Do SAT scores truly reflect a student's academic ability?

<p>Bates did a study of comparing 29 years of college performance of SAT submitters versus non-submitters. The only difference was that the submitters had greater success at graduate school admission. But that was because they had to take a standardized test again. </p>

<p>@irlandaise i guess it depends on the definition of “gifted” you want to believe in.</p>

<p>Ha, not really, but if that’s what you want to think, go ahead. @meriks‌ </p>

<p>Okay, so the SAT is probably a decent indicator of academic ability. Thanks for the pride check, @irlandaise.</p>

<p>At least with regards to math, acing calculus can mean any number of things: a good teacher, a strategy that works for you, et cetera. But at least with my calculus class, the problems are formulaic, which the SAT doesn’t test much. Rather the SAT tests the ability to recognize certain principles in bizarre formats. It’s more of a reasoning test than a math test. It’s certainly not perfect, but the fact is that people who are amazing at high school calculus don’t necessarily have to have the mathematical prowess to reason out situations. (I’m not saying this for you particularly, just in general.)</p>

<p>Well, I did well at math before calculus, I just find the way the SAT writes math questions irritating. It is more of a reasoning test using math and English; you’re correct. I don’t consider myself any kind of genius, and I am prone to making silly errors (I’m a bit dyslexic), which kills you on the SAT because there’s not much time to check things over unless you are really fast. </p>