Koreans should not take SAT II Korean

Test Preparation
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<p>This issue is fairly widely known.</p>

<p>Schools routinely warn students not to take the language exams unless fluent or native speaker:</p>

<p>"N.B. Students should not take the Chinese or Korean SAT II Subject Tests unless they are native speakers or truly fluent. Because so many nativespeakers take these two tests, the curve is very high."
<a href="http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:3NPJcqXtETIJ:www.milton.edu/parents/images/centre/05-02_SATInfo.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:3NPJcqXtETIJ:www.milton.edu/parents/images/centre/05-02_SATInfo.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Also it has been brought up several times in terms of giving native speakers an unfair advantage in securing admission to the UC schools:</p>

<p>After studying the average scores of the 1999 SAT II tests, an Irvine educator has declared the tests biased against African-American and Caucasian students.</p>

<p>David Benjamin, owner of a private education company called Ahead of the Class, said he believes the SAT II tests are unfair to African-Americans and Caucasians based on the third part of the test.</p>

<p>On the SAT II, all students take a math and writing test and are allowed to choose the third from tests including history, language, literature and sciences. Benjamin said that many bilingual students take the language test in their native language, while Caucasians and African-Americans cannot do the same.</p>

<p>“The second-language advantage on the SAT II will allow many bilingual students to gain an unfair advantage over other students in the UC admissions decision-making process,” he said.</p>

<p>Using data from 1999, Benjamin said he has found that Chinese students who were taking the Chinese exam scored an average of 747 out of 800, Korean students who took the Korean exam scored an average of 724 and Latino students who took the Spanish exam scored an average 683. Benjamin said Caucasian students who did not have a natural second language tended to take the American History exam and scored an average 574, while African-American students tended to take literature and scored an average of 493.
<a href="http://www.ucsbdailynexus.com/news/2001/986.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ucsbdailynexus.com/news/2001/986.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>i'm a 100% korean(citizen of korea)
and other koreans should know that they are screwed if they take the sat2 korean.
colleges won't accept your sat2 korean score if you are a citizen of korea.
i think it's okay for american born koreans though...</p>

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<p>Ya salam. All of this praise for Arabic. Keep. It. Up. :)</p>

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<p>yeah the college board just wants your money. >_<
I think the website says the SATIIs are designed for people who took 2-4 years of that language in school, not people who are already fluent....I should hope colleges would take into consideration whether or not you are a native speaker and if you weren't but still got a 750 that's great!</p>

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<p>well, i lived in the US all my life, and lived in Korea from 2nd to 6th grade. I do have dual citizenship, too.<br>
W/e, people, Koreans will always take the SAT II korean, and the same goes to chinese, french, Latinos, etc.</p>

46

<p>"harvard:</p>

<p>"Candidates whose native language is not English should not take any of their three SAT II tests in their native language. ""</p>

<p>OUCH. Those native Koreans who took the SAT II Korean just got OWNED!</p>

<hr>

<p>To the Allah followers: Praise Allah, and praise the Great Sai Baba of Shirdi, a worshipper of Allah. I worship the Great Sai everyday. </p>

<hr>

<p>Arabic is an awesome language.</p>

<hr>

<p>This is my 333rd post (3 is a very unlucky number for me)!!! Probably means more hurricanes for my side of Florida (West Coast on Peninsula);</p>

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<p>The bigger colleges recognize that taking a subject test in a native language is a lazy habit.</p>

<hr>

<p>FYI- I have been through 4 Floridian Hurricanes since 2000. Oh yea! I've probably been through more hurricanes than anyone on this messageboard!
Stressing over SAT IIs and APs makes me hyper....</p>

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<p>The truth is that colleges have a table ( <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2003/pdf/table_14.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/cbsenior/yr2003/pdf/table_14.pdf&lt;/a> ) that "excludes native speakers as well as students with additional language exposure or experience outside the classroom." (stipulated at bottom of table)</p>

<p>As the College Board notes: "college admission staff know that native speakers are included in the percentile rankings and take that into account when they review scores. You can compare the two groups with data tables that exclude scores of native speakers."
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/about/SATII/FAQ.html#quest10%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/about/SATII/FAQ.html#quest10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>so in the end, a 750 from garcia means more than 800 from kim? :/</p>

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<p>thistlepanger: "so in the end, a 750 from garcia means more than 800 from kim?"</p>

<p>Yes and no. Intuitively, a 750 by Garcia sounds better. However, we know the Ivy League AI is composed of 1/3 SAT I, 1/3 SAT II, and 1/3 Class Rank. If Garcia is sure of getting that 750, I would do it (unless he knows he can blow away three other SAT II tests). And if Kim gets that 800 he only has to worry about two other SAT II tests to round out his testing (except Harvard, as Hyper2400 noted).</p>

<p>Also, for whatever reason, it seams that Korean is the easiest test, even for non-speakers (a 750 Korean (55%) is roughly equal to a 500 Hebrew score (51%). So, the 800 for Kim may still rate a higher percentage than the 750 for Garcia. But in the end, I think you want to put down as many 750+ numbers as you can. So I still think 800 for Kim is better unless his other two SAT II tests are poor. Then you think he got 800 only because he was a native speaker. OTOH, if Garcia's other two SAT II tests are poor, he would get full credit for his Korean score.</p>

<p>In the end, if all three SAT II tests are in the 750+ range, Kim's 800 is better.
750, 750, 800 - Kim is a bright guy (767 average or he's got a 800 in addition to the 750s)
750, 750, 750 - Garcia 750 average (nothing above 750)</p>

<p>If the two other SAT II tests are <700, I'd sat Garcia's 750 is better.
650, 650, 800 - 800 score not consistant, Kim scored high because he is native speaker (thinking 650 average now, discounting 800, basically a 650 applicant to Ad com)
650, 650, 750 - Garcia has 683 average, to ad com he's got a 750 in addition to his 650s</p>

<p>Since, many posters on CC are interested in the elite schools, a 750 in Korean by a non-native speaker is, unfortunately, probably still worse than the 800 by the native Korean (except at Harvard where native language scores can't be submitted).</p>

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<p>If someone is a native speaker, why would they take the SAT II for it? I never wuite understood? Wouldn't it seem better if you tried to tackle a third language? And i dont think native speakers should really take classes for their own language (unless they are mediocre). At my school anyway, it takes funding out of the languages (esp. french) that have students who arent actually fluent in it.</p>

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<p>why would they take it? they take it to get into the UCs, the top ones included...i personally am not 100% sure of how the adcom selects candidates and if they plug in the scores into some formula for the top UCs but i know more than enough english-deficient people (100+ cases over the past 7 years) who take all honors math/science, sheltered/ESL english and history classes (appears as CP college prep on transcript) and then send in their "expected" low sat 2 writing (sub-650), 800 math 2c, 800 native language....plan their courses in HS so they take the honors language classes in their sophomore and junior years (honors chinese/korean/japanese 4 and 5 BONUS POINT!).....and get into EECS engineering at berkeley, EE @ LA and USC, etc. its pathetic i know but ya theyre gunna get owned there by all the non-science GE classes...how do u expect them to do well in college/life when every single essay theyve written in high skewl had the prompt revealed days beforehand, and all they have to do is hire a tutor, write the essay together, memorize it, and then reiterate it the next day in class?</p>

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<p>one thing -</p>

<p>Some people take their native language not because they want to raise their stats to make it look like they have one more SAT2.</p>

<p>Some people, for your information - take it because some schools specifically prefer a student's fluency in a language whether it be a foreign language or your mother tongue. Schools like Georgetown and Upenn don't say outwardly say that they won't consider tests on native language. That's why people take it because some people want to apply...to those schools, to fulfill language requirements. </p>

<p>This is the most insane thread I've ever seen. God .</p>