Standardized Testing
Students Need Standardized Assessments
The Michigan Merit Exam (MME) assesses students in grade 11 and eligible students in grade 12 based on Michigan high school standards. The MME is administered each spring, and consists of three components:
- College Board SAT® with Essay Evidence-Based Reading & Writing and Math
- ACT® WorkKeys® job skills assessment Applied Math, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace Documents
- M-STEP Science and Social Studies
Colleges use standardized test assessment scores, in particular the SAT, to determine how likely a student will succeed at their institution.
Parent Guide to reading your child’s Michigan Merit Exam scores
Accuplacer
ACCUPLACER is a series of tests that evaluate students' skills in reading, writing, and math to help college administrators place them in courses that match their skills.
ACT
The ACT contains four multiple-choice tests—English, mathematics, reading, and science—and an optional writing test. These tests are designed to measure skills that are most important for success in postsecondary education and that are acquired in secondary education. The score range for each of the four multiple-choice tests is 1–36. The Composite score is the average of the four test scores rounded to the nearest whole number.
Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement (AP) exams are standardized exams designed to measure how well you’ve mastered the content and skills of a specific AP course. Most AP courses have an end-of-year paper-and-pencil exam, but a few courses have different ways to assess what you’ve learned—for example, AP Art and Design students submit a portfolio of work for scoring.
Michigan Department of Education
Michigan has an innovative and comprehensive system of assessments to measure student achievement in learning our state content standards. These standards outline what educators believe students should know and be able to do in certain subjects and grade levels to be career and/or college-ready upon high school graduation. In Michigan, like in other states, a sampling of schools also participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in grades 4, 8, and 12. Michigan summative assessments are required under the Michigan State School Aid Act and/or the Federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
PSAT/SAT
The PSAT/NMSQT is the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The PSAT is a great primer for the SAT, and even the ACT, but it’s more than just a trial run. PSAT scores are used to identify National Merit Scholars and award merit scholarships. More than 3.4 million high school students (mostly juniors and sophomores) take this nationwide, multiple-choice test every year.
The SAT is a standardized test that measures a student's skills in three core areas: Critical Reading, Math, and Writing. Students in grades 11 and 12 take the SAT so that they can submit their scores to colleges as part of the college application process. The SAT is composed of three main sections — Math, Evidence-Based Reading, and Writing. There is an optional 50-minute essay, and total testing time with the essay is 3 hours and 50 minutes.
