
Now you can choose which SATs you want colleges to see and which you don't - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/education/31sat.html
======
tokenadult
Let's see if my FAQ on this subject prepared for another forum, updated with
all the latest sources except this latest New York Times link that robg has
kindly posted here on Hacker News, is of interest to readers here.

ONE-TIME TEST-TAKING

Colleges have given up trying to distinguish one-time test-takers from two-
time or three-time or even four-time test-takers, because that wasn't useful
information to the colleges. There are a number of reasons for that.

1) The colleges have utterly no way of knowing who spends all his free time
practicing taking standardized tests and who takes them "cold."

2) The colleges are well aware that students who have actually taken the tests
sometimes cancel scores, so they have little incentive to give students bonus
consideration if the students submit only one test score.

3) The colleges are aware that students who take the admission tests at
middle-school age, who are numerous, do not have their earlier test scores
submitted by default.

[http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/reg/circum/y...](http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/reg/circum/younger.html)

<http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/talent_search.htm>

[http://www.tip.duke.edu/resources/parents_students/interpret...](http://www.tip.duke.edu/resources/parents_students/interpreting_SAT-
ACT_scores.html)

4) Colleges are aware that the majority of students who take the SAT at all
take it more than once.

[http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Avg_Score...](http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Avg_Scores_of_Repeat_Test_Takers.pdf)

5) Colleges are in the business of helping students learn, and they don't mind
students taking efforts to improve their scores. They know that students
prepare for tests.

From the New York Times: "Although coaching would no doubt continue if subject
tests replaced the SAT, at least students would be focused on content as much
as test-taking strategies, Mr. Murray said. There would also be pressure to
improve local high school curriculums so that students were prepared, he
wrote.

"These arguments make sense to Mr. Fitzsimmons [dean of admission at Harvard],
who said, 'People are going to prepare anyway, so they might as well study
chemistry or biology.' He added that 'the idea of putting more emphasis on the
subject tests is of great interest' to his group."

[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagew...](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19sat.html?pagewanted=print)

6) And now the College Board is back in the business of letting students
choose which test scores to send into colleges,

[http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-
reasoning/...](http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-
reasoning/scores/policy)

so now there is less reason than ever to suppose that colleges care how many
times you take the test, because the colleges have no way to know how many
times you took the test officially.

Colleges treat applicants uniformly now by considering their highest scores,
period.

[http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-
forum/349391-ret...](http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-
forum/349391-retake-how-many-times-take-sat-act.html#post4198038)

[http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/electron...](http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/electronic_resources/viewbook/Rollo0809_GuideApplying.pdf)

From the Harvard admission office: "If you submit more than one set of scores
for any of the required tests, the Admissions Committee considers only your
best scores—even if your strongest SAT Subject Tests or portions of the SAT
Reasoning Test were taken on different dates."

See also a Newsweek article about the renewed score choice policy adopted by
College Board.

<http://www.newsweek.com/id/172585>

Some colleges want to see all scores a student has ever obtained, period, but
as one admission officer asks, if "a student submits a single best sitting of
2320," does anyone really care "how low were her other score sets?"

~~~
yters
It isn't much of an aptitude test in this case.

~~~
tokenadult
In what case would it be an aptitude test?

~~~
unalone
All aptitude tests will fail once they become a standard, because suddenly
test-takers are able to prepare for their test. Take the SAT. All students are
told by teachers that it's in their best interests to buy books of old tests
so they can see and memorize the questions and see patterns for answering in
the new test. The test suddenly becomes a metatest: the real test is very
often about how well you can prepare for a test. And in the end, it doesn't
matter, because within a certain percentile colleges don't care. It's all so
that CollegeBoard can make a lot of money and certain colleges can use the SAT
as a qualifier to filter students more quickly.

A real aptitude test might test students' abilities to form opinions and
chains of logic. They might test, rather than their ability to write a five-
paragraph essay or to understand an analogy, the ability of a student to
convey information with as precise language as possible. A math aptitude test
may test a student's ability to prove points - but rather than using an
obscure formula like current high school geometry, it would use natural
language and grade on the idea rather than the jargon.

Really, the only aptitude test that matters and can't be faked is one for
creativity, and that's only because you _can't_ test on it. (A year ahead of
me at the New Jersey Governor's School for the Arts, according to our head
instructor, was called by CollegeBoard to try a hypothetical test for
creativity - including a multiple choice section, of all things. The test was
abandoned when all the handpicked students gave extremely different responses
to every question.)

I think that's why colleges are abandoning the SAT test as criteria. Some top-
notch colleges don't ask for test scores at all (some are even weaning away
from GPA, which is a godsend for certain types of students). That's a smart
choice on their part. What do test scores prove? Our year's valedictorian, a
very bright girl who also took a dozen SAT practice tests, got a 1600 on the
main section. I had no practice tests and got a 1510. In the end, the numbers
are so close as not to matter. Even a perfect 800 category means nothing other
than a person's happening not to slip up (and with a 4-hour test, slip-ups are
all too common). Our principal, at a ceremony, gave us awards for our perfect
sections while talking about how this made us perfect scholars. This is a
terrible mindset with testing and it encourages things to get only worse.

~~~
tokenadult
"I think that's why colleges are abandoning the SAT test as criteria. Some
top-notch colleges don't ask for test scores at all"

What is the evidence that colleges are abandoning the SAT test? What top-notch
colleges do you specifically have in mind that don't ask for test scores at
all?

Some comments on trends in college preferences for test scores can be found in

[http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-
university/57965...](http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-
university/579659-report-harvard-info-session-sunday-28-september-2008-a.html)

of which the immediately relevant part is a statement by a Harvard admission
officer at a public meeting, "There are a lot of students with A's, and test
scores help us distinguish among them. Standardized tests are comparison
tools. The better predictors are SAT II Subject Tests and AP tests. They are
more important than the SAT I or the ACT. You may have read that colleges are
expressing doubt about standardized tests, but I'll give you a clue: We won't
be cutting back on tests. We might require five SAT II tests. Those are less
coachable than the SAT I."

The largest number of colleges that are publicized as SAT-optional might in
fact better be characterized as admission-requirement-optional, as they admit
most applicants who apply at all, and in many cases have explicit open-
admission policies.

"a very bright girl who also took a dozen SAT practice tests, got a 1600 on
the main section. I had no practice tests and got a 1510. In the end, the
numbers are so close as not to matter."

This is a good point. Students who obsess about a perfect SAT score simply
don't understand the theory of estimating mental abilities. Any one instance
of taking the test is a sample of learned behavior, and no such sample is
exhaustive.

Because almost all students make mistakes on the SAT, and because all colleges
desire to fill their entering classes each year, all colleges everywhere
gladly admit students who made mistakes on the SAT.

[http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-
admissions/41382...](http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-
admissions/413821-sat-score-frequencies-freshman-class-sizes.html)

And yet, a perfect SAT score does not guarantee admission at any college.

[http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-
forum/377882-how...](http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-
forum/377882-how-do-top-scorers-tests-fail-gain-admission-top-schools.html)

So really students worry far too much about the SAT when they could be doing
something important like reading a challenging book about a subject they like
or pursuing a personal project that satisfies their curiosity.

------
mamama
Just another way for the ETS to sandwich more money.

------
arjungmenon
I wish it had been so when I wrote the SAT.

