<p>A commission established by the National Association of College Admissions Counseling and led by William Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard recommends that Colleges move away from reliance on SAT and ACT scores to high school curriculum and achievement. </p>
<p>College Panel Calls for Less Focus on SATs </p>
<p>By SARA RIMER
Published: September 21, 2008
A commission convened by some of the country’s most influential college admissions officials is recommending that colleges and universities move away from their reliance on SAT and ACT scores and shift toward admissions exams more closely tied to the high school curriculum and achievement.</p>
<p>Another link to news about this: </p>
<p>[New</a> Study Questions Use Of SAT, ACT Exams - Boston News Story - WCVB Boston](<a href=“http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17526349/detail.html]New”>http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17526349/detail.html) </p>
<p>Bottom line for students, for the moment: </p>
<p>Learn the content tested on AP (or IB) tests well, and take those tests as well as some SAT Subject Tests.</p>
<p>"Bottom line for students, for the moment: </p>
<p>Learn the content tested on AP (or IB) tests well, and take those tests as well as some SAT Subject Tests."</p>
<p>token: what do you recommend for those students who are not permitted to take AP/IB courses in hs? In your opinion, where will this leave the “average B student” in regular or even some honors classes?</p>
<p>Hi, rodney, that’s a good question. Unfortunately IB subjects and their tests are not available to self-studiers at all: IB is a solely school-based program. For self-studiers of AP subjects, I recommend </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ap-tests-preparation/369861-self-studying-aps-improving-your-app.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ap-tests-preparation/369861-self-studying-aps-improving-your-app.html</a> </p>
<p>and note that the College Board has always been very receptive to making AP tests available to all students whether they took an AP course or not.</p>
<p>This issue has been around for a long time (i.e, years). I think the problem is what does it do to the weight of grades (GPA). Read the threads on grades for those issues. It is the battle between being less subjective and more subjective, each has good and bad points, each eliminates good canidates and lets less worthy get in. Until there is a clear solution, I would not think these are going away soon.</p>
<p>token: not sure that’s going to work for many, many average students…Not everyone is capable of taking an AP test while in high school…still not clear on how this would impact the “average” kid…</p>
<p>Maybe the answer is the SAT subject tests though…at least the average kids could possibly squeak those out more easily…</p>
<p>and I totally agree with hikids regarding the weighting of GPA’s in the process…not a clear solution…</p>
<p>Well, let’s ask a follow-up question: how do average kids make the case today that they are ready for college? What kind of colleges do those kids aspire to?</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t write the epitaph for the SAT quite so fast. To begin with, the College Board will do whatever it takes to defend the central position of its SAT franchise. When the Univ. of California under Atkinson wrote similar reports and recommndations about 10 years ago, the CB promptly revamped the test in reponse (which is why the SAT now has a Writing section).</p>
<p>Ironically, the UC, which, for many of the reasons that this Fitzsimmon commission has cited, led the previous reform and de-emphasized the SAT in favor of the SAT Subject tests in its own admissions criteria, has now said that this reform was a mistake and is moving back in the opposite direction - re-emphasizing the SAT and de-emphasing the SAT Subject tests.</p>
<p>The more things change, the more they stay the same.</p>
<p>There has been earlier discussion of this issue reported in the national press. From the New York Times: </p>
<p>"Although coaching would no doubt continue if subject tests replaced the SAT, at least students would be focused on content as much as test-taking strategies, Mr. Murray said. There would also be pressure to improve local high school curriculums so that students were prepared, he wrote.</p>
<p>“These arguments make sense to Mr. Fitzsimmons [dean of admission at Harvard], who said, ‘People are going to prepare anyway, so they might as well study chemistry or biology.’ He added that ‘the idea of putting more emphasis on the subject tests is of great interest’ to his group.” </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print</a></p>
<p>The principal effect this is likely to have is a proliferation of test-prep classes for the SAT subject tests.</p>
<p>But I agree with Fitzsimmons- why not make them ‘prep’ by spending time on content?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t rush to make big changes in how you prepare for the college admissions process just yet. The SAT and ACT will continue to be prominent for some time. Most colleges still require them for this year’s applicants; most probably still will require them for next year’s applicants as well. A few more schools may go SAT/ACT-optional as early as next year, but kids will continue to take these tests in large numbers because they’ll still be required at many schools, and high scores will still be a big plus in their admissions files even at SAT/ACT-optional schools. Bowdoin has been SAT/ACT-optional for roughly 30 years, but I recently heard a Bowdoin admissions officer say that about 80% of their applicants still submit SAT scores. Those who don’t probably have lower scores, but as the admissions officer explained, not submitting test scores just puts greater weight on the other parts of your application, which need to be commensurately stronger to remain competitive. (About 20% of Bowdoin’s acceptances are non-SAT applicants, so the ratios are comparable in the end).</p>
<p>I do think this recommendation portends more emphasis on SAT II subject tests, but that could have its own distorting effects if HS classes become more geared toward “teaching to the test.” To some extent this happens already in AP classes, which are geared to the AP tests. In some areas like math that’s probably fine. But in areas like US history or world history it probably pushes in the direction of breadth of coverage and memorization of a large number of basic facts, rather than more in-depth coverage of particular periods or particular aspects of historical inquiry, or unconventional interpretations of the historical record–an unfortunate “dumbing down” and mechanical standardization of the curriculum, IMO.</p>
<p>The Dean of Admissions at Yale says he’ still studying the report. He expects to "to spend time during the year ahead reviewing the commission findings, reviewing our testing requirements, holding discussions within the University and participating in discussions with colleagues at other institutions” .</p>
<p>[Yale</a> Daily News - Report questions SAT](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/25336]Yale”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/25336)</p>
<p>I get the impression that the effect of the report is going to be significant.</p>
<p>[The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: SAT May Someday Be Optional, Dean Says](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524170]The”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524170) </p>
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<p>Isn’t that what I said earlier in this thread, based on my reading earlier published statements by Fitzsimmons?</p>