SAT-Taking it on a computer in the FUTURE?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>I can imagine this working very well for both test takers and the test makers. For one, cheating would be hard because you can truly restrict people going back to other sections or working on math problems in a CR section. It's a little quicker. Hacking shouldn't be a problem if you're monitoring them(and you can look at everyone's computer screen from one main administrator). I do'nt imagine people bringing USB flash drives to hack it or anything. </p>

<p>The best point of all: the essay! I type almost 100 words per minute and while I do write very fast, no one in the world can write in English as fast as me or any other fast typer. I type faster than I think, and I think faster than I speak. Typing helps me to get my words and ideas out quicker. When I'm writing, I can lose track of my ideas because it takes a while to write it all down. Much easier to edit essays, easier for essay graders to grade, easier to replace answers(MC and Grid Ins), and you can even get an instant score after each section if you want! You can always have the choice of taking the written portion, but I would never consider it!</p>

2

<p>my eyes would hurt so much after staring at it for 3+ and the math might be difficult, but the essay typing is great :)</p>

<p>dmv’s and other places use computers now, so you never know</p>

3

<p>I mark my testbook alot though, especially in the math section. Plus the screen hurts my eyes and gives me a headach after a while.</p>

4

<p>I can completely understand where you guys are coming from with the computer screen, but what you could do is maybe put all the questions in a booklet and you can do it the same way but you still have to put the answers in the computer if you choose the computer way. If not, at least allow people to type the essay. Last I checked, business letters are typed almost all the time. MLA papers are always typed, and quite frankly I don’t think that teachers want to read handwriting for the fun of it, they want to read nice and clean.</p>

<p>I just thought though, on a CR passage, you can highlight things with the mouse, and imagine just how much easier it would be to highlight certain lines that a questions asks for! It won’t be done for a while but it’s definitely a better option!</p>

5

<p>As long as it doesn’t go LOADING… for twenty minutes. </p>

<p>and then.</p>

<p>SYSTEM FAILURE! REBOOT?</p>

6

<p>or blue screen death on the last question of the last section! all data lost?!?!?!?!?</p>

7

<p>Maybe when the class of 2008 has kids…</p>

<p>The thing is, conventional computers would suck. Paper and pencil cannot be connected to the internet, you can’t rip a whole book in a few seconds, leaves a perfect paper trail, etc.</p>

<p>If they put in a camera, for example, someone might hack it to see the answer sheet of the person behind them.</p>

<p>The main limitation is that there would have to be limited output, stable enough to use in a test environment, accessible easily by ETS, and cheap. Right now, you pick two.</p>

<p>BTW I could never see the CB using an “off the shelf” OS. They might even use a Linux distro modified, but Windows has way too many problems.</p>

<p>Eventually, they’ll move towards e-ink. Almost no power used when the screen is static, monochrome, high contrast, readable even in direct light, easy contrast. When the price of touch sensitive screens goes down (highly accurate ones), I could see this happening. E-ink displays are also low fatigue compared to regular LCDs.</p>

<p>Call me short sighted, but unless there are major advancements in touchscreens and batteries, I don’t see this happening for at least 10 years.</p>

8

<p>And what if my paper suddenly catches on fire? Yes there are risks to everything, but they aren’t very common. </p>

<p>How would you hack a camera? You would need to use a lot of hardware, use a ladder to get to it, and then hide some small LCD screen in your pocket to see it(can you say searches?). Besides, they can make the computers strictly for SAT usage, but it would still be hard considering that the schools can’t just keep using their school computers as those can be hacked but still I don’t see hacking becoming a huge problem.</p>

9

<p>no, if you want to use cameras not connected to the actual computers, just to a control center, you’d have to install several cameras, and that is more of a hassle than just having pen and paper and a real administrator.</p>

<p>if you have cameras that are hooked up to the network, or can monitor all computers from one computer screen, then you run the risk of being hacked through the network, which is relatively easy to do. it would take longer than actually taking the test (if it doesn’t than your security blows) but if someone got in they could do anything. get themselves perfect scores, even if they hadn’t filled out anything until then. in addition, if the computers are running on wireless than someone from outside can hack into it too.</p>

<p>whatever. those are rather hard to do, and i’d have faith in CB if they want to keep making big bucks off the SAT to take any security measures they can. the main issue is that the SAT is administered in schools, and schools simply do not have the computers and monitors to deal with it. My school has lots of computers, but they’re all together, none of them have dividers between them, and they’re not in rows so that you can’t see computers behind you or in front of you. Also we wouldn’t have enough for the number of people that take the SAT every month. ETS would probably have to build its own specialized testing centers. And that costs big bucks it doesn’t want to spend.</p>

10

<p>The MCAT was formally a written based test, but just recently switched over to computer-based testing. The only problem as of now is feasibility: SATs are administered worldwide and not all areas readily have access to enough computers or even the internet.</p>

11

<p>At this point, it’s unfeasible.</p>

<p>Paper is really, really cheap to make and it has few security problems. While an electronic test might make sense in the future, it doesn’t yet.</p>

<p>What we’ll move towards is small tablets powered by E-ink ultra low voltage displays, shrinkwrapped. They’ll be preloaded with the test content. Take the test, get the results very quickly, and reprogram the devices with new tests. Reuse them.</p>

<p>On the processing end, I could see how the electronic machines could have significant benefits. Properly designed with only one or two inputs and encryption, it could be very secure. E-ink displays are high contrast, but their side to side reading angle isn’t amazing. And, as said previously, swapping between sections would become impossible. No need for an answer sheet, just select your answers within the booklet.</p>

<p>At this point, it’s too expensive, and traditional PCs aren’t usable, available, or secure enough for an SAT. I’d say 5 (minimum), more likely 10+ years before we see this. (Maybe I’m shortsighted).</p>

<p>Cameras? Maybe 10+ to 20+ years out. Record on the device, most of the time it is unchecked, and if there is reason for a score investigation, you can review.</p>

<p>They would never require internet for something like this- too many areas for something to screw up, and availability is definitely an issue. Plus, if someone hacked the internet, they (very unlikely, but possibly) could look up how to do equations online. No internet, one less avenue of attack.</p>

<p>If they want to get the answers off the machine easily, they need an exposed connector (that, if someone got access to a machine, might be hackable with malware), or a connector inside (makes grading less feasible, since the machine must be tamper evident yet quickly and easily openable.)</p>