Braylon Heard did not make it

[Hercules]

I don't buy the argument that test scores have no bearing on how well you do in school. Yeah, there's people who don't do well on tests but still do well in school. Hell, I'm friends with one of them. Problem is that those people are the exception to the rule, not the rule itself.

 

Tests (and school, a fair amount of the time) generally have no bearing on how intelligent someone might be. At least 50% of the time, schools and universities just ask you to jump through hoops that have no bearing on real life, and so the people that do well in school aren't necessarily the smartest people - they're just the people most willing to jump through hoops.

 

What do ACT vocabulary requirements have to do with anything in the real world unless you're trying to be the next Mark Twain, or trying to be a crossword puzzle superstar?

 

Seriously, at least half the stuff on the ACT was completely irrelevant to my coursework in college, and probably at least half of my coursework in college was completely irrelevant to what I was actually preparing to do in the real world.

 

I don't disagree... a lot of what we learn in school only ends up applying to tests and never has much bearing on "the real world". That said, the hoops are there, and you have to jump through them. You can say, "He's going to school to play football, what would he need all that for?" but unless he's damn sure that he'll be playing on Sundays in 4 years or he's damn good at whatever he wants to do if football doesn't work out for him, he might as well use that scholarship to get a degree to fall back on while he's there.

 

agree

[Husker from Kansas]

i just dont feel that sorry for the kid, i went to a small high school here in east central kansas. my dream was to play college football period, when i was a senior i signed my letter of intent to play at pittsburg state university. coming from mound city that is a really big deal. when i signed my letter i hadnt taken my act yet. i had a 3.0 but according to the clearing house i still had to score a 21 with a totally comp score of 76, no a measly 18, and so in a way i felt the same pressure that braylon did when i took mine. granted probably not as much cuz i was not going to a school like UNL but i still felt some pressure. but braylon obviously didnt care enough to put forth the effort to probably even study at all. i had a buddy who scored a 19 and he made the bubbles you fill in look like arrows cuz he was hungover and didnt want to be there. so if braylon didnt feel the need to really try his a** off to make it. and honestly even if he did once he got here he would probably be on academic probation and wouldnt get to play or even worse he could play while on probation and then the school would get punished by the ncaa. this is just my opinion but honestly i think he would be more of a headache in the long run

[Joe_5700]

Call me a bad guy, but I really don't feel bad for Braylon. The ACT is really not that hard. I got a 28 on my first try and I literally (yes, I mean literally) did not study at all for it. If you can't meet the university's academic standards, that's not their fault and he shouldn't be treated any different just because he plays football.

Hardly a fair statement to make, some people are just flat out horrible in standardized testing situations.

 

I would argue that people who do horrbily on SAT/ACT's do not have a mastery of highschool level concepts. How on earth can they be prepared to take on college? Yes, I know some people go on to do great in college with a lower ACT/SAT score and those are the people who focused in college while they did not in college. I know I could have gotten a 19 on the ACT after the 8th grade.

[knapplc]

I would argue that people who do horrbily on SAT/ACT's do not have a mastery of highschool level concepts. How on earth can they be prepared to take on college? Yes, I know some people go on to do great in college with a lower ACT/SAT score and those are the people who focused in college while they did not in college. I know I could have gotten a 19 on the ACT after the 8th grade.

 

Not necessarily true. Tests like the ACT measure how good you are at taking standardized tests as much as they test the actual level of your knowledge. My wife is not a great test-taker - in fact, she struggles horribly with most every test she takes. Just can't do it. But she's a hell of a worker, has her degree from UNL, and she's damned good at her profession (finance). If you went solely off of her test scores you'd never hire her, and you'd make a huge mistake. Then you have me, who takes tests extremely well, and at age 18 I was a terrible student and worker.

 

Test scores are a terribly imprecise way of gauging intelligence, or future success in college, or life in general.

[da skers]

i just dont feel that sorry for the kid, i went to a small high school here in east central kansas. my dream was to play college football period, when i was a senior i signed my letter of intent to play at pittsburg state university. coming from mound city that is a really big deal. when i signed my letter i hadnt taken my act yet. i had a 3.0 but according to the clearing house i still had to score a 21 with a totally comp score of 76, no a measly 18, and so in a way i felt the same pressure that braylon did when i took mine. granted probably not as much cuz i was not going to a school like UNL but i still felt some pressure. but braylon obviously didnt care enough to put forth the effort to probably even study at all. i had a buddy who scored a 19 and he made the bubbles you fill in look like arrows cuz he was hungover and didnt want to be there. so if braylon didnt feel the need to really try his a** off to make it. and honestly even if he did once he got here he would probably be on academic probation and wouldnt get to play or even worse he could play while on probation and then the school would get punished by the ncaa. this is just my opinion but honestly i think he would be more of a headache in the long run

Heard was pretty serious about it. And as I understood even spent his own cash and utilized Sylvan Learning Center which aren't cheap. I think I remember reading his GPA was 2.4. He improved his scores from a 16 to an 18 over his last two tests and prior to this last test his best Cum was 69 and he got to 71. I'd say he worked pretty damn hard to improve his score.

[knapplc]

Heard was pretty serious about it. And as I understood even spent his own cash and utilized Sylvan Learning Center which aren't cheap. I think I remember reading his GPA was 2.4. He improved his scores from a 16 to an 18 over his last two tests and prior to this last test his best Cum was 69 and he got to 71. I'd say he worked pretty damn hard to improve his score.

 

That sucks. Like I said, my GPA out of High School was embarrassingly low - as in, if that truly is Heard's GPA, I'd have been looking up at him from mine. A LONG way up.

 

Maybe this guy just doesn't have the "skill" of taking tests. My heart goes out to him, and I hope he can get this done.

[holvy83]

you can't judge a student by their ACT scores, I did not care one bit, went partying the night before and scored a 19 and did well in college. A buddy of mine who was a C student at best scored a 25 and he never went to college. My ACT score did not affect my college life and got the same degree as someone who scored higher than me. It is all about what YOU want out of it. If Heard struggled with it, college life might not be for him...

[junior4949]

i just dont feel that sorry for the kid, i went to a small high school here in east central kansas. my dream was to play college football period, when i was a senior i signed my letter of intent to play at pittsburg state university. coming from mound city that is a really big deal. when i signed my letter i hadnt taken my act yet. i had a 3.0 but according to the clearing house i still had to score a 21 with a totally comp score of 76, no a measly 18, and so in a way i felt the same pressure that braylon did when i took mine. granted probably not as much cuz i was not going to a school like UNL but i still felt some pressure. but braylon obviously didnt care enough to put forth the effort to probably even study at all. i had a buddy who scored a 19 and he made the bubbles you fill in look like arrows cuz he was hungover and didnt want to be there. so if braylon didnt feel the need to really try his a** off to make it. and honestly even if he did once he got here he would probably be on academic probation and wouldnt get to play or even worse he could play while on probation and then the school would get punished by the ncaa. this is just my opinion but honestly i think he would be more of a headache in the long run

 

Unless things have changed dramatically from when I was in college at UNL, if Heard qualifies and shows a pulse on the football field he stays academically eligible until he leaves. Thunder Collins was as sharp as a marble, and you never saw him academically ineligible now did you? I knew enough of these guys and their tutors to know that becoming academically ineligible would never happen unless they just quit showing up to class.

[307husker]

Lots of people here who feel qualified to assess the validity of a "gold standard" test. Interesting...

 

Would being a "bad test taker" or whatever, mean that the person was likely to be a poor performer in pressure situations? Or is it a type of disability that we should get Sally Struthers to make an infomercial about?

[Joe_5700]

I would argue that people who do horrbily on SAT/ACT's do not have a mastery of highschool level concepts. How on earth can they be prepared to take on college? Yes, I know some people go on to do great in college with a lower ACT/SAT score and those are the people who focused in college while they did not in college. I know I could have gotten a 19 on the ACT after the 8th grade.

 

Not necessarily true. Tests like the ACT measure how good you are at taking standardized tests as much as they test the actual level of your knowledge. My wife is not a great test-taker - in fact, she struggles horribly with most every test she takes. Just can't do it. But she's a hell of a worker, has her degree from UNL, and she's damned good at her profession (finance). If you went solely off of her test scores you'd never hire her, and you'd make a huge mistake. Then you have me, who takes tests extremely well, and at age 18 I was a terrible student and worker.

 

Test scores are a terribly imprecise way of gauging intelligence, or future success in college, or life in general.

 

I hear where you are coming from. The TV show Good Times even dedicated an entire episode to how standardized tests are unfair. Even when I was watching this as a young child on a re-run, the show never did give an alternative or really explain HOW they are unfair. The test doesn't care about your ethnicity, sex religion or anything. What do you propose replaces it? Should the NCAA just do away with the tests altogether? Don't chimps average about an 11 on the ACT...

[307husker]

Everybody gets the ribbon for participating. We are becoming a nation of wimps. There should be no standards of excellence because it might hurt someone's feelings...

 

Rant off.

[knapplc]

I hear where you are coming from. The TV show Good Times even dedicated an entire episode to how standardized tests are unfair. Even when I was watching this as a young child on a re-run, the show never did give an alternative or really explain HOW they are unfair. The test doesn't care about your ethnicity, sex religion or anything. What do you propose replaces it? Should the NCAA just do away with the tests altogether? Don't chimps average about an 11 on the ACT...

 

Actually, there have been studies done showing racial/cultural bias in standardized tests, but I think they've worked hard to try to eliminate such things. I think that kind of bias is (mostly) a thing of the past.

 

I don't think we should get rid of standardized tests. Flawed as they are, they're the best way of determining knowledge. It's like a playoff system - it doesn't fix every problem, it's just the least faulty of the solutions.

[Ziebol]

Poor kid, got a lot of talent. This is why I frown upon standardized testing, he may just have test anxiety or just can't focus when it comes to test who knows. I wish the kid the best and hope he some how finds a way to be playing on Saturdays for us in the near future.

[Husker from Kansas]

@ junior 4949

 

i have heard rumors about that kinda thing happening at alot of schools, but in a way thats the problem we are not holding these guys accountable for what is really important and thats their education! these guys could get hurt and their careers could be over before they even really get started, the schools and we as fans need to make sure these guys are ready for life after football

[redblooded]

Lots of people here who feel qualified to assess the validity of a "gold standard" test. Interesting...

 

Would being a "bad test taker" or whatever, mean that the person was likely to be a poor performer in pressure situations? Or is it a type of disability that we should get Sally Struthers to make an infomercial about?

 

I wonder what the ACT score is for the average recruit to the armed forces is out of high school... I'd be willing to bet its not mid 20s especially for jobs like infantry. Those people seem to do fine with all kinds of pressure situations around that same age.

 

Everybody gets the ribbon for participating. We are becoming a nation of wimps. There should be no standards of excellence because it might hurt someone's feelings...

 

Rant off.

 

What the hell are you talking about? I don't think anybody's really said that. I think a few of us said jumping to conclusions about the potential student (and in your other post how they will handle pressure situations, LOL) someone can be based off a standardized test is a bit ridiculous based on our experience.

 

You know we are becoming a nation of wimps, I mean they don't even play football in blizzards anymore.

 

Generalizations, logical fallacies, and stringing cliche together does not a point make.