<p>Your points are valid and it is the way the college board engineered the test. (I agree)</p>
<p>But, in my opinion, too many students are resorting to memorization of questions and boiler plate essays rather than relying on critical thinking. Many students will memorize the answers on every test for the last ten years. Actually not that hard to do once you know the answer. These students have beaten the test, making it broken. Now the question is are they the ones you want taking up the top spots at the elite Universities? I say a better way is needed.</p>
<p>i really don’t think pure memorization “beats” the SAT. You have to be able to read, comprehend, and answer each question. I didn’t memorize anything and I did very well, and I don’t know what i would have memorized.</p>
<p>sat is a great test…keep it the way it is…ok maybe not ‘great’ but by all means fair…all these complaints of what the sat is really about or who it should cater to or what kinds of skills it tests…i mean, c’mon…it’s just a high school test that covers basic math, reading, and writing skills…if you can’t compose a basic essay about whether failure leads to success in 25 minutes, you should be in continuation school, not college…if you can’t sift through some literary passages and make some basic inferences or logical deductions, you shouldn’t expect to succeed or get ahead in life… </p>
<p>don’t hate on me…i’m just saying…</p>
<p>what does everyone want…to be spoon fed or depend on affirmative action to make it to college ?</p>
<p>You’re the exact type of person that is being hurt. You have proven your critical thinking skills where others, whom you are in direct competition, simply mimicked them. BTW it’s more of a matching thing than a memorizing thing. A lot of people go over enough tests to where they recognize the answer without even thinking about it.</p>
<p>Sosomenza, the SAT is mainly a test that tests your aptitude to learn college material not necessarily your natural intelligence. Part of success in college is to be able to prepare for tests by memorizing concepts. No one cares if you could get a score without studying because success in college requires…well…studying. Furthermore, for most people it measures a nice balance of their intelligence and work ethic which are the two things that determine success in college and life in general. There are some instances of people who are not quite intelligent but studied obscenely and scored greatly as there are those who didn’t study at all but had the intelligence to score greatly. Those kinds of people also exist in life. By having a test that is standardized, we have a level playing field. Whether or not the SAT is in fact standardized (it may be biased towards certain subgroups) is still up for debate, but the value of standardized testing shouldn’t be lost.</p>
<p>However, I will agree that the fact that there are patterns to questions does lead to unfair advantages. However, standardized testing is dependent on these patterns, otherwise there wouldn’t be standardization among different years of test takers.</p>
<p>No one really knows exactly what the SAT tests. Some people can score 800 on a section because they are hard workers, others because they have good natural test taking skills (whatever that means), others sit next to someone who they know can score an 800 :). We do have evidence is a good predictor how successful a first-year college student will be. This is why the colleges use it – they don’t want to accept students who will drop out after one year. Most colleges base their score requirements on their past experiences. At some colleges, student who score 600 on a section do very well, at others, they struggle. These two colleges will require different minimum scores based on these histories.</p>
<p>In reality, almost every test you take is standardized. Usually, it is only standardized to one classroom, teacher, or course. After all, everyone in your class takes the same test at the same time and receives scores as part of the scoring rules of the same teacher. The big difference with the SAT, is that you know everyone else in the class who is taking a class test. With the SAT, you don’t know most of the people in your “standard” group – you are still taking the same test at the same time (in different places) that will be scored by the same rules in the same session. Also, the SAT test population is so large that the scores will form a standard bell curve and can be analyzed and scaled using statistics – a class of 30 is a little too small to get good statistical data.</p>
<p>The problem lies with people who can get the right answer by memorizing the question with the right answer, but are ignorant as to why the answer is right. I’m not saying such people don’t belong in college, but I am saying that they are hijacking the system, taking elite seats away from the people who know why the answer is right. A type of intelligence that can advance theory and philosophy not just mimic it. The elite schools want people who can advance society not those who can mimic the status quo.</p>
<p>How so can people memorize an answer to a test they’ve never seen. You’re saying by understanding the Same concepts that’s on all SAT’s? Because I agree with you on that claim, if one can study truly hard, they can definitely crack the test and ruin it for someone who actually tried hard and understood the questions.</p>
<p>Wow this perhaps one of the most confused (if not <em>■■■■■</em>) posts that I have seen on CC. [slow clap, “you’ve really outdone yourself this time internet”]</p>
<p>lol If every school had their own test it would be disastrous.
If you were to persay get a 100 on harvards test because they made it too hard or whatever
and also not everyone has AP classes or IB etc
Like me, My school is new and I am the first generation, first graduating class
if I wanted to go to harvard and I were to per say take their test consisting of AP CALC B/C, English comp lit and some APUSH in to a test and take it… Since My school doesn’t AP I wouldn’t get very high would I? I would never get a good score for each test for schools I applied too.
SAT is fair. You’re right it favors nobody thats why it is chosen as the standardized test for college application same with ACT. It is fair in that it should measure things everybody should have learned. Something that could be prepared for in a short period of time.
yes its @sosomenza
SAT recycles old questions, yes
Not EVERY question is the same… But they all share similar concepts in topic breakdowns
So knowing a criteria of an entire section your perfect score or your desired score is attainable.
“The main problem with the SAT is that it has become so standardized that people through hard work and perseverance can achieve a great score far beyond their natural abilities. In a way it’s a bit of false advertising, telling the college that they are top thinkers when in fact they are only top test takers.(Not everyone but enough to question the validity of the test). In college, once new material is introduced many of these top scorers will quickly fade to mediocrity.”
kind of true but it gives people a chance… equal amount of chance to get a high score.
ITS FAIR OKAY? lol Not everybody gets 2400
infact the national average is about 1500 so that does mean the test works
And small percentage do get in the 96th-99th percentile
So as said, those high percentile people
do prove to be if not intelligent… dilligent or vice versa
OFFTOPIC: Why doesn’t this forum have a quote button?
It’s not hard to make one.</p>
<p>Sosomenza you’re very mistaken if you think there’s a substantial amount of people who memorizes the answer of past exams(most of which are unavailable. Probably only some of those that had QAS option are floating online) and then by the slim chance, receive a test that has been recycled. </p>
<p>And even if the collegeboard revamp the test, recycling of old tests can/will still occur.</p>