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<p>This is absolutely correct. I will, however, make one change by replacing “sharper” by … average students from your typical US high school. The ACT test rewards the faster students but the process is more similar to the HS work and requires less reasoning than the SAT. </p>
<p>Fwiw, dropping the guessing penalties will bring a different dimension to the SAT. Ultimately, there will be fewer and fewer differences between the two tests. </p>
<p>@xiggi, I took the SAT before truth in testing laws forced the college board to release SATs. But even back in those dark ages, Barrons et al. had figured out practice tests that worked just fine for me to prep. Today, with all the released tests available to students (and I would bet that only a tiny fraction of students actually even bother to take all the material available to them) I really don’t why students could possibly need every single question that’s ever been asked in order to prepare. Of course with the change in format, the college board really should release a sample test soon so that students caught in this transition can make an informed decision about using the new SAT.</p>
<p>FYI <a href=“Free Quality SAT Test Prep - Khan Academy partners with College Board - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums”>Free Quality SAT Test Prep - Khan Academy partners with College Board - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Mathyone, I do not think students should bother to read all released tests and need to see all possible questions. But that is on the customer side. Few people read a dictionary from one end to the other, but the best dictionaries should be as complete as possible. The College Board, IF their intents were noble in terms of equality, should release those tests. Fwiw, check the above link to see SQ’s opinion on why that would be helpful. </p>
<p>Again, we should not go from one extreme to the other. Lost in many discussions --so it seems-- is that I do not think that one needs to slave over dozens and dozens of past tests to reach his or her potential. For some, all that is needed is a couple of tests. For others a few more. </p>
<p>But having access to the information on an equitable basis is, IMHO, a great equalizer. </p>
<p>PS On a personal basis, I do not think that you should lose any sleep over the new test and how it will impact your 8th grader. The information will come out … just as it did in 2005. It will not be perfect from the starting point, but it will improve. And the College Board will, without doubt, make sure that its perennial “partners” are getting enough notice. </p>
<p>@xiggi, for once I agree with you. </p>
<p>I’m not losing sleep. </p>
<p>America’s school systems are horribly poor compared to some of the world. My dad got me these ICSE grade 9 math books from India to prepare for the AMC; the problems in these books (which Indian grade 9 students all do) are way harder than what normal 9th graders here are expected to do. Low standards, incompetent teachers, and uninterested students have led our education system down the drain. </p>
<p>Why wouldn’t everyone just use ACT instead?</p>
<p>Some scholarships are available only to PSAT/SAT takers. And in some states, people are not so familiar with the ACT.</p>
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<p>Because the ACT is not an equal, let alone a better test for many students. Students should try both tests and focus on the one that works better for their abilities. Fwiw, there are many elements where the College Board is clearly superior to the Iowa poorer cousin. Regardless of the numbers of test takers, the SAT remains the grande dame of standardized tests, and continues to grab the headlines and the good and bad publicity. The ACT will always play second fiddle, and this regardless of its penchant for pushing a questionable political agenda that yielded contracts in 13 states. The SAT has two such contracts. </p>
<p>These are the 19 states where the ACT holds a lead of at least 10 to 1 in test usage: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.</p>
<p>Draw your own conclusions. </p>
<p>Quote from the article, “…the new SAT will widen, not narrow, the education gap in the United States.” </p>
<p>The SAT test isn’t widening the education gap. The gap already exists, and the new test may do a better job of highlighting the gap. Claiming that it creates the gap is just shooting the messenger. This same confusion is caused by people who say that the test is biased toward high income students. The SAT results are correlated with income because high income students are getting a better education. The test results just highlight that fact. Instead of fixing the problem many claim there is a problem with the test. </p>
<p>Basically, the more knowledge and education that students need to do well on the test, the wider the gap in test results will be. The author is correct that more focus on school related subjects will widen the gap. However, the College Board also wants more people to take the test. Currently students increasingly choose the ACT because it is somewhat easier for most of them. To get market share back, I suspect that the SAT will get easier and then ACT will respond in a race to create the easiest test possible. That will have the effect of hiding the education gap.</p>
<p>“The author is correct that more focus on school related subjects will widen the gap” Maybe. But if the schools teach to the test and thereby dumb down the curriculum, the gap might narrow. And if the new SAT is indeed based upon common core, then we may see a new gap appear, between core states and core-less states.</p>
<p>I am a senior who used the ACT. I took the SAT once and got a 1980 (750 Math, 640 Reading, 590 Writing, 8 Essay), and got two 33’s that superscore to a 34 on the ACT (33 English, 35 Math+Sci, 32 Reading, 8 Essay). I much preferred the ACT as an analytical mind. The SAT writing kills students, as does the essay grading on both tests. Essay length is sadly directly correlated to score rather than the analysis and ideas presented. I got 8’s on all my essays, but get great english grades at a top private school. I have small writing and write concisely, so I have seen first hand how length affects grades. Overall, I think the changes are a positive, and will have little if any effect on the expression of the education gap. I agree with others that the test only varies the expression of the gap, not the gap itself.</p>
<p>I think the inherent problem here is our definition of intelligence. I am expecting some disagreement here, but I think that vocabulary has almost nothing to do with intelligence, let alone intellectual potential. That is one change that I like in the new test from what I know. Even writing is not a good marker. It is an acquired skill / set of standards that we express ideas in, but very bright minds can have very bad language skills. The skills are relevant because they need to be expressed in a way society can understand and use their ideas, but sometimes that is achieved in formats outside of english as tested on standardized tests and even in the classroom. Ideas do not need to be presented in an exact format for them to be very useful and considered brilliant.</p>
<p>We are in a new age, and new skills are becoming primary while others are secondary. For example, memory has lost a lot of importance, yet schools still have a very high emphasis on it. In the real world, it takes seconds to get any information so long as you have a general idea. The world is shifting more and more to favor analytical minds who process information rather than simply retain it. For this reason, I am not against standardized testing as some are. The fact is, it is a better test of analytical thinking than high school and even some colleges/majors IMO. I love the science section on the ACT, though I agree with others that it could use a bit more time. I take AP Bio, Chem, and Physics, and I barely finished (though scoring a 35 twice).</p>
<p>Basically, the ACT is gaining popularity because of the way society is evolving. The SAT is realizing memory and vocabulary is not a measure of intelligence anymore, and I think this is overall a good move.</p>
<p>Reading back, sorry this is not about the education gap so much, but I don’t think that is a real issue here.</p>
<p>Forgetting about the education gap for a moment, the change sounds to me like a move from bad to worse.</p>
<p>There should be a big difference between the ACT and the SAT. It is good for students to have a knowledge-oriented test (ACT) and an aptitude-oriented test (SAT) as two distinct options with distinct reasons to take each one. The mere fact that one is more popular than the other is not evidence that only one of them is useful; it simply means that there is a healthy equilibrium state when a significant and stable minority of students take the SAT. You do not see Apple imitating Microsoft in order to cut into the Windows market.</p>
<p>However, for a long time, the SAT has been in an uncomfortable transition between aptitude testing and knowledge testing and it seems to have suffered from the worst of each model. It should have gone back to what made it so relevant and so successful back when the A actually stood for something. If it was never a valid test of aptitude, then that would be a reason to make it a better test of aptitude, not a reason to stop trying to test aptitude. If there is an arms race to prepare for the test itself, then that is a reason either to make the test less formulaic, or to make the questions so abstract and so conceptually difficult that the benefit of “being good at taking tests” is negligible – preferably the latter.</p>
<p>Another reason to consider switching to the ACT is that it is not changing. You can start studying now and you will have it down in two years. The new SAT is not out yet and there will be changes in the first few years to work out the kinks.</p>
<p>@Halogen, I found the ACT to be the aptitude test of the two, and I think many would agree. Not sure why you consider the SAT the aptitude test.</p>
<p>@PengsPhils</p>
<p>I was referring more to the way things are expected to be, and the way they should be, than the way they are. If there is significant disagreement about which is more of an aptitude test and which is more of a knowledge test, then that is evidence that they need to differentiate themselves from each other more, for the sake of consumer choice. And historically, the SAT is the scholastic aptitude test.</p>
<p>@Halogen, I would like to see what others who currently take the test think to help the case, but I don’t think there is much disagreement for those who have taken both recently. I guess it has switched historically. I do agree that they should not try to get closer to each other. Neither at this point are knowledge based really, and I think one should really try to take that approach, like a SAT2 sampler if you will.</p>
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<p>Perhaps, but that would require the students who have taken the tests recently to clearly understand the common definitions of terms such as aptitude or achievement. The reason why the College Board finally abandoned the idea of giving a meaning to the A in SAT is that the definitions became so confused it the minds of observers. The SAT is the SAT Reasoning Test and the SAT means nothing. </p>
<p>To be clear, I also think that you are confused about the real meaning of aptitude. Since you liked the ACT, perhaps it might be helpful to hang your hat on the way the Iowa Boys see it:</p>
<p>Source: <a href=“ACT Registration | ACT Testing Dates | The ACT Test”>http://www.actstudent.org/faq/actsat.html</a></p>
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<p>Fwiw, as a person with recent knowledge of both tests, I am afraid to find few reasons to agree with your earlier post about the ACT rise in popularity. It surely has little to do with important differences from the SAT. The success has everything to do with the ability of the ACT to negotiate contracts with a large number of states, and the fact that colleges started to abandon the requirements of SAT only. In addition, the ACT clearly capitalized on their “score choice” option. </p>
<p>But, in the end, that really does not amount to much. Students should try both tests and see which one appeals more to them. Reasoning versus speed. Logic versus more high school recitations. Pick the best one, and let the bosses at TCB and ACT dispute which is better! :)</p>
<p>@xiggi</p>
<p>You are probably right that I have a different definition for aptitude in my head. Despite definition though, I still feel that you need less knowledge from school for the SAT compared to the ACT. I find the listing of the ACT as a test of " what a student has learned in school" quite laughable even. I have found little to no relation between grades and test scores on either of the tests. I see much more of a correlation between what type of person scores better on which, as described in the original post.</p>
<p>On the ACT’s rise in popularity, you seem to be right as well. I think that was a bit of a projection I made from my personal opinion on standardized testing. I just did some quick searching on the matter, props to the ACT heads in terms of economics (I guess lol).</p>
<p>Probably a post for another place overall. Thanks for the corrections and clarifications. It was more frustration with what I see as an outdated view of intelligence. I may develop the idea a bit more and make a separate thread reading back. Sorry for the derailing a bit, back to the OP!</p>
<p>Actually, the SAT used to be an IQ test and still is, though to a lesser extent.
And that’s how it should be. They need to model the SAT as an IQ test. IQ does not change after the age of 5, so it is a fundamental trait. IT should come at no surprise that in general, poor people tend to be dumber, and dumb people tend to have dumb kids. </p>