Sorry, but grades/ec activities are WAY more important

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>To be honest, the SAT is a bunch of crap.</p>

<p>It does NOT gauge how "smart" a person is. I am an A student, and have gotten A's in USEFUL advanced math and english courses throughout HS. For God's sake, I got 100% A in my AP Eng Lang class and a 97% in my finite math class and then I get a 500 on the SAT for math and a 540 for english. Complete, total BS.</p>

<p>I'm sorry, but we NEVER learn any of that b.s. math that they have on the SAT, and don't even get me started on the English. Do we REALLY CARE what some dude meant to say 500 YEARS AGO in a short poem? Are we REALLY going to sit here and waste time pondering what some wack job meant in a story? The whole Sat "reasoning" seams futile. Give us some REAL documents to read and analyze, not some piece of crap essay that's full of fluff language. </p>

<p>Colleges should not be basing your scores so highly on what someone does on an SAT. I would be saying this whether I got a good score or not; it's ridiculous how much emphasis is on ONE test. You could go all high school and get all A's and have perfectly fine study habits, and bomb this idiotic test. It's not made to show "how smart you are"; it's made for most NORMAL people with lives to fail.</p>

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<p>Why should I bomb it?</p>

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<p>op, u say the SAT is crap. Actually, your argument is crap. The SAT puts everyone in the country on an equal scale. It tests reasoning, which you apparently lack. I might sympathize if you were in the 600’s. sorry, but low 500’s just shows a lack of intelligence.</p>

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<p>I agree with you, karbl92, that the SAT is not perfect in measuring what it intends to. But I don’t know a preferable alternative. I don’t even think we need one (the SAT is not that bad).</p>

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<p>Furthermore, you’re going to have to be more specific in your criticisms. The Critical Reading section, as it advertises, measures reading comprehension (though there are a few ambiguous questions every once in a while) and vocabulary (there’s really no better way to test this). </p>

<p>The Writing section also has ambiguous questions, as well as otherwise poorly done ones, but these are a small minority; the test generally measures applied grammar well. </p>

<p>The Mathematics section is very well done in my opinion. The questions, as you said yourself, don’t rely too heavily on things learned in class. The result is a test that fairly measures reasoning and problem solving.</p>

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<p>Colleges need a way to compare students from different schools since some schools weigh GPAs differently, some teachers are easier than others, etc.</p>

<p>It sounds like you’re sore because of your SAT score. Sorry, but the math on the SAT Reasoning Test is almost entirely 7th/8th grade stuff.</p>

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<p>The SAT may not be perfect but it is the one true constant for all applicants. People may have 4.0 GPA but it doesn’t mean anything if those grades are inflated. Sure, SAT is useless on a practical level but so are all other tests. You take a Calculus test and get an A… so what? How can you apply that knowledge of hyperbolas or integrals to your everyday life? Its the same thing with SAT… sure maybe CR and M is weird and just not pragmatic but you sound like a whiner to me. You should be facing the challenge and studying hard to get a good score on the SAT, not come on a college forum website and whine about how the SAT is completely useless. The fact of the matter is, SAT is not gonna “go away” and people like you, me and everyone else has to deal with it.</p>

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<p>The only heavily problematic section is the essay, but the problems with this stem from logistical necessities (i.e., the sheer number of essays the College Board has to grade).</p>

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<p>Though I am ambivalent on whether the SAT has true merit (is accurate in predicting future college success), the test is fair in its questions and subject matter. In each test with over 100 questions, usually only one or two questions can really be argued, and even then most have one better answer. It also, as some have already mentioned, levels the playing field.</p>

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<p>And OP, you sound like a very intelligent person. Even if you hate what the SAT represents, I think it would be foolish of you to not attempt to raise your score/study for it, since the majority of the colleges take it quite seriously (whether is supersedes grades/transcript and activities as your title mentions surely depends on the particular institution)</p>

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<p>LOL at people who don’t realize they’re just hard workers, not smart.</p>

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<p>“LOL at people who don’t realize they’re just hard workers, not smart.”</p>

<p>Plenty of people do very well with no preparation.</p>

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<p>I know that silverturtle, I am one of them. I was referring to the OP who does well in school and thinks that makes him or her intelligent. Not that he or she isn’t intelligent, but standardized tests are much better judges of that than grades - and definitely ECs.</p>

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<p>Haha,come on…</p>

<p>The SAT is perfectly normal exam.I am not straight A student,but I did just fine (1930) and expect about 2050-2150 on my Nov test (scores are not yet available)
What you cannot understand is that the SAT is a STANDARIZED test.IT is not made to assess how smart you are,it is made to distinguish between people who take the test.Nothing more.
In addition,the SAT is the same for everyone.It is the same for a student from a private high school in Manhatan,it is the same for a student from a public school in Afghanistan.The grades,however,are not.That`s why the SAT is designed.To indicate how a student from Afghanistan does compared to a student from Manhatan.</p>

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<p>^^^tmac sums it up perfectly</p>

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<p>Tmac18,</p>

<p>Sorry, I misinterpreted your point.</p>

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<p>Maybe your AP classes are wack o.o
I honestly have no idea how you can possibly score in the 500’s and claim to have 100% in AP English Language and finite math.</p>

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<p>Its all good turtle. And sorry if I sounded harsh to the OP, but you’re bragging about how smart you are with an 100% in an English class…that can be very easy if your teacher gives busy work. My English classes the past 2 years (both AP) have had no homework taken for points, just homework that you are supposed to do to prepare yourself. Tests are 10 essay questions, 10 points each. Seeing as you got a 540 on the English SAT, I don’t think you’d get 100% in this version of AP English.</p>

<p>Just an example for you on how objective grades are.</p>

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<p>OP,</p>

<p>I’ll have to agree that the SAT or rather standardized tests in general aren’t a perfect indicator of intelligence, work ethic (well, they could be), or aptitude.</p>

<p>Some are naturally talented at taking reasoning tests like the SAT. I’d have to point out that there’s a reason that there exists an ACT and SAT (each tests different things) – in fact, most argue that ACT is more geared towards teaching what one learns in school, while SAT teaches reasoning.</p>

<p>Colleges nowadays are fairly holistic in their selection process and a low standardized score is not going to be the end-all indicator of your aptitude for success.</p>

<p>Furthermore, grades/GPA are not themselves good indicators of intelligence. Grade inflation is rampant and having good grades does not necessarily equate to good reasoning skills. For example, my English class consisted of constant busy work that had no educational bearing. Keep in mind that this was an AP English class as well. I made a 4 on the exam, but made straight 100’s in the class – needless to say, grades don’t correlate to higher test scores.</p>

<p>In addition, the SAT is, arguably, set up in the best way possible. It gives everyone an equal playing field – no student has a greater advantage than another.</p>

<p>Reading comprehension is, arguably, subjective and relative to each individual’s interpretation of the text, but CollegeBoard does a fairly good job making one and only one answer correct (otherwise, they’d be swimming in lawsuits). Math, as a previous poster mentioned, is done the best way I believe it could be done. Simple, elementary math is necessary for more occupations than not. There’s no reason to test calculus on an SAT when many jobs in the future won’t require it. Basic reasoning and computation skills, such as those tested on the SAT, are actually useful. Writing, in my opinion, is done quite well. Spoken and even written English has, over time, digressed into a colloquial tongue and is often not correct. People don’t use correct grammar when speaking or when writing. Everyday English is filled with grammatical mistakes. All in all, while I myself feel cheated by standardizing testing believe that it is an good, not perfect, way to gauging a person’s aptitude.</p>

<p>Besides, intelligence isn’t quantifiable in any sense. OP, if you disagree with the numbers the SAT gives you, the numbers you get from grades are useless as well. If you truly want a fair system, we have to eliminate every semblance of numbers, which is not practical and impossible. Sorry OP, but I guess you’ll just have to bear with being a number…why don’t you just go study (standardized tests are meant to be broken =P…with a good work ethic that is)?</p>

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<p>Just because you, quite frankly, are horrible at the SAT does not mean you have to rant about your weak performance. The SAT is the same for everyone, meaning your straight A’s might not mean much compared to someone else go does not have straight A’s but scored a 2350.</p>