<p>Some say that the SAT is used rather to weed people out than make people stand out. What do you think?</p>
<p>It’s partially true. The reason affirmative action and programs similar to it are in place because of the disadvantage of environments (most common in african-american and latino communities) on students. However, this advantage is given to the students of these races in general with disregard to environment. Therefore, these tests are really a helping hand for middle and upper class minority students who are somewhat disadvantaged, but typically do well on the test anyway because of their socioeconomic status. And even with as many colleges as there are in america, each one has only a certain amount of seats. So yes, these tests are to weed out people who would be deemed “unfit” for the institution. I mean come on. Asians make up 5% of the American population, yet somehow are a quarter of the student populations at some colleges. Give me a break. That doesn’t logically follow.</p>
<p>No, I really don’t think that it’s designed to weed out people… I know a lot of colleges use this: <a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-by-Gender-Ethnicity-2009.pdf[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-by-Gender-Ethnicity-2009.pdf</a></p>
<p>for comparing percentiles.</p>
<p>What specifically about the test is racially discriminatory?</p>
<p>Really? Crying racism when blacks get a leg up in getting into college?</p>
<p>I would say that Affirmative Action is racially discriminatory. For all of you who posted on the results thread congratulations but honestly, most of you probably wouldn’t have a shot if you were white.</p>
<p>Too true. I’ll go on the record and state that I’m white and have nothing against Asians, Latinos, blacks, etc… But sometimes all this just ****es me off.</p>
<p>Supposedly everyone’s equal in this country. But, as an example, in the words of my ultra-conservative English teacher, Al Sharpton is the biggest racist in America. You should see where I’m going with this. Why do we need people advocating the rights of single groups? Why does, say, the NAACP still exist? We are equal; there’s no need for any more “advancement”, else we’d be back in racist waters, but in the other direction, wouldn’t we?</p>
<p>A friend of mine, a black guy from Rwanda, checked off a box on the PSAT about being African-American. I think it was for a scholarship or something. Why should it mean a single thing that he’s black. Shouldn’t we be paying attention to the high-achieving and award them merit scholarships and what have you, or the poor and award them need-based grants. Where does race play into this at all?</p>
<p>With affirmative action, the most-qualified should get the seats/jobs/whatever we’re competing for. End of story. Why should anything else matter?</p>
<p>Sorry for ranting, but I’m opinionated and saw this.</p>
<p>Slightly back on topic, the SAT is indeed a bit biased toward the upper classes. A lot of the questions assume a basic understanding of politics and society - in short, the rich white man’s intellectual tastes. But it’s a small bias; the SAT is still very solid at the end of the day with regards to fairness.</p>
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<p>lol thanks.
Not saying I agree with the topic of this thread, but it’s cute to see people try to bring others down over college</p>
<p>Randum Person, that just adds to the poisonous environment here on CC. There are so many ******bags on here I can’t even stand it. I usually don’t get into this garbage, but I have to say that just because you are not verbally speaking doesn’t mean you should turn off your verbal filter. God, it’s amazing how quickly people grow huge, asinine cojones on the internet.</p>
<p>Randum Person and elgecko, you can take your rants about Affirmative Action to this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html</a></p>
<p>Haha Harambee, way to point out the appropriate direction for Randum Person and elgecko.</p>
<p>However, I have to comment on this…</p>
<p>“Why does, say, the NAACP still exist? We are equal; there’s no need for any more “advancement”, else we’d be back in racist waters”</p>
<p>As much as we would like to say this is the case, it’s not. Racism still exists and there will never a time when advancement should not be sought. However, because of your perspective and point of view I understand your ingorance.</p>
<p>^^^^ So true. Of course people who aren’t minorities wouldn’t know and/or understand.</p>
<p>Post #9 offers the correct guidance.</p>
<p>elgecko… Asians do not benefit from being minorities in college admissions.</p>
<p>Well, I’m black, and I don’t think the SAT is racist. (Then again, I’m the recipient of the “helping hand” described in Mouse121992’s post, which I’m sure there’s truth to.)</p>
<p>I remember back in high school, my friends in AP Psych took a test called the [Black</a> Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Intelligence_Test_of_Cultural_Homogeneity]Black”>Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity - Wikipedia) that was used to demonstrate cultural bias in standardized testing. I assume it’s supposed to really overemphasize cultural distinctions between Americans and how that plays into testing, but it just annoyed the hell out of me. </p>
<p>It must take some academic to (in my opinion) suggest that being tested on the surface area of a cylinder or how well we understand a passage about the Electoral College is even remotely analogous to being asked questions like this:
[Take</a> the “B.I.T.C.H.-100” here. (I’m not joking about the name, which is pretty silly.)](<a href=“http://www.psychbytes.com/Quizzes/*****/Black%20Intelligence%20Test%20of%20Cultural%20Homogeneity.htm]Take”>http://www.psychbytes.com/Quizzes/*****/Black%20Intelligence%20Test%20of%20Cultural%20Homogeneity.htm)</p>
<p>That being said, though the test is from 1972, I’m pretty sure that the only person I know who could have done respectably well on this test is my late grandmother, who I think went straight to the farm after elementary school.</p>
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<p>Including those of us who have SAT scores in the 99th percentile, high GPAs and rankings, multiple awards in diverse fields, writing talent, and a marketable personality? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>That being said, I do have strong reservations when it comes to affirmative action.</p>
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<p>Are you sure you live in the United States of America? Because quite frankly, we are not - yet.</p>
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<p>Well, this is a perfectly rational point.</p>
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<p>:D</p>
<p>One can ask why the NAACP exists, but then you are going to have to examine why the KKK exists. Personally, I think it does weed out people rather than show their talents. For example in comparison with the ACT, the Reading sections test direct recollection and answering questions about the passage directly, whilst the SAT asks for more convoluted forms of the questions. However, which is more crucial to the college education:being able to identify the things directly from the passage or being able to answer convoluted questions about the text?</p>
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<p>You are misrepresenting the Critical Reading section of the SAT. The questions are not “convoluted” in any way. However, in contrast to the ACT’s here’s-a-question-now-go-find-the-answer-almost-word-for-word-from-the-passage mentality, the SAT requires the test-taker to, indeed, read critically and synthesize information from the passage. The SAT’s CR questions require a higher-level understanding – something far more valuable in college.</p>
<p>I dont think the SAT is racially discriminatory. I don’t think anyone can show how white/asian people are inherently any better off on than black people. If anything, the SAT discriminates against economically under privileged individuals. It seems like too often people seem to bundle economically disadvantaged people and URMs together. </p>
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<p>First off, if the SAT questions truly were convoluted and meant to trip people up, then wouldn’t it affect white and asian people just as much as black people?, thus putting them on the same level. In addition, direct recollection doesn’t prove anything about someone’s analytical abilities. Anyone can look back into a passage and find the right answer, but that does not show any higher level thinking. Furthermore, the SAT CR section does not have any convoluted questions; all of them are fair and can be reasonably extrapolated from the passage. If any of the questions could go different ways, then collegeboard would be forced to deal with lawsuits.</p>
<p>So sick about hearing about a leg up. Are you just as angry about white legacies getting a leg up or athletes, or white women, or foreign applicants? Because truthfully, they are the ones who benefit the most from as you say, a leg up. The powers that be say that SAT’s are not biased. Just because something is not obvious does not mean it is not biased. Imagine being in a room with a moderator and 5 other people from various backgrounds. The moderator makes a statement and asks a question based on that statement. Everyone agrees with the actual words spoken, but each person based on their background has a different perspective on the answer to the question. Depending on their ability to answer the question appropriately according to what the moderator’s perspective is of what the answer is will determine if they are right or wrong. This does not seem fair. Look at major colleges like Johns Hopkins. 7% of their undegraduates are Black (many not even american) Man what a leg up. </p>
<p>I am an African American male, who has never looked for a leg up, but I do not want to be judged by an SAT test that does not place me on a level playing Field. I attend a highly selective boarding school, A- unweighted student. Got all 5s on AP exams and scored 700 or over on SATII’s, but for some reason I have never been able to do really well on SAT cr 720 610 math 610 writing, even with tutoring. Am I unqualified? I do not know what the issue is, but I can not explain how I was not able to perfom better on the SAT than my mom did 30 years ago. She scored 650 on math and 600 on CR. She attended a poor inner city high school and I have attended highly selective private schools my whole life. My GPA and course rigor will stand up against anyone, but I still cannot crack that nut. My mom was an A student and ranked 11 out of 1200 students. She graduated with a 3.3 GPA from an IVY league school. If it was detemined that she was not qualified soley based on her test scores she would have never gotten in, but if she truly was unqualified how was she able to do well. People like you like to tell yourselves that you where denied something that you feel you are entiltled to by some unqualified under represented minority. Do you also tell your self that maybe you lost out on a place at your college of choice because you don’t play baseball or lacrosse, or your mom or dad did not go to that school, or you were not born in a foreign country, or born female, or play the oboe, or born in appalachia. Or maybe you wrote a crappy essay. Nothing is ever black or white, no pun intended, you are an intelligent person, don’t take the easy way out. I have worked hard all my life and am a great student, do know how much it demeans me to have someone like you decide that I am not good enough based on standards that I had no hand in creating. Be fair, or at least think about it.</p>
<p>I do think the SAT is culturally biased but I (and every other Black person on this thread), can argue all day about it being racially biased as well. Hate to say it but, the Black kids at my school don’t give a flying flip about politics, science discovery and research, blah blah blah…a.k.a. the MAIN subjects on CR. Better yet, some of them do and are in an area that cannot, and sometimes will not, foster those interests. And as far as math…or even writing too for that matter, let’s realize that the SAT says it tests what you’ve been learning all your life. What if you’ve learned nothing due to under-qualified teachers and a failing school system? . . .</p>