<p>I know the SAT does deserve some hate (believe me countless sleepless nights have made me grateful of not needing to take it again), but some of the hate, especially those saying that its useless, I believe is somewhat unwarranted. </p>
<p>The SAT tests some pretty useless content that will never be used in college: this is true. However, the fact that the SAT does test knowledge that you already know or have to learn in order to do well on the test. Given that, the SAT is essentially like preparing for a regular exam at school; its another way of gauging how adept you are at learning similar to how GPA tests how good you are at the subjects you take which indeed like the SAT you have to learn. I agree that at a certain score say 2250+ there's a threshold of error where you can be screwed over by missing 1 or 2 problems, but assuming that the SAT is studyable, which it is I believe (anecdotal evidence), and the content is laughably simple to which that its "beneath people", then why does everyone always hark about it when they don't get a good score? For top colleges, separating the great from the best, the SAT actually does squat, but shouldn't any person who is to be qualified for the college need to be at the very least the best at a low grade test? Just my 2cents, welcome for you guys to change my view.</p>
<p>tl;dr SAT is a checkmark test for the very basics, if you have a 5.0 gpa and 20 APs why do you have a 1500 SAT.</p>
<p>Hmm the people I usually see hating on the SAT are the ones complaining about being screwed over about 1 or 2 questions, and thus see it more of a luck thing to do well than actual skill. Because although the difference between 2200 and 2400 might be less than 5 questions, many schools see the 2200 as subpar. So essentially, much of the time, how well you do depends on how lucky you are and how careful you can be (i.e. fewer careless mistakes), which I guess is also an important skill to have.</p>
<p>Another common complaint is that it isn’t really an accurate representation of a student since it’s only 4 hours long. People also complain about how it puts too much pressure on students to perform (but I guess performing under pressure is also an important skill), although I don’t really see how that applies since there’s Score Choice (well at least for most schools), and you can retake it.</p>
<p>Finally, a lot of people think the SAT is biased since as a whole, certain groups of people (e.g. high-income, certain ethnicities) perform better than others (honestly I think this is more to do with the opportunities that people have than the actual test being biased). There was a really controversial essay topic about reality television on one test.</p>
<p>Note: This isn’t necessarily my viewpoint, it’s just some of the reasons I’ve heard people say.</p>