<p>Do you think the SAT Reasoning test predicts academic success, or in other words, do you think the SAT successfully separates "less successful" students from the "clever" ones?
I for myself, think that many people with little potential would have gotten to better schools than they're currently enrolling had it not been for the SAT.
Because the SAT is different from regular tests or quizzes, tests aptitude rather than knowledge, and because it's standardized, it provides the most objective way to compare students. And although it may have flaws, there currently is no better alternative to take place of the SAT.</p>
<p>no. it doesn’t. some people pay for expensive tutoring and learn all of the secrets b/c they get expert help and advice & other people are better at standardized testing & guessing than they are at school. it basically tests how well you can test</p>
<p>^ I agree. The SAT to some extent displays your aptitude and puts everyone on a fair ground. i.e. some schools are SUPER easy and A’s are easy to come by so the SAT evens it out because it is likely for that student to score lower due to lack of preparation/concepts. However, there are so many thousand dollar test prep classes out there that it defeats the purpose. I have seen many people at my school go to these tough Asian test prep centers where they make you study thousands of vocabs and take SAT tests so many times that you’ve mastered a good portion of the test. (people jump from 1800s-2200+).</p>
<p>The test does a nice job of separating the shallow folks with high grades from the truly intelligent students who also achieve high grades. However, I don’t like much of the trickery that is put on the test. It seems to serve little purpose in my opinion. If I wanted to play an annoying game, I would pull out a chess board rather than take a deceitful test that could impact my future.</p>
<p>I disagree with you guys to a certain point, the test is affective, but not in the way it was intended. The test is suppose to test how good one can think, but in reality it fails at doing so. Yet in a weird way it does do what its purpose to, it does at the end of the day seperate those students who try in school (and at the end succeed) from those who just make the A, this is because in most cases a person who received a +2000 score practiced a lot. So at the end of the day the test test how good one can test and adapt, but not really how good you can think.</p>
<p>I do not think the SAT does a job at all.NOT AT ALL!but I do think that the SAT IIs are quite effective though.</p>
<p>I partly agree with JOKER23, it does not appear to test aptitude but in the end it does separate the apt ones from those who are not.</p>
<p>@xAAAx
I personally don’t believe in test prep classes or simple secret strategies that give you 400 point boosts.</p>
<p>no. it doesn’t. some people pay for expensive tutoring and learn all of the secrets b/c they get expert help and advice & other people are better at standardized testing & guessing than they are at school. it basically tests how well you can test </p>
<p>Then what alternative do YOU propose? Take an IQ test standardized nationwide? But then, according to your response, students are “better at standardized testing & guessing than they are at school. it basically tests how well you can test”. So, then it comes down to this final question: Is any test good enough to be called an indicator of future academic success?<br>
SAT’s are a pretty good measurement of academic success.</p>
<p>I like the SAT with the exception of two things:</p>
<p>-Vocabulary words that are beyond the scope of what you see in the typical classroom
-The various attempts to purposely trick you to get the question wrong. </p>
<p>I do, however, agree with the aspects of reasoning it tests because in my opinion having the ability to use this reasoning is extremely important for success in college classes. </p>
<p>Even so, similar problems are evident in high school classes such as AP Physics and the AP English exams. </p>
<p>Those who have gone through high school and have earned A’s through rote memorization will see the reflection in their SAT scores (I have seen this happen many times). </p>
<p>Then again, to a certain extent their is a correlation between SAT and IQ scores, but I honestly think that your SAT score is most dependent on your previous education than on your innate intelligence. For instance, students who have had teachers that encourage critical thinking in their classrooms and tests are more than likely to harbor students that will achieve higher SAT scores as opposed to teachers who teach in purely mechanical methods that encourage very little thought.</p>