<p>Interesting that the special August SAT has now been cancelled.</p>
<p>With regard to the post by dodgersmom: I see what you mean, and you are right to point it out. I don’t think that it is legitimate for CB to participate in a program offered by a for-profit entity. That does seem improper. Still, the special timing is what annoyed me, more than anything else.</p>
<p>Here is the [NY</a> Times post](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/college-board-cancels-summer-sat-for-select-students-calling-it-inappropriate/]NY”>College Board Cancels Summer SAT for Select Students, Calling It 'Inappropriate' - The New York Times) about the cancellation of the August test.</p>
<p>I still think an August test would be problematic in regards to schools (personnel, AC, etc.) especially if it became as popular as June, say. Of course, as a tutor I would love to see summer test dates :)</p>
<p>BTW, the SAT was offered in August from 1946 to 1963, and in July from 1964 to 1973.</p>
<p>I’m not at all surprised they cancelled it- they should have not offered it in the first place. </p>
<p>And I call it 2 days ago-</p>
<p>"I would be VERY surprised if the CB does NOT cancel the Aug 3 test.
There is NO justification to offer it ONLY to a tiny number of gifted students who probably dont even need it but can afford $5000 for test prep.
This reminds me of the Planned Parenthood debacle- This was a stupid, self inflicted PR disaster if ever there was one… "</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, this initiative proceeded without proper consideration of whether all aspects of the program were aligned with our mission” ,Kathleen Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the College Board, said in a statement."</p>
<p>Do ya THINK??? </p>
<p>hopefully heads will roll at CB, just as they did at PP.</p>
<p>Wait! Are we taking credit? Then THREE days ago I said I hoped the NYT would get involved. People have a way of changing their minds when the NYT comes a calling.</p>
<p>Honestly, if the test were still happening in August, the joke would be on those 50 kids paying for “elite” 4k tutoring. The SAT curve for them would be ridiculously harsh.</p>
<p>Moose, this has been discussed before. The curve is not adjusted based on how the current test takers do on the test, it is set based on comparing the experimental section against past test takers. And the curve also shifts the score by maybe 10-20 points, if the gifted students in this test miss one or two questions in each section of the test, they are going to get closed to or at 800. Basically the effect of the curve generally is very minimal.</p>
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<p>Exactly!! And the brains behind this little scheme should offer their resignations if the organization wants to restore some semblance of accountability.</p>
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<p>Is that my advice? I recommended to NOT delay until the SENIOR year. As far as I know, the first two years of HS are the 9th and 10th grade. Take a look at the PSAT, which is routinely taken by students in October of their tenth and eleventh grade. </p>
<p>This was my post. Not sure why this was construed as recommending to take it in 9th grade!</p>
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<p>There are NO reasons for a student to delay the SAT as none of the material covered in the last two years of HS are covered. The test is at best at the 9th grade level. </p>
<p>All the final SAT and ACT tests should be taken in the first 6-7 months Junior year, leaving the rest of the HS to suffer the AP/IB syndrome, and work on the applications.<<<</p>
<p>Oh well!</p>
<p>menloparkmom, just to keep things straight, it was Susan G Komen who created a fiasco for themselves, not Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>“Not sure why this was construed as recommending to take it in 9th grade”!</p>
<p>here is what you wrote:</p>
<p>"There are NO reasons for a student to delay the SAT as none of the material covered in the last two years of HS are covered. The test is at best at the 9th grade level. "</p>
<p>care to try to explain the discrepancy between these 2 statements? I see nothing about delaying taking the SAT until the senior year in that sentence. To others it sure sounds like you specifically and definitively stated that the “best” time to take the SAT is when the student has finished 9th grade, based on YOUR assumption that the material will have been learned by then.
Others have disagreed, as not all students will have taken classes at the same level at the same time.
And the fact that some sophomores can take the PSAT is irrelevant. The real PSAT , which is given in 11th grade, not 9th grade, gives only an indication of a students potential SAT score. Most students who take the SAT later in their JR year, do better than their PSAT scores suggest they will do- why? because they have learned even more math and have read even more books than 6 months earlier. So your assumption, based on what I dont know, that “none of the material covered in the last two years of HS are covered” is relevant is pure bunk for most students.</p>
<p>“it was Susan G Komen who created a fiasco for themselves, not Planned Parenthood”</p>
<p>you’re right! I mixed it up with their threat to pull funding from PP. my bad, sorry.</p>
<p>I’m with you kayf. At least have them list it as an August test date. Didn’t we just have a bunch of kids on Long Island getting in trouble for having people take the SAT for them? That’s cheating and dishonest. But the college board gets to be dishonest and back date a test? That’s not right. As to those with money gaining an advantage, that’s life in many instances unfortunately.</p>
<p>They should offer a test to everyone in August, and have community colleges offer a course in SAT prep beforehand. Maybe even online so it’s accessible to everyone. Perhaps then taking the test in August would become more the norm, with students using a portion of their time in the summer months to prepare, just like those that take time off to prepare for the LSAT. A community college course could cost as little as a few hundred dollars, not $4500.</p>
<p>Funny thing is, and not to toot my own horn, but back in the 90’s I took the GRE and was shocked at how high I scored. I didn’t have the time or money for a test prep class. I just got a test prep book and looked at a few pages each night for a month or so. I was shocked that the math questions asked were basic review of things I learned in high school. But I probably wouldn’t have remembered the formulas asked on the test or a few of the vocabulary questions if I had not done this simple review and familiarized myself with the test. To me, this didn’t tell the world I was ready for Graduate school anymore then my lower performance on the SAT had told my undergraduate school I was ready for college. Luckily I still got in! As you can see, I’m not a huge fan of long, boring standardized tests, although I believe tests have their place in education. DD wants to only look at test optional schools in a few years because her school has made her paranoid about a low SAT score. She’s already told me she has “test anxiety”. No she doesn’t! She just took a huge Science test and got 100% on it. But her school has already scared 15 year olds about getting poor SAT scores!</p>
<p>MPM, your assumptions and interpretations are completely off-the-wall. While I could forgive the poor reading of my first post because of a hasty perusal, and the subsequent uncalled for set of insults, I see no need to connect the dots for you beyond what I wrote in my answer above. My posts are crystal clear about the timing I believe to be the most efficient. Fwiw, the post you attack is ONE continuous statement that starts with WHILE and ends with APPLICATIONS. </p>
<p>Calm down and read my posts in their appropriate context. Perhaps you might realize how wrong you were, and how offensive your remarks were. Not your proudest moment here.</p>
<p>Hmmm… When the test was offered in July and August, do you know how those scores compared to test scores offered during the school year? Why are they no longer offered, was there a reason they stopped?</p>
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<p>Perhaps CB had no intent to deceive, but it just saves them thousands of dollars. CB’s massive computer systems and security have been designed for xx test administrations per year, and the calendars are set years in advance. Any change would require major programming and testing efforts, which clearly are not worth it for a ‘pilot’.</p>
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<p>Sound elitist to me. (Now you are just arguing over the details of price, but seem to accept the concept of private prep over the summer.)</p>
<p>According to the letter by Stone:</p>
<p>"- Why did the College Board announce that it would report scores from the August 3 test as if they came from the regular June 2 SAT after pressure began to build on admissions offices to ignore scores from the special, mid-summer administration? Isn’t this labeling very misleading if not fraudulent?"</p>
<p>I am sure there are some work into programming another test date into the system but I don’t know about being massive work. Software tools and database programs are quite flexible these days.</p>
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<p>If that is true, then why don’t they publish the Fall 2012 test dates already??? Another extremely irksome nit I have about the SAT. I already know some crucial Saturdays next Fall that won’t work for my kid, but the SAT doesn’t give us the common courtesy of publishing its testing dates for next Fall yet.</p>
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<p>you can always call and ask. :)</p>
<p>But seriously…for fall-12, they HAVE to have 99% of all agreements in place with local schools and proctors. The fact that they don’t post on their website maybe irksome, but that is just to be expected from the education establishment in general, which believes in the mushroom theory of management: keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em excrement. :D</p>
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<p>Well sure, but their systems are a lot more complex than that. CB has direct links to colleges for score reporting, for example, all of which is highly secured. Their printers are all set up to print standard dates, and August ain’t one of them. </p>
<p>For 50 students, it would be really easy to hand-score and manually input the scores into the most recent db available, which would be the June test administration.</p>
<p>This is really a tough crowd on this one. And I’ll apologize in advance for my ignorance on the proper abbreviations on a forum. I’ll refer to my son as my son. </p>
<p>I was initially surprised at CB’s decision to offer a summer test, but honestly, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. My son already took his SAT, and it doesn’t impact our family. Yes, I like fairness and everything, but in the scheme of life, I don’t have the energy to devote to this one.</p>
<p>In the last 60 days, my mother has been in ICU twice, my dad hospitalized twice and moved between two assisted living places. That sentence doesn’t even begin to describe the heart wrenching two months we’ve experienced, nearly losing both of my parents on several occasions. I have not been much of a mom or wife of late. I’m glad I could serve in my daughter role.</p>
<p>All this to say, I would have been even more stressed out if I had not found this forum (CC) about 18 months ago and stumbled upon the counsel of xiggi and others. You see, after my son took his initial PSAT his sophomore year without any prep and scored high on it, I wanted to know more about the process. I found CC and xiggi’s advice to start prep early, preferably in the summer after sophomore year, and take tests in the junior year. This is exactly what my son did. He prepped in August/September, took the October SAT and then the PSAT. He did better on the SAT than the PSAT, probably due to the pressure of knowing the strings attached to the PSAT. He will likely make National Merit in our state. He then took the Math II subject test in December. He will not retake the SAT or the Math II. He might not even take another subject test because the schools he is looking at do not require those. He plans to take the ACT this weekend.</p>
<p>EC, academics, and life went on during this prep. My son was in marching band (they won state), studied percussion privately and went to several festivals and competitions, sang in his school’s top choir, participated in boy scouts (meetings, camping trips) and did really well academically. He made both Regional Band and Choir for our state and then went on to make both All State Band and Choir. He traveled three times this past year on band and choir trips.</p>
<p>As it turned out, my son’s spring schedule filled with SAT/ACT testing date conflicts with all the performances and trips scheduled with band and choir. We kept saying to one another that it was a good thing he took that October SAT. It turned out to be just the right timing for our family.</p>
<p>So, I fully support the idea of knocking out the prep early. It is do-able. It has a cost. It is not the funnest way to spend a couple of months. But the payoff is so worth it. Especially in our situation. Who knows what the future holds? Take the time when you have it. Advise your kids not to waste their time. If they need to retest, they have time. It takes all the pressure off. Thanks, xiggi!</p>
<p>According the todays NYT… the test has been cancelled.</p>