<p>There’s lots of experimental stuff and data collection we don’t get paid for. Nielsen ratings? Censuses? We get “paid” by the experimental section of the test by having a more valid test.</p>
<p>Take the architecture design exam it was given over two days - and one was 12 hours to design a building from scratch.</p>
<p>You can’t have an SAT that works without having experimental sections - it’s the only way to ensure that the questions work. They have to make sure that the questions that the easy questions really are easy for those who score high and the hard questions are hard for everyone. Test design is not trivial. That said I would love to see a test where you could just retake sections. My son could just have retaken the writing instead of the whole test.</p>
<p>I suspect if they gave the ‘experimental’ section last billing, most kids would get up and walk out. What’s the impetus if they results aren’t being included in the scores sent to the colleges.</p>
<p>In answer to someone’s question - no, the kids don’t know which section is experimental as they are taking the test. When they are finished they will realize (if they are still functioning) that they had one more section of something - and on of those sections was experimental.</p>
<p>I think the test is too long. I know they have studied the fatigue factor, but it becomes a marathon. The only good thing is that kids are repeating the test less often, so I suppose they are spending less TOTAL time than their predecessors on this assessment.</p>
<p>ETS must include an experimental section to determine the reliability and validity of each individual question. If they were to pay people to take experimental sections (not a bad idea) the cost of the test would increase, but the time to take it would decrease.</p>
<p>My biggest beef with the test is that the description to the kids often talks just about the time on the parts of the test that counts. The registration brochure glosses over the time to fill in personal info, downtime between sections, experimental section etc. </p>
<p>All of us fare better when we know how long something will take. They need to be mentally prepared to spend half a day on the test. That would help.</p>