counselors, or the extensive hours that may go into an applicant’s test prep.
“The resources and opportunities available for test preparation vary widely. Students who have had strong preparation at home and at school all their life, enrichment opportunities, and test prep tutoring or classes have a big advantage,” Nguyen said.
“A lot of people try really hard and study really hard, but sometimes they don’t have all the resources they need, like money and all that,” sophomore Alicia Anguiano said. “Since I don’t own a computer, I feel that sometimes my Wi-Fi is a little off, so that too, and I feel it’d be like a lot of pressure too [if the SAT was mandatory].”
According to the California Department of Education’s School Accountability Report Card for M-A’s 2024-25 school year, socioeconomically disadvantaged students made up 39.9% of the school’s population.
“Test prep for SATs is expensive for a lot of people, and [some people] just don’t have the resources,” junior Aurora Stafford said. “I think [bringing back testing] would actually affect people from lower incomes who are trying to get in.”
“Now that I think about it, about the policy change and stuff, I might have to take it [standardized testing] seriously. And I think it’s a bad thing,” sophomore Airi Oka said.
Other students don’t believe that standardized tests are critical to getting accepted into competitive colleges.
“I think obviously a test score is a part of academics and stuff. But also, outside work, like volunteering, sports, and clubs are even more important to show,” freshman Shaun Lin said.
