<p>College</a> Board to make changes to SAT - The Washington Post</p>
<p>PLEASEEEE tell me this can't in any possible way affect anyone in the 'Class of 2014'
I've.studied.so.much.</p>
<p>I’m sure that any changes that they will make will not be immediate. Perhaps after a couple of years will they decide to implement them. Anyone who is in high school now, except save for maybe the freshman, will probably still take the “old” SAT.</p>
<p>Good to hear he’s critical of the essay. It’s really useless. Hopefully they do a DBQ/synthesis essay. That said, his Common Core enthusiasm doesn’t exactly give me a ton of faith.</p>
<p>The test could use some improvement, no doubt.</p>
<p>I’m not up on the jargon. What is a DBQ/synthesis essay?</p>
<p>I wonder if they are going to change that ever so predictable word bank of theirs!</p>
<p>The DBQ comes from the AP history tests. It’s an acronym for Document Based Query. Basically, in the AP history tests, you are given some documents to analyze and write an essay based upon those. You use real reference material plus your own background to write an essay.</p>
<p>DBQ/synthesis - isn’t that applicable to AP tests only? Or does the College Board intend to add analysis of a given document as part of the essay requirement? Could you explain, marvin100?</p>
<p>@Wood5440: Thanks for asking my question. From what I know, “DBQ” is “document-based question” and usually refers to essays on AP tests (i.e. US history, English, &c.) where the test taker is given a set of documents and is asked to create a thesis-driven argument using those documents as support. I suppose the word “synthesis,” in this case, is an accurate description of the test taker’s task (try saying that 3 times fast).</p>
<p>Tristesse:</p>
<p>Coleman’s comments sound like something a DBQ/Synthesis essay (a la APUSH or AP Eng Lang) might help solve:</p>
<p>“Coleman has been critical of the essay, suggesting that it allows too much personal narrative and doesn’t challenge students to make evidence-based written arguments, a skill demanded in college.”</p>
<p>One fix for that is to provide evidence and ask for an argument, which is precisely what DBQ/Synth essay prompts do.</p>
<p>(iirc it’s called “DBQ” on APUSH and “Synthesis” on AP Lang)</p>
<p>DBQ requires critical reading, innapprpriate for a writing section.</p>
<p>If they got rid of the writing section, and removed the vocabulary out of the CR, the test would be better or on par with the ACT.</p>
<p>The should test you guys on internet slang. LOL!</p>
<p>Coleman mentions he wants the test to more sharply focus on "core set of knowledge and skills.” That sounds a lot like the ACT which has always been considered the test that focuses on a core set of knowledge and skills by testing you on things you actually are supposed to learn in high school. SAT has always been thought of as a more generalized intelligence test. </p>
<p>For those not aware of what has happened in the last eight years, the real question to be asked here is why did it take so long for College Board to realize that it is facing potential extinction if does not make changes. Since 2005, when SAT added its writing section which made the test excruciatingly long, SAT has been losing market share to ACT to the extent that last year more graduating seniors took the ACT than took the ACT. ACT’s major growth since 2005 has been in states that traditionally were SAT stalwarts, the ones in the east and on the west coast. That was aided in 2005 to 2007 when the last of the colleges stating a preference for the SAT, including Princeton, withdrew that preference and began accepting either test on the same basis.</p>
<p>CB then suffered a major financial setback a couple years ago when the UCs, which have a total number of freshman applicants greater than 140,000, decided to drop the requirement that applicants submit two SAT subject tests; it became just a recommendation and for some of the UCs not even that. Moreover, some major colleges, including Rice and Columbia, have joined the group of colleges that no longer requires SAT subject tests if you submit ACT.</p>
<p>On top of that and most damaging to the SAT has been the no child left behind laws. The laws created the need for students to take standardized tests to prove a school’s proficiency. The ACT acted early to create its own unit to get itself into as many states as it could, becoming a huge lobbyist with the state legislatures and school officials for the use of its test which it can sell as actually testing the skills a student is supposed to learn in high school. The SAT essentially just ignored the issue for a long time and once it started to address it had a hard time selling any states on using its test because it was not believed to be a valid measure of what students actually learn. The result is that the ACT is now a required test taken by high school students in Illinois, Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Michigan and those are soon to be joined by Wisconsin and North Carolina. Moreover, it may as well be required in Ohio because high school students need it to graduate with honors. SAT managed to capture only Maine, Idaho, and Delaware and seems to be getting nowhere with legislatures anywhere else. If your test is one required in a state, you are in the ideal situation that everyone must take it and most of those will not bother to take the other company’s test. The most depressing moment for SAT and the wake up call that has probably led to its decision to change the test was losing North Carolina to the ACT because until now North Carolina was one of those eastern states where the vast majority of students intending to go to college took the SAT and not the ACT.</p>
<p>In essence, the SAT has fallen behind its competition and is just now realizing it has to do something to rectify the problem, and hopes that it is not acting too late.</p>
<p>The last time the SAT changed was after the UCs dropped the test requirement entirely. Suddenly, the SAT was reborn - and in triplicate, it seemed.</p>
<p>My older Ds took both tests but when it was time to send the scores around we usually chose the ACT. Why? Most of their schools required either the SAT + 1 or 2 SAT IIs or the ACT with writing. It was already a bit cheaper to send the ACT scores, and when you only had to send one score instead of two or three different SAT scores, times two kids, times all the colleges they applied to, the financial difference was pretty big.</p>
<p>Way back in my day the letters SAT stood for Scholastic Aptitude Test. Because they could never prove it was truly measuring aptitude, and because of several lawsuits, they had to change the name to the Scholastic Achievement Test.</p>
<p>greenwitch:</p>
<p>The SAT changed under extreme pressure from the UCs to add a W section. </p>
<p>As for the name, well, yeah, except now, like KFC, SAT stands for nothing.</p>
<p>I am certain that these changes will not be immediate. </p>
<p>Putting that aside, the essay part in the SAT definitely gotta go. Considering the fact that many students nowadays write upon a “prepared template”, this section of the test is superfluous for it does not prove any skills or knowledge of the students.</p>
<p>Much of the difference between the SAT and the ACT is in the approach they take to the question, ‘What is the test for?’ The SAT began as a test that would level the playing field between students who had social and financial advantages over most other students. The original idea was that one should measure what students could actually do, not who their parents were. But criticism of the test itself intensified as the use of the test expanded, and the College Board found itself constantly on the defensive. First, they had to defend the "achievement’ idea and then they changed it to “aptitude”. Soon they dropped that and it became a test of “developed abilities”. Now they have given up and maintain that the initials SAT don’t really stand for anything. Interestingly, the primary criticism of the SAT now is that it is an instrument for maintaining the advantages of the wealthy over middle and lower income students for a ‘myriad’ of reasons.</p>
<p>At the bottom, I see the fundamental philosophy of the basic SAT to be unchanged in that the test strives (with whatever degree of success) to be a measurement of some essential ‘talent’ for learning (which they call “verbal and mathematical reasoning”) as opposed to measuring the degree to which a student has mastered a specific body of knowledge. That seems to be more the purpose of the AP tests offered by the College Board and of the ACT.</p>
<p>One manifestation of a conservative turn in in American philosophy is an emphasis on utilitarian education. What we learn now must be concretely useful to both the student and the student’s prospective employer. (As opposed to being a contributing factor to the spiritual, social and emotional development of the student as a goal in itself.) I think Coleman’s appointment to lead the College Board is a reflection of that shift, and that is why I expect the SAT to change to follow the trend. If students want to get a preview of coming attractions, Google “Core Curriculum Standards” and read them. Coleman was apparently instrumental in developing them. </p>
<p>I could go on, but won’t except to say that I don’t see any great threat to civilization in these changes, largely because the wealthy have never seen their advantages seriously threatened in the US and because at the bottom of all these tests lies one’s ability to think critically about what one reads and about one’s mathematical problem solving skill. The same students who score well on one will score well on the other.</p>
<p>PS Thanks, Dave, for the definition of DBQ/Synthesis. I like it.</p>
<p>@drusba @Wood5440</p>
<p>Wow, I am just impressed with the fascinating insight that both of you have given on this topic. These are comments that will rarely see the light of the day in mainstream media. Thank you so much. </p>
<p>To me SAT seems like a dilute form of an intelligence test and the level of content is honestly very low if we compare it to international tests. I would much rather have students take the American Math Competition for Grade 8, which is of much higher quality and has some meat in it. Okay, may be AMC 10 would be better. </p>
<p>There is in general seems like an opposition to testing and ranking students in US, and instead pursuing some sort of an egalitarian structure. I personally disagree with this because we don’t have equal abilities, we can certainly push ourselves to the best of our abilities but in every aspect of human life there is a gradation. It is natural. </p>
<p>As for the ACT and SAT and Pearson and ETS/Collegeboard, of course it is all about making money. This is reflected in the fact that they zealously guard their questions with copyright infringements. They make money from selling their books and tests and online courses. This is completely unacceptable, a company that writes a test should not be allowed to profit from selling those very tests. In the rest of the world the questions that appear in these types of tests become part of the public domain and any publisher can republish them. Not in the US. </p>
<p>I agree with Wood5440’s comment regarding a shift towards utilitarian education in US. Sometimes I wonder what is the purpose of taking a ball and throwing it in the air and passing it through a hoop attached to a pole. How is that different from studying three dimensional geometry? Or the works of Shakespeare?</p>
<p>But in the end as Wood5440 noted, the ones who do well on the old SAT, ACT, will continue to do well on whatever new tests show up. This is pretty clear when you look at the SAT scores of students who do well on the AMC 10 and AMC 12.</p>
<p>As a class of 2017, this is frustrating…</p>
<p>The ‘new’ test will take affect from spring 2016, which is my junior year.
Should I take the risk of taking the new test, or should I rather take the old test in 2015?
Besides, wouldn’t top colleges still ask for the “optional” essay part?</p>
<p>@Dogeandme
I would take both tests (once in 2015 and once in 2017) and submit your highest score. You’re right that many top schools will still require the essay. </p>