The value of the SAT writing section in admissions

[Papa_Chicken]

<p>I tend to agree with bclintock’s “cynical” response, however, if one believed that the SATs in general were intended to be used as an indicator of future academic performance, then once a school became familiar with the SAT Wr usefulness in predicting that performance, one would expect that school to adopt its use. I’d expect that each school would want to study its own student body, so the relationship between SAT Wr & academic performance will take years to establish (as standrews mentioned above). I’d expect more and more schools to start seriously considering the SAT Wr in the next few years, albeit there will be no rush here unless the rankings start using these numbers as well.</p>

<p>Here’s the first research report I’ve seen outside CB reports that shows the usefulness of SAT Writing as a predictor, title “How Does the New SAT Predict Academic Achievement in College?”:
<a href=“http://www.terry.uga.edu/~cornwl/research/newsat.pdf[/url]”>http://www.terry.uga.edu/~cornwl/research/newsat.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Abstract

In 2006, the College Board substantively altered the format and content of its SAT Test.
Parts of the existing verbal (SATV) and math (SATM) portions of the test were changed, and a
new writing (SATW) section was added. No academic research exists on the extent to which the
new SAT generally, and the SATW specifically, relates to student performance in college. Thus,
admissions offices of many higher educational institutions have disregarded the SATW scores in
their admission decisions. By examining how the revised SAT affects a number of college
performance outcomes, this study fills the gap in the academic literature and also provides
evidence for formulating admissions policies. This study uses data for over 4,300 first-year
students at the University of Georgia who were in the first cohort of students to take the revised
SAT and complete a year of higher education. The data include every college class students took
and their corresponding grades. Our regressions control for personal characteristics (race, gender,
and parental education), high school academic achievement (HS GPA and AP credits) and high
school fixed effects. We have three central conclusions. First, SATW scores favorably influence
many collegiate academic outcomes. With each 100-point increase in SATW scores, students
earn, on average, 0.07-points higher first-year GPAs and 0.18-points higher GPAs in freshman
English courses; they also enroll in and earn 0.44 and 0.54 more credit hours, respectively.
Conversely, these students withdraw from 0.2 fewer credit hours and are three percent less likely
to lose the HOPE Scholarship. Second, the SATW scores are consistently more effective than
SAT verbal and math scores at predicting academic achievement. Third, the effect of the new
SATW largely subsumes the effect of SATV.

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