<p>You are very wrong. I took the Sunday test, and I talked to some friends who took the Saturday test. The two were entirely different.</p>
<p>Trust me, the CollegeBoard is not going out of its way to make the test easier for Jews (scheduling the test on the day on which the clocks were moved forwards...Nazis).</p>
<p>I just can't believe they'd make a totally different test. How is the test standardized if they did give a different test on Sunday?</p>
<p>Believe it. You think these people are stupid? Of course it's a different test.</p>
<p>Well, I'm sure they attempted to make the difficulty the same on both tests, ne?</p>
<p>why would it be any different? </p>
<p>If you seriously think that they're giving Jews an advantage, you're out of your mind. Supposedly, they decided to officially consider standardized tests at schools like Harvard and Yale to keep Jewish kids out (at one point Jews made up about 50% of a Harvard graduating class), because the anti-semites in the admissions offices were so stupid as to believe that Jews were not naturally intelligent but rather that they just work hard for their success and that they would not do well on an SAT-type test for this reason. This would be a "PC" way to keep the Jews, who had far and away the best stats, out of their schools without appearing glaringly anti-semitic.
This idea has been expressed in several books, and at one point an admissions officer from a top school admitted that this was the case at his school.</p>
<p>More recently, the March Sunday test gave Jewish students one less hour of sleep. Still, you seem to have this feeling that the Jews are being given an advatage?</p>
<p>Judging by your name....well, I won't say anything more.</p>
<p>I do not know how you can, from my posts, glean that I believe Jews had an advantage. I totally agree with you that giving Jews one hour less sleep isn't fair and that giving a different test isn't fair as well.</p>
<p>I don't know what you mean by "different test"... there are a lot of different versions of the test. Even two people who take it on the same day may have different tests. That's why they do the experiemental sections--to test out new question sets in hopes of making all tests equally difficult...</p>
<p>It's not like a different amount of time or a different number of sections or anything...</p>
<p>When they were discussing the March 11th test, they were discussing the same questions</p>
<p>naidu - who are "they"?</p>
<p>kafka</p>
<p>what about the curve? wouldnt it work against the March 11th test takers?presumed that a small gp of overacheivers take on the 11th. I heard the more students take the test the scores are more evenly spread out so the curve will work to your advantage. can anyone comment on this if they know?</p>
<p>naidu where is the discussion? thanks</p>
<p>
[quote]
what about the curve? wouldnt it work against the March 11th test takers?presumed that a small gp of overacheivers take on the 11th. I heard the more students take the test the scores are more evenly spread out so the curve will work to your advantage. can anyone comment on this if they know?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would assume that the sat & sun tests would be lumped together & curved as one test, but I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Each test is adjusted for difficulty of the test and strength of the test taking pool for that test date. It makes no difference how hard/easy and individual test was or how strong/weak your fellow test takers were. You should get a score within the same range regardless of when it is taken.</p>
<p>Of course, there are those who expend a lot of time and effort determining which is the "easiest" test date and plan accordingly. I wouldn't want to deny them their fun, no matter how misguided.</p>
<p>BigIs</p>
<p>I am not talking about easiest date.</p>
<p>"Each test is adjusted for difficulty of the test and strength of the test taking pool for THAT test date"<br>
so it does makes a difference on how weak/strong your fellow test takers are on that day. So if small group of test takers on the 11th (many presumed smart) will give you a disadvantage on the curve if you take it on 11th rather on the 10th when many students take the test(I heard the more students take the test the scores are more evenly spread out so the curve will work to your advantage) can anyone comment on this?</p>
<p>I want to know if this is true.</p>
<p>To completely explain this would take a long time, but let's try this:</p>
<p>If the test was NOT adjusted for the strength of the group then taking the test with stronger candidates would make a difference. However the adjustments DO level the playing field for every test and every administration.</p>
<p>For example:
On Saturday, a student earns a raw score that puts them in the 75th percentile in an "average" group of candidates, on an "average" exam, and is assigned a scaled score of 1800.</p>
<p>On Sunday, the same student earns the same raw score, but is in the 65th percentile of a "superior" groups of candidates, on an "average" exam. Since the scaling takes into consideration that the candidate is in a stronger group of students and would be higher in the "group" on an "average" or "weak" day, the student is still assigned a scaled score of 1800, as their performance is compared to other performances on an "average" exam.</p>
<p>If the Sunday test turns out to be a "hard" exam (accord to CCers they all are), the student may end up in the 55th percentile, but will still receive an 1800 due to the adjustment for both the stronger candidate pool and the harder test.</p>
<p>The only thing I can't explain is how the same student could register for both a Saturday and a Sunday exam. :-)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>"Evenly spread out" is a vague statement. The distribution of any group depends on the people in the group. A small group can be "spread out" and a large group may be "packed together" depending on the group.</p>
<p>The larger the group, though, the more probable that the distribution will look like a "normal" distribution, making for an "even" curve.</p>
<p>There are enough people taking any one test, even the "smaller" administration (still in the thousands) to provide good statistical data, leveling the playing field.</p>