Although by traditional measures of test validity, the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is not culture biased, it, along with the English Composition Test and the Test of Standard Written English, reinforces a narrow view of academic excellence that excludes culturally different youths. Designed to prevent admission errors, the SAT is generally successful at helping colleges eliminate students likely to fail in their programs. According to a recent study, however, the test also encourages schools to reject students who would have succeeded. While the SAT does accurately predict freshman grades, it assumes that freshman grades themselves constitute a significant and unbiased criterion of achievement. The objective English Composition Test and the Test of Standard Written English both assume that grammatical correctness is a more important indicator of writing ability than the quality of ideas presented. If colleges are not to exclude a large number of potentially successful students, they must reexamine the suppositions underlying their admissions and placement tests. (MM)