Posted on 07/14/2007 6:27:48 AM PDT by RKV
For most high school students who want to attend an elite college, the SAT is more than a test. It is one of life’s landmarks. Waiting for the scores—one for verbal, one for math, and now one for writing, with a possible 800 on each—is painfully suspenseful. The exact scores are commonly remembered forever after.
...
The pivotal analysis was published in 2001 by the University of California (UC), which requires all applicants to take both the SAT and achievement tests (three of them at the time the data were gathered: reading, mathematics, and a third of the student’s choosing). Using a database of 77,893 students who applied to UC from 1996 to 1999, Saul Geiser and Roger Studley analyzed the relationship among high school grades, SAT scores, achievement test scores, and freshman grades in college. Here is what they found:
Achievement tests did slightly better than the SAT in predicting freshman grades. High school grade point average, SAT scores, and achievement test scores were entered into a statistical equation to predict the grade point that applicants achieved during their freshman year in college. The researchers found that achievement tests and high school grade point each had about the same independent role—that is, each factor was, by itself, an equally accurate predictor of how a student will do as a college freshman.
But the SAT’s independent role in predicting freshman grade point turned out to be so small that knowing the SAT score added next to nothing to an admissions officer’s ability to forecast how an applicant will do in college—the reason to give the test in the first place.
(Excerpt) Read more at american.com ...
SAT helps kids with low GPA get into college...can’t fake SAT scores....inflating GPAs with ‘everyone’ gets an ‘A’ for attending class....
Don’t want to take the SAT? Go get your GED, score over 500 and enroll in any major university in the country. That’s assuming they aren’t discriminating against you because you are that filthy “White” color don’t ya know?
Imagine how much power public school teachers would hold over students if college entrance were determined only by high school GPA. And, imagine how much “social engineering” liberal teachers could do with that power.
Excuse my impertinence, but you didn’t read the article did you? Murray demonstrates that reasoning as a fallacy.
One of the good things about our college admissions process is the role of junior colleges in providing a path to higher education for many folks.
“impertinence”
?
You don’t expect this ninth-grade educated person to look up that word....
Which is why Murray recommends keeping the subject specific achievement tests which are now required in addition to the SAT. Basically he’s saying we now rely on three measures (GPA, SAT and achievement tests [e.g. SAT II tests for physics, chemistry, etc.]), and you can get to the same result by using only GPA and achievement tests.
Besides tolerance, PC, diversity is strength, and other Orwellian doublethink nonsense, that is.
I remember my 1970 SAT and also my 1969 PSATs very well.
And they were pretty high - and I do say so myself. :)
Rather than eliminating stand tests we should think harder about eliminating the government and it's union's, stranglehold hold our children.
IMO, they normally learn nothing at all except how to follow orders.
I once thought that college level courses would ‘drift down’
to high school. Now, it is clear that elementary school
courses have ‘drifted up’.
Heh. But seriously, check out the article. The guy knows his stuff and has done the math.
I was thinking the same thing. The SAT’s are the only purely objective messurement. GPA’s can be tinkered with. Letters of recommendation can be complete fiction. It seems that the SAT’s or a standardized objectively graded national test is the only way.
Read the article and I believe you will see that Murray makes his case.
There is nothing wrong with the S.A.T.. My nephew just scored a perfect S.A.T.. HE worked his arse off in school and he now showed it on the test. Lack of confidence and not wanting to be compared is not a good excuse for eliminating it. We do need a standard for comparison and the S.A.T. is as good as any.
I read the article, thank you.
I’m not sure what you know of the current college admissions process. In my bad old days, it was GPA, letters of recommendation and SAT. Today it’s that PLUS AP tests (subject specific) and SAT II tests (again subject specific). It’s definitely NOT the same as (ulp, dating myself here) the 1970s.
Did you read the article?
Anything is better than the admissions by race system that most colleges/government agencies use - the more minority points one has the more the place wants you. Go away white guy. Your type isn't wanted here.
Both of us did well with our S.A.T.’s when we were young and we both worked our tushes off. My husband was first in his class, talking about high school and I was second. My nephew who I mentioned was first in his class. If you work to the best of your ability it will show on any test.
Simply because you don’t score high, doesn’ mean you won’t do well in life. There are many honorable professions that pay well and don’t require stupendous S.A.T. scores.
BTW I agree that privatizing schools (a-z and K-18) is a great idea. For many reasons...
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