<p>Whether you are a die-hard fan or critic of the new SAT reasoning test, the following article from the Fall, 2006 Journal of College Admission, by Anne Richardson, is a must read.</p>
<p>"I took the SAT’s in May.</p>
<p>Now before asking what is so remarkable about this, I am a middle-aged director of college counseling at an independent, college-preparatory high school in Maine. I have listened to my fair share of complaints about the new SAT and, if truth be told, have voiced some of my own. In the interests of thorough research, I put my money where my mouth is. I duly registered for the SAT’s online, paid my $41.50, and waited for the day to arrive.</p>
<p>I won’t take the time to bore you with my experiences, squeezed into a highschool desk at 7:30 a.m. for five hours, with two five-minute breaks and one oneminute stretch. Suffice it to say, I staggered out of the building at 12:30 p.m., having learned some fundamental truths about the SAT experience:</p>
<li><p>Eating breakfast and being well-rested is essential. It’s a very, very long morning.</p></li>
<li><p>It is a real challenge to go to the bathroom and eat a snack in five minutes. This is especially true when there is only one bathroom and many female test-takers. Difficult choices had to be made.</p></li>
<li><p>No-one under the age of 25 knows how to write cursive anymore. The interval between two sections in which each of us had to write “the oath” took forever, because first everyone had to learn cursive.</p></li>
<li><p>Thinking, organizing and writing a good essay at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning is a challenge, and I write for a living. Fortunately I could fall back on my own formula: the Civil Rights Movement, Mother Theresa and Huck Finn can be used in any SAT essay.</p></li>
<li><p>Understanding the question is more important than knowing the answer. Some of those questions are very, very tricky.</p></li>
<li><p>SAT vocabulary is critical. Learn those top 200 words.</p></li>
<li><p>Twenty minutes of sustained writing physically hurts. I haven’t written by hand for that long for years, and I would venture to guess the same is true for the current SAT test -taking generation.</p></li>
<li><p>The SAT is as much about stamina as it is about learning. By 11:30 a.m, I was no longer interested in the nuances between two articles about the cheetahs in Africa, nor whether x was greater than y or vice versa. I was hanging on grimly until the end.</p></li>
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<p>There were some humorous moments. Several of my students had to be picked up off the floor when they realized that I was really there to take the test and not just to watch. Others just shook their heads in amazement. My large-print, add/multiply/divide/subtract only, K-Mart calculator was challenged as illegal, because it wasn’t a graphing calculator. I had to bring that one; I don’t know how to use a TI-83. And do you know how many times a room full of SAT test-takers have to find a tissue and sharpen their pencils in a morning? It was a veritable symphony of sound.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, taking these tests is currently a fundamental and important part of American education and, having now taken the SAT myself, I am amazed by and proud of our juniors. The SAT is a long, demanding and challenging experience. It takes preparation and stamina, even more so if one has extended time. Some of those students did not leave the building until after 2:00 p.m. And then we turn around and ask our juniors to do this all over again in October.</p>
<p>As a result of my experiences in May, I am more firmly convinced than ever that the current structure of the SAT cannot provide an accurate measure of what the College Board claims to measure. The SAT is not solely “a three-hour and 45-minute test that measures critical reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning skills students have developed overtime and skills they need to be successful academically.” (<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D”>www.collegeboard.com</a>) It is also a five-hour physical and mental test of endurance.</p>
<p>The College Board generously provides four free score reports but only when one registers for the SAT. No junior that I know has his college list so ready in March that he is prepared to send unknown scores off to colleges. I certainly wouldn’t want my scores (especially that math score) going anywhere without seeing them first.</p>
<p>Finally, I do not believe that a handwritten, formulaic 25-minute essay is an accurate measure of a student’s ability to produce a thoughtful, carefully structured, critical piece of writing. In an era of the writing process, of editing and rewriting, this is the antithesis of good writing. Yet, an awful lot now rides on this writing sample; colleges are now counting the writing score and they want access to the essays.</p>
<p>Is the SAT, in its current form, “the best independent, standardized measure of a student’s college readiness?” (<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D”>www.collegeboard.com</a>) I don’t think so. Therefore, I now plan to do three things:</p>
<li><p>I will advocate that a graded writing sample is a more accurate measure of a student’s ability to write than the SAT essay.</p></li>
<li><p>I will continue to support the recent recommendation from NEACAC that the College Board divide this test up, so that students can choose what sections they want to take at each sitting.</p></li>
<li><p>I will urge the College Board to change its policy to provide eight free score reports at any time during the application process for each test-taker."</p></li>
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<p><a href=“http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3955/is_200610/ai_n16779698[/url]”>http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3955/is_200610/ai_n16779698</a></p>