BY KAREN BOSSICK

The SAT and ACT have become rites of passage for American youth who aspire to college.

But critics say the tests are biased both culturally and psychologically.

Learn more when the Wood River Community YMCA presents a free screening of the film “The Test and the Art of Thinking.” The screening will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 18, in the Y’s Community Room.

The film—part of the Y’s ongoing film series-- is presented by the YMCA with support from the Roy A. Hunt Foundation.

The film examines the history and the evolution of the Scholastic Aptitude Test and what it and the ACT  test measure and what it means.

Did you know, for instance, that the SAT was created in part because institutions like UC Berkeley wanted to demonstrate that they were on par with IVY League colleges following the creation of the G.I. Bill?

The film also examines the tests’ ramifications in our current culture. Some charge that test makers look for ways to trick students into giving wrong answers, even when they might know the right ones. And that they test irrelevant words and math that don’t matter.

They note that families spend thousands of dollars preparing their students to take the test and that  schools devote more classroom time training for the test.

And this leaves students unprepared for classes when they arrive at the universities to which they have gained admission, according to an article in the Washington Post.

“The Test” is produced by Michael Arlen Davis and directed by Jyll Johnstone, whose work has been featured at the Sundance and Telluride film festivals, as well as others.

 “Hollywood Reporter” noted that the film “challenges the assumptions underlying our present higher education system.” And “Village Voice” called it “a brutal takedown of a practice now warping K-12 education.”