ACT, SAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT - I am sure year-round as well as this summer many of us are living in fear of the awful power of the acronym.

As I sat poring over my Graduate Record Examination practice book one Saturday night, I wondered what it is that standardized tests for graduate admission actually measure and if the educational values to which these exams allude really are something we should value unquestioningly in our society.

Let me clarify: Generally speaking, I do well on standardized tests. I promise that I do not have sour grapes, but as I read my GRE book, I feel the furrows in my brow deepen, I raise my fists and cry "My kingdom for a calculator!" I wonder why I am filled with such angst. I will graduate a year early, with two bachelor's degrees and nothing but 4.0s in course work for my major. I have studied abroad, done undergraduate research and participated in educationally relevant extracurriculars. I think I look pretty good on paper and I wonder why it is not enough.

As, Bs, Xs, Ys, numbers and symbols dance across my page like alphabet soup while I try to summon the quadratic formula from the recesses of my mind. It is somewhere in my mental filing cabinet labeled "Things I learned in high school that I will never really need."

Exempting standardized testing, I was correct in my assessment of practical application. The GRE math section places a large emphasis on quantitative reasoning, and for anyone who is at all "mathy" the section is a joke.

I accept this but still ask myself, "What's a nice French major like me doing with a book like this?"

The reverse applies to students outside the liberal arts. Reading comprehension sections are allegedly designed to be general, but looking at a friend's book of practice MCATs proved astounding. There are reading comprehension passages about general topics in science, but I also see passages about Renaissance art history and musical atonality, flavored with terms such as "chiaroscuro" and "diatonic scales."

I wonder if the leading cardiologists around the country needed this information to become excellent health care providers. I would prefer a future professor of medieval history be able to tell me about the reigns of Angevin monarchs rather than be able to balance my checkbook.

This brings me to a question larger than standardized testing: What's the value of a liberal education? The learning of foreign languages benefits a broader demographic than usually perceived, but I also believe there is no value in leading a horse to water and red-taping him into a drink.

If a person does not a have a desire to learn a language, it is likely they will never develop the competence to successfully use that language in his or her chosen occupation. The same applies to other subjects.

The American education system is aimed anachronistically at being well-rounded. It pursues a Renaissance Man ideal that is not valued independently in our society. We are driven by efficiency. We do not care if our accountants can read Shakespeare or if our politicians can do non-Euclidean geometry, so why do our graduate schools?

The liberal education seems good on paper and produces future members of the workforce with insight outside of their own field, but there always is a sacrifice.

Most MSU degrees require 120 credits. An English degree requires 60 credits of English courses. A bachelor's in physics requires about 60 as well, including physics and related, necessary subjects like calculus. Political science pre-law requires a mere 30.

Now, I may not be "mathy," but something strikes me as strange when I observe that at the highest end of the spectrum, you can get a degree - supposedly preparing you for a career in your field of study - with only a little over half of your coursework in the subject you plan on pursuing.

I would like to think walking through an MSU graduation ceremony and having a diploma placed in our hands means something.

I would hope a degree from any major university means its possessor has gained special knowledge qualifying him or her to perform a special and valued role in society.

I suppose I cannot complain about the standardized tests facing many college students near the end of their undergraduate studies. Standardized tests for graduate admission reflect what universities expect of us: to be both brilliant in our own field and able in everyone else's.

Jennifer Burstein is an MSU French and history senior and a State News columnist. Reach her at jenburstein@msu.edu.