<p>Please read this all....it may seem a little off topic...but at the end it will make sense. In the 6th grade, my son had to do a writing prompt for our state mastery test. The prompt was "Write about your favorite sport". It was an expository piece. Now anyone who reads about my kid here knows that he is a musician....he really didn't HAVE a favorite sport. When we were talking about this prompt, and I asked him about it, he said..."well, I don't really HAVE a favorite sport. So I thought about it for a while and I wrote about soccer because I know more about it than any other sport." Of course, he wasted a lot of time puzzling over what to write about...and then his topic was not really one that was a favorite. He did NOT meet mastery on the 6th grade state administered test (same kid got a 5 on the AP English/literature exam...he is an outstanding writer). I actually called and spoke to the person in charge of the mastery tests. I explained (politely) that I thought the prompt was restrictive and made the assumption that all students had a favorite sport. I asked why the prompt could not have been "Write about your favorite out of school activity (e.g. sports, drama, music, scouts, etc). The outcome would have been the same...an expository piece. I was told that this was not possible because there would be too many topics for the readers to score (oh...poppycock I say...a good expository piece is good regardless of the topic). NOW...my daughter (also not a sports fanatic) would have gotten a ZERO on that same writing prompt. The most important thing to her in sports was the color of the uniform. Her writing would have started "I love soccer. It's my favorite sport. I sure do wish I had the pink t shirts. Every year I get red...blah blah blah". She would have been off topic from the third sentence. My point is that the writing prompts being generated by the College Board stink. My daughter came home after both administrations of the test and wondered why the topics had been chosen. Curiously, when I asked her the topic, she said they were told they could NOT tell what the topic was (why?? do they reuse them again??). So...I don't know what the topic was, but I do know that my kid said she had no interest in it personally and that made it a very difficult topic on which to write a compelling essay. She got a 10 the first time and a 9 the second. So yes...I do think there should be some kind of option on the prompt that would maintain the type of writing but would give just a tad more variation in the specific topic. BTW, my daughters friends (many good writers) agreed with her about the topics.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree, thumper.</p>
<p>We have three parts to our state exams: reading, math, and writing. The last couple go-arounds the state has been mystified because the "gifted" kids consistently scored worse on the writing test than the middle kids. My son, who always scores in mid to high 90th percentiles on all tests, got a "basic" score in writing, as did many other bright kids. That's one reason I'm more than a little suspicious of the writing section of the SAT.</p>
<p>We'll be looking at ACT schools or SAT optional schools when the time comes, I think. </p>
<p>I think the College Board has lost all credibility. On the news last night they were blaming the drop in scores on fatigue, so they're thinking of having the kids do the test in parts. I guess they couldn't look a little more deeply for possible causes in the drop in scores? I don't feel like having my son be a guinea pig in their experiments. I feel sorry for the group of kids who are in high school now.</p>
<p>asteriskea,</p>
<p>Actually, before the new SAT, most schools did not require any SAT 2s whatsoever. The schools that did require them were all the Ivys, Stanford only "strongy" recommended taking them.</p>
<p>Move outside the top 50 in USNews listings for Research institutions and Liberal Arts colleges and almost no schools required them. Personally I like the writing section for the reason others have been citing, it is writing done on the spot with an even playing field. Though writing for this section can be coached just like the other sections of the test.</p>
<p>Our kids take the ERB writing test at the beginning of each year. One writing prompt was about home schooling. This is for kids who don't live in the states and have no idea what home schooling is. I don't know who comes up with writing prompts but they need to be far more sensitive to the diversity of children when devising them.</p>
<p>eagle79, yes, quite a number universities and colleges required, and others only strongly recommended, one or two SATII's, (and many did not even require the SAT at all. A case in point would be the Univeristy of Virginia. Only the Ivys etc. required three. Of the subject test most often required, there was no real choice involved - students were asked to take the SAT II writing. Often schools that did not require the writing subject test asked for supplemental essays and that included teacher graded writing samples submitted in lieu of the test. Be that as it may, my main point was that the new test is really not so new. </p>
<p>Obviously, the essay is only one portion of the exam and any student with a firm grasp of grammar and syntax will do well enough enough on the test. I still believe that preparation plays a large role in doing well on these standardized tests which puts into question whether or not the SAT is an equalizer.</p>
<p>Overseas, I can't say with certainty who comes up with the prompts, but many moons ago, a good friend of mine knew someone literally months a way from a Ph. D.in philosophy at an Ivy. For some reason, the poor fellow decided he had had enough of it all, chucked his dissertation and got a job with the ETS in Princeton!</p>
<p>sorry for the typos - I hit the submit button by mistake and then missed my window of opportunity to edit :o</p>
<p>
[quote]
My point is that the writing prompts being generated by the College Board stink. My daughter came home after both administrations of the test and wondered why the topics had been chosen. Curiously, when I asked her the topic, she said they were told they could NOT tell what the topic was (why?? do they reuse them again??). So...I don't know what the topic was, but I do know that my kid said she had no interest in it personally and that made it a very difficult topic on which to write a compelling essay. She got a 10 the first time and a 9 the second. So yes...I do think there should be some kind of option on the prompt that would maintain the type of writing but would give just a tad more variation in the specific topic. BTW, my daughters friends (many good writers) agreed with her about the topics.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Thumper, we all have our opinions about the SAT. I happen to believe that the SAT receives a lot of unwarranted criticisms, often fueled by misinformation, poor knowledge and understanding of the test, or outright fabrication by organizations led by pseudo-experts or charlatans such as Jay Rosner, the director of the Princeton Review Foundation. </p>
<p>For simplicity, I won't rehash the positions I have shared many times on CC. However, I'd like to point out that The College Board does release many of the prompts used on its tests, and often almost immediately after the test. </p>
<p>Please find a copy of the prompts used in ... May 2006. </p>
<p>May SAT Essay Prompts
If you took the May 2006 SAT Reasoning Test, you had one of the essay prompts below:</p>
<p>Prompt 1
It is not that people dislike being part of a community; it is just that they care about their individual freedoms more. People value neighborliness and social interactionuntil being a part of a group requires them to limit their freedom for the larger good of the group. But a community or group cannot function effectively unless people are willing to set aside their personal interests.</p>
<p>Adapted from Warren Johnson, The Future Is Not What It Used To Be</p>
<p>Assignment:
Does the success of a communitywhether it is a class, a team, a family, a nation, or any other groupdepend upon people's willingness to limit their personal interests? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>Prompt 2
There is an old saying: "A person with one watch knows what time it is; a person with two watches isn't so sure." In other words, a person who looks at an object or event from two different angles sees something different from each position. Moreover, two or more people looking at the same thing may each perceive something different. In other words, truth, like beauty, may lie in the eye of the beholder.</p>
<p>Adapted from Gregory D. Foster, "Ethics: Time to Revisit the Basics"</p>
<p>Assignment:
Does the truth change depending on how people look at things? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>Prompt 3
Certainly anyone who insists on condemning all lies should think about what would happen if we could reliably tell when our family, friends, colleagues, and government leaders were deceiving us. It is tempting to think that the world would become a better place without the deceptions that seem to interfere with our attempts at genuine communication. On the other hand, perhaps there is such a thing as too much honesty.</p>
<p>Adapted from Allison Kornet, "The Truth About Lying"</p>
<p>Assignment:
Would the world be a better place if everyone always told the complete truth? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>Wow. Those are really loaded question! I can understand being asked questions like that for entry to a specific college, but not for an exam which is supposed to be testing clarity of writing (it is not even testing for grammar or spelling, I think someone said?). I know my son would resent being asked to reveal himself on those issues just for the purpose of seeing if he could put a string of sentences together into five paragraphs. Interesting. Thanks for that.</p>
<p>I for one was puzzled by the assertion by the College Board that new SAT scores would be consistent with old ones. With one extra year of math now required, and considering that many students (granted, not many here on CC) don't take Algebra II until junior year, I would expect that the math scores would be less. Students weak in math would see a drop in scores.</p>
<p>Back when I took the SATs, I hated the analogies. I grew fonder of them as I aged.</p>
<p>Thumper -
"As long as colleges understand that they are looking at a rough draft, then so be it."</p>
<p>I think it's worse than that. Most of the competitive kids will be writing to spec - going for the points. This isn't the same thing as creating a rough draft of an honest essay. And, if the colleges will be looking at the essay itself - do you go for the points, or do you make and honest and thoughtful attempt and hope the college admissions officers <em>read</em> the essay rather than simply note the score.</p>
<p>the college board likely anticipated raw math scores to be lower (or made the questions slightly less difficult on the whole). either way, every attempt was made for scores to remain consistent. same with the verbal section. tests were conducted. analyses were performed. they certainly didnt just change the test and blindly assume scores would remain constant.</p>
<p>that said, it apears as they may be a bit off. but its likely a combination of MANY factors. perhaps they were a tiny bit off in terms of new verbal or math scores. perhaps they didnt account quite enough (if at all) for testing fatigue. or maybe its a changing demographic of test takers, something over with the board has no control. not only are high scoring students not taking the test as many times, but its likely fewer high scoring students in act-dominated midwest are taking the test at all.</p>
<p>accounting for the changing testing demographic, we may only be dealing with, say, a two point decline in average scores. what is that? one curve on one of the exam dates being one point off? hardly a sign of the imminent downfall of the sat.</p>
<p>and if you want to point to new sat-optional schools, i have to say youre kidding yourself. that much more to do with usnews rankings than moral stands.</p>
<p>The SAT essay topics are hardly restrictive, they're actually very broad. The problem with making them broader would be that then, almost anything could be written, and thus, people could have essays written in advance that only had to be slightly modified.</p>
<p>Indeed, the SAT essay prompts are intended to be as broad as possible in order to elicit a broad number of responses from the extremely diverse pool of students expected to take the test. This includes internationals for whom English is not their first language. The prompts are designed so that they can be argued in terms of a strong position of "yes, I agree" or "No, I do not agree" . BTW, the position taken, arguments given must give evidence of a command of logical expository prose and be expressed within a basic, narrow framework - based on the four to five paragraph paradigm. Quite frankly, honesty of opinion and other qualities most English teachers look for in high school essays are not what the CB expects or wants in this 25 minute exercise. The essay writing portion of the SAT (whether for the old SATII subject test or the new SAT section) has been compared to cooking a Big Mac.</p>
<p>Cetainly the maxim here is "do not overthink it."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62544-2005Mar1.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62544-2005Mar1.html</a>
</p>
<p>Obviously, this is easier said than done.</p>
<p>Everyone should start by looking at the CB website in order to understand the scoring guidelines (just how much grammar and spelling counts, or rather doesn't count) and then use the CB blue book supplemented by other readily available prep materials, if needed.
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/prep_one/essay/pracStart.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/prep_one/essay/pracStart.html</a></p>
<p>I wonder if there was a similar drop in the ACT scores. The ACT added the optional writing section last year. Most schools that accepted both the ACT and SAT required students submitting the ACT to take the optional writing section.</p>
<p>The drop being discussed does not include the writing section.</p>
<p>Actually I think the collegeboard's claim that SAT scores reflect the same thing regardless of whether you did the old or new SAT is nonsense. The level of difficulty on the Maths section for example is already much tougher than the old SAT. This is the same for the CR section. I've got MANY friends who performed less than stellar on the SAT but did really well for the ACT.</p>
<p>So will this drop help the kids who did well on the new SAT? Will a score that's in the top of the 75% range for schools with the old test now be considered even better?</p>
<p>As a student who took the new SAT last may i must say that the writing section is pointless. Most colleges are completely ignoring them and I believe it is because of the ridiculous prompts that college board came up with. I never took the old SAT but the math on the new SAT isnt hard at all. Before taking the SAT and ACT I promised myself I wouldnt prep and I wouldnt take them more than once. That promise turned out to be a big mistake on the SAT math. I had been told that the new SAT featured more advanced math (I was in honors pre-cal) so I didnt review. When I took the test, the most advanced the math section ever got was a couple(no more than 3 or 4) algebra II principled questions with most of the test being on Geometry(which I had taken frosh year.. 2 years before). So basically, I doubt a 10 point drop came from the "advanced" math that was added.</p>
<p>Hereshoping,</p>
<p>Good point, still, I wonder if we will see a similar drop in ACT scores. I agree with Kenyon, I do not see how the CB thought the SAT scores would remain the same with more advanced level math.</p>
<p>The math has a few Algebra II problems added, but I believe there is also a change in that there are no longer general quantitative kinds of questions that test for general mathematical ability; they have been replaced with specific subject matter questions, as in an achievement test. </p>
<p>Yes, and the verbal is completely changed too. I just can't believe they feel they can get away with blaming the changes on fatigue when there are so many other variables involved. Maybe I have to look more deeply into their website for further explanation, but, to the general public at least, who doesn't have time to dig further, their story appears to be fatigue. I think this is irresponsible. Don't they owe a more in-depth explanation to the general public? And if they don't even have one, that is even more scary.</p>