There are a few simple steps we all take when enrolling at City College. Applying to school comes first. Then, you access your Pipeline account, apply for financial aid and complete orientation. The next step is where frustration emerges.
City College’s assessments tests, which determine a student’s eligibility for English and math classes, may be significantly difficult for some.
First off, we all know some perform worse than others under stress. The pressure of working against the clock often results in some students earning lower scores than they are capable of.
For international students, the challenge is even greater. While many have learned English in their home country, it may not be widely used. They may not have used English consistently in many years. Many just need a refresher and should be advised to simply put off their assessment a semester.
Those coming from outside Santa Barbara are forced to re-take the assessment completely if they are transferring from another community college.
Currently the 110 community colleges in California test independently of one another. Say a student transfers to City College from Cuesta College, they may need to take the test over. The same goes for any of the other community colleges in California.
Given these facts, ways to avoid this flawed system could take planning while still in high school or your home country.
Some local high schools may offer English 111 during your senior year. While this is needed to transfer to a CSU or UC and stockpiles college credit, it won’t help you avoid the assessment test.
AP English classes count for English 110 at City College, but hindsight is always 20/20; some students aren’t given this information while in high school. Many of us may have managed our high school classes differently if we were truly aware of how it would affect us down the line.
International students’ problems might be solved if practice tests were readily available before their move over here. Possibly a refresher course could be offered, allowing them to catch up on their English without having to pay the brutal price of $229 a unit for up to 16.5 unneeded, non-transferrable units of English, not even counting ESL.
However, while students are bound to have varying issues when it comes to testing of any sort, the consequences are exponentially larger when the results have the potential to be so costly. Unfortunately, only these minor tweaks could realistically be made to this traditional style of testing.
We would all love to blame the system; in some cases this may be warranted. But the reality is that the testing system is a must. College-level classes like English 110 and Math 107 would be impossible to get spots in if registration was completely open.
As students, we simply need to prepare as much as possible, in any way possible, especially given the handicap you risk placing on yourself.
