<p>juggieburger, stop complaining. The SAT may not be perfect, but it's the best there is. You aren't going to change the world. it does measure intelligence, maybe not perfectly, but it does. Let it go.</p>
<p>He didn't go from a 480 though.......</p>
<p>If everyone could memorize some words and get 800, then that would be brilliant....790 would be a bad score then...and What makes you think that your English is better than his ???????? Maybe he reads a lot or something like that..........A guy who used to get 700+ everytime in the practice tests, screwed up the gridding and got a low score the first time......Maybe that was what had happened..........</p>
<p>juggieburger: Congrats on your friend getting an 800 on CR! As comfy said, your friend is probably also an avid reader. He may have messed up his first time on CR for that he may have spent too much time reading the passage without getting the big idea... which is a must to do well on Critical Reading and your friend did that the next time around and got the 800. Or possibly your friend found that the passages were more interesting the second time around.. lol, dunno.</p>
<p>Otherwise, he may have filled in some wrong bubbles as Comfy suggested...</p>
<p>Memorizing vocab probably helped him a little bit.. but you need more than a good vocabulary to do well on the SATs....</p>
<p>i agree that sometimes the SAT can measure intelligence but only to a certain extent...like, the writing section is complete bs, 25 minutes will not show if you are a good writer or not...it also depends on the topic and the grader...and you also have to take into account how much money the student's parents make (SAT tutoring is unfair), if english was their first language, and if they came from a hard school or not...just because a person is unprepared for the SAT because of their school or educational background does not mean they are stupid.</p>
<p>Nati88 has a point! well everyone knows the SAT is culturally biased, but we cant change that...</p>
<p>Here's the thing:
If English isn't your first language, you're not on a level playing field when taking the Verbal/Writing.
But then again, in college, you'll be required to write and read in English.
Life isn't fair.</p>
<p>As well as hard work is portrayed in our society, most intellectual schools don't want a bunch of hard-working stupid kids, haha. </p>
<p>I know people who are dumb as rocks, boring to talk to, etc, but work really hard and get good grades. They won't be contributing to the college environment, just locking themselves in their rooms studying all the time. Schools can see through those kinds of people.</p>
<p>haha hardworking stupid kids.
Yeah i know, I'm not on the same level with native speakers in writing and CR, but I got a 12 on the essay for some weird reason haha, so im hoping colleges will notice that.</p>
<p>juggie, that's actually very impressive...I speak Spanish fairly well, but I know I couldn't score perfect on any written Spanish test like that; good job on the 12</p>
<p>thanks! im still in shock, considering i got an 8 on my first 2 attempts.</p>
<p>...and this is why everyone should take the ACT. :D</p>
<p>lol but the ACT is the same thing...you can prepare and raise your score</p>
<p>Perhaps, but I still think that the ACT is a better measure of intelligence and reasoning skills, rather than memorization/cramming skills.</p>
<p>SAT is a reasoning test!!! Not an IQ test or an attitude test. </p>
<p>Verbal part is to test your prefix-reasoning skill; combine different parts of a word and deduce its meaning. Memorizing millions of words can basically improve the prefix skill because prefix are standardized.</p>
<p>Math part is to test your logical skill, you only need the basic math skills to do this part of the test. </p>
<p>Writing part is not to test your writing skill. In fact, how you can interrupt the situation and comes up with the best idea in a limited amount of time? Under some situation, you need to make quick decisions and putting them in logic so to let other people understand your thought. </p>
<p>What is the difference in between 750 and 800? The difference shows that if you are a careful or careless person! The shape of the score-curve is in bell shape. You can get extra 2 correct answers in one section to bump your score up from 500 to 510. On the other hand, you can score 750 if you get 3 questions wrong in total and 780 if you get 2 questions wrong. Scores are given exponentially towards the end to differentiate one's carefulness. </p>
<p>SAT is a fair game because everyone is taken the same test and everyone is busy with their own life. If you do no ECs and spend all your time studying and preparing for the SATs, super good school won't take you. If you spend too much time doing ECs, hurt your GPA, but maintain your SAT; it shows off your logical skill, but you may not have good knowledge to survive in top colleges. </p>
<p>High GPA = hardworking --> A must skill to survive in a college
High SAT = good logical skill --> A must to survive in those top-seed universities.
Perfect SAT = good logical PLUS careful. --> top-seed universities want those. and that's why you have multiple chances to take the test (to justify your performance)</p>
<p>In the super good universities, they need you to show them the ability to survive among your classmates. They all have 4.0, tons of ECs, and good SAT scores when they were admitted. Believe it or not, 80% of them will get a C in colleges because, in those schools, smartest are competing with the smartest. Missing one of those skills from above hurts your application because they believe that you will be beaten by your classmates or you won't survive in their schools.</p>
<p>One more piece of news. In most Asian countries, like Japan, China, Hong Kong... Colleges over there only look at one piece of paper which details your opening exam scores. Those exams only hold ONCE A YEAR and last for half-a-month. Their admissions NEVER look at your school performance. Is it fair?</p>
<p>back to the original statement.......
juggieburger your right dude...all the SAT does is test how well you take the SAT. the only reason why i have a good GPA and an average SAT score is because i work my butt off in school, but not at studying how to take the SAT and the techniques for it.</p>
<p>Well that's a poor decision isn't it?</p>
<p>100% agreed with hunter#9. All the SAT's show is how much you can memorize and how well you do on ONE test in your life. GPA can show consistency or inconsistency. No top notch college wants to admit a student with a bad GPA, even with a great SAT. It only goes the other way. If you do bad on the SAT but have a great GPA, more can be said for you and you stand a much better chance.</p>
<p>The SATs don't just test memorization. A good deal of the critical reading is simple analysis. Not something you can really prep for, just common sense. There is vocab, which is pure memorization. However, it also tests if a student is well-read. A well-read student should be able to get a good deal of the vocab questions. The math is basic things up to college algebra. The grammar on the writing section is very basic. If you can write a good paper, you should be able to do fairly well.</p>
<p>It's true: some people don't test well. For some people, its not a true gauge of potential. But for the majority it is. If it wasn't for the SATs, there would be no way to stabilize GPA comparison. It comes down to that. A necessary evil.</p>
<p>I agree with Chrisc in that GPA measures effort while SAT measures potential, but I am biased because I have a 3.4 and a 2230. I could try to sell a bunch of bs that my school is uber-competitive, but the truth is I spend very, very little time on school work. For the most part, colleges value GPA over test scores unless the test scores are ridiculously low. That's why I'm doomed at the University of Michigan. I like to think that I will be more motivated in college...</p>
<p>You watch...the SAT's days are numbered to exist. More and more colleges are considering the arguement I just gave. That's why you see more and more SAT optional schools such as Providence converting. This way, they give the student a chance if they don't do good on their SAT, but really think the school is a match for them. More colleges will follow this trend and eventually...no more SAT.</p>