<p>A petition organized by a GC at Newton North, in MA, to split the SAT into three separate sessions is gaining steam and is being considered by the College Board.</p>
<p>Someone else provide link?</p>
<p>I can see the advantages. But we are overseas, to get to a test center D had to travel at least 2 hours by train and stay the night before at a hotel. I guess a 2-hr test + 1hr that combines with SAT IIs in the afternoon would work.</p>
<p>Pyewacket:</p>
<p>I was thinking of other students who also have to travel far (though not as much as 2 hours!). For them, having 3 separate sections on 3 separate days would be a hardship. I hope they also write to the CB so that a workable solution can be arrived at.</p>
<p>Ah, and just the other day we were reminiscing on another thread here about the old days when we took the SAT in the AM, and the Achievement Tests in the PM on the same day.</p>
<p>Pretty soon, the exams are going to be split into hard question day and easy question day.</p>
<p>Actually, what I wonder is why the SAT hasn't gone the way of the GRE -- you do it on line, get your scores virtually instanteously. There are, of course, issues of identity authentication, but wouldn't that be a better way to go?</p>
<p>What does the College Board have to gain by agreeing to the petition? If it is like other businesses it will decide based on the bottom line -- where is the greater profit? </p>
<p>Convenient for the Board to take up the issue at the "next meeting" (in spring) when it has had a cooling off period. Instead, it seems to me, this is of immediate concern and calls for action now.</p>
<p>Instead of three separate days of STRESS, I'd rather see the College Board give kids longer breaks between the test sections, and perhaps a chance to go have lunch. Frankly, it's stressful enough to have to sit for this as it is, I don't see any benefit to stretching the stress out over several days.</p>
<p>Mackinaw:</p>
<p>My understanding was that the Talent Search kids were piloting the computerized SAT and that once the kinks had been worked out, the computerized version would be made available for regular SAT takers. So I think this is what will happen soon. It's this period of transition when the essay portion has been introduced but not the computerized version that is so difficult for kids. I wonder when the computerized version will be introduced. I'll bet readers would rather read typed essays than scrawled ones.</p>
<p>It is so Dilbert-like that the proposed solution for the new SAT is to divide it up into more sessions rather than attacking the real problem which is that the test is just too long to begin with.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Actually, what I wonder is why the SAT hasn't gone the way of the GRE -- you do it on line, get your scores virtually instanteously. There are, of course, issues of identity authentication, but wouldn't that be a better way to go?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, the way the GRE handles it is to have you take your test at a certified computer center. But since these centers are commercial (rather than taking place at a school on a Saturday), the test is offered almost every day of the year. I think this was a big help to me as I was taking the GRE this summer.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My understanding was that the Talent Search kids were piloting the computerized SAT and that once the kinks had been worked out, the computerized version would be made available for regular SAT takers. So I think this is what will happen soon.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The College Board abandoned their pilot testing of the computerized version of the SAT several years ago, because they wanted to devote their test development efforts to introducing the "New SAT."</p>
<p>I believe the last computerized SATs for Talent Search students were offered in winter 2003. As far as I know, the "New SATs" have not been pilot-tested in a computerized version at all.</p>
<p>The logistics of offering computerized SATs on a large scale are daunting. Computer security, availability of enough secure, reliable computers to administer the tests in appropriately proctored settings, etc.</p>
<p>Even some of the graduate entrance exams that were offered in computerized format have now been changed back to paper format.</p>
<p>I predict that a large-scale computer-administered version of the SAT is quite a ways off, since they aren't even attempting the smaller scale Talent Search computerized testing any more.</p>
<p>Wisteria:</p>
<p>Thanks for the update. It's too bad, though.</p>
<p>I still think that the SAT and SAT Subject Tests should take the place of the 2 weeks reserved to the AP each May. Actually, one week should be enough for a different version of the current SAT (lengthier but split over three days) plus two Subject Tests. The SAT tests ought to be one-time deals at the end of the Junior year. This way ALL the scores should be in before the application process starts in the fall of the senior year. No more rush or December stress to get scores in. If needed, the second week could be used in September. </p>
<p>The AP should be relegated to what is now the current administration of the SAT Subject Tests. </p>
<p>Right now, the world is upside down. We have the PSAT and AP at most high schools. but the SAT is strictly a weekend affair. PSAT and SAT are college admission tests and should be taken during schooldays. AP, being optional, should be the one given on weekend. </p>
<p>The fees of the SAT should also be drastically subsidized by poaching into the substantial revenues generated by other tests and financial aid services.</p>
<p>I agree that the SAT and ACT are too long. Do we really need to take more than 1 math section? Ridiculous!
Yet, my biggest beef with the administration of these tests is that they start at 8 AM!!!!!! We are teenages for heaven's sake, and it's a SATURDAY - do they really think our mind's function best so early in the morning, when half the students walk in with a coke or coffee? Cut the test to 2 hours and administer it from 10am-12pm.</p>
<p>while possibly an intriguing idea, CB's biggest customer is not likely to concur. The UC's accept scores from only one sitting, and have maintained that policy for almost as long as their Nov 30 app deadline. </p>
<p>Xiggi:</p>
<p>I, too, like your idea, but the logistics would be extremely problematic; 1+ million kids take the SAT every year, but thousands less take APs. There are literally thousands of kids in spring sports who are still playing in early May. One of our top golfers last year had to reschedule the AP Euro test three times since he went on to the state tourney. (It obviously worked for him, since he's now playing for Columbia.)</p>
<p>Bluebayou, I thought about it, but the PSAT is given to probably more students in two sittings than the SAT in seven. I am not a logistics expert -or an expert in anything for that matter- but I think that the HS infrastructure is sufficient to manage a process of a national exam. Actually, I do not know WHY they have not done it because TCB would have a collosal advantage over the ACT -were they to combine 3 days of SAT with 2 days of Subject Tests. </p>
<p>One of the problems is that it would be hard to offer the APs seven times a year, as ETS does not seem to have a database as deep as the one used for the SAT. Oh well, IMHO that would be a good problem to have! <==== I am showing my bias here.</p>
<p>10am to 4pm with a one-hour lunch break.</p>
<p>I could get the test down to five minutes:</p>
<p>A student walks into the room, a proctor says, "How many fingers am I holding up behind my back?"</p>
<p>If the student's answer is greater than four, less than one, fractional, or irrational, they flunk the Math portion.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, since the question is complete B.S. for which the student is unprepared and hence can't be coached, the proctor can evaluate the student's verbal ability by how they attempt to B.S. the answer in five minutes. A variant of this could be used for the LSAT as well.</p>
<p>There.</p>
<p>If the thumb is not a finger, what is it?</p>
<p>digit: different from fingers in having only two phalanges</p>
<p>Interesting. Thanks. Somehow, in this age of "anything goes" I'll include thumbs as fingers. Hope that isn't too radical!</p>