<p>mrnephew, I don’t understand your comment to me. I never said making the SAT easier would shed more light on educational performance. I think if you reread my comments you will see that I don’t agree with dumbing down the SAT.</p>
<p>The one thing that I really don’t like (that many of you will probably disagree with me on) is how they’re offering this “free” test prep. Sure, with the way it was, the richer people had better opportunities (and supposedly, that’s why they scored higher), but I feel that it gave me (as a non-rich person) a way to actually make myself different. I used the resources I had (getting test prep books from the library; no tutors; I didn’t spend one dollar on the SAT, and I still managed to score at the tippy top of the 99th percentile). It shows my resourcefulness, my want to be good, to go to a good college, even though I don’t have the best opportunities. It showed that I care.</p>
<p>Test prep used to be a thing for people who want to score higher to score higher, but now, it’s basically “test-prep for everyone!!!”. Everyone gets a chance for free test prep, so everyone will score higher, not just those who actually want to be at the top.</p>
<p>It also seems like they are making it much easier. No guessing penalty, no worry about an essay right at the beginning of the test. More “evidence” based questions. Easier (and more focused) math. No writing section to study for. No vocab to study. I can see so many people scoring super high (unless of course, they make the curve really horrible, which wouldn’t really be that fair).</p>
<p>Basically, I feel like the SAT people are making the test “less-studiable (is that a word?? haha)” by making it easier. This hurts those that study a ton. Instead of being able to study and increase their score much, to differentiate themselves from the rest of people, studying will make only a small difference (because you can’t just study vocab or grammar or math concepts anymore).</p>
<p>Oops, I must have misunderstood that, I apologize. </p>
<p>And I agree wholeheartedly with @satman1111</p>