Oh yeah, there was a program where I took the SAT in the 7th grade too, I forgot about that. John Hopkins University sponsored it or something. I got a 1100 or something. Bah.
Yeah, John Hopkins. I got a one course scholarship to Beaver College for both of those. Of course, they expired once I was done high school when I didn’t have time, so now that I need to take Bio I over the summer I can’t use them.
Woah, calm down Info. No need for that.
Originally posted by Kagon
Woah, calm down Info. No need for that.
Dude, I 'm just fucking with you.
And there’s been enough fucking.
Maybe so… But I don’t think I can retort with anything without sounding even more arrogant then you already see me as. I don’t really have a lot of similar people I know that well to compare myself to, and the ones I do seem to have the same tendiencies, but I still see the other people I’m surrounded with as having different issues. Maybe I’m just reading them wrong, or maybe I’m just outright wrong in the first place, it’s my problem if I am. Either way, sometimes its nice to feel like I’m in my own little seperate world, and if that seems arrogant I can’t really argue.
Woah, I feel like the thread just died. I feel I did horrible ont he SATs. I only got a 1040… 490 – Verbal and a 590-- Math, I think. And already, someone took them in 7th grade, I think Cyber, who scored higher than I did… wallow in my shame.
I at least think it measures a certain degree of knowledge, though, I only took SAT I, so basically the basics.sits down on the floor and makes a cutesyface and now, one of you smart Americans will explain to me what the hell SATs and ACTs are. =^^=
it’s a standardized test designed to measure your aptitutde at math (up to geometry and algebra II), and english comprehension abilities such as analyzing written passages and vocabulary. That’s at least basically what the SATs are, I think the ACTs are designed subtly differently.
Ah. Thank you.
Originally posted by Merlin
it’s a standardized test designed to measure your aptitutde at math (up to geometry and algebra II), and english comprehension abilities such as analyzing written passages and vocabulary. That’s at least basically what the SATs are, I think the ACTs are designed subtly differently.
The ACTs also test basic scientific knowledge and some other things I forget. I was going to take it, but I was too lazy to register. =p
Well, I’m against most standardized testing in general, so the SAT is no exception. Sin said most of what I would have said, so I’ll leave it at that.
The SAT is a big multiple choice test kids have to take if they want to go to college in the states. As you can see from our comments, the test has problems and these problem are becoming more and more recognized as alternatives like the ACT are considered.
It’s not really science knowledge, Roun. It’s more of an ability to read and comprehend scientific graphs. I don’t recall more than elementary science background needed. Although, I may be grouping basic chemistry and such as elementary. I don’t remember.
Also, the ACT tests a higher knowledge of math. I’m pretty sure SAT only goes to Algebra I or Geometry. Whichever it goes to, ACT goes to the next level or possibly even pre-Calc. I don’t remember that either.
Then, while the SAT has those damnable analogies, ACT covers stuff like being able to know whether the word “effect” was used properly in a sentence, basic needed grammar rules, etc.
Overall, I just felt the ACT was a more rounded test. It has sufficient bits of just knowing stuff, knowing how to do stuff, and knowing how to comprehend stuff. It seemed more intuitive. Plus, you don’t get penalized for getting a question wrong.
I think the SAT is valuable in that it exists independently of one’s school. If one’s school has a lot of grade inflation, that still won’t help one with the SATs. I do agree with the criticism of multiple-choice questions, and I suspect that that’s leading colleges to place greater emphasis on the APs, SAT IIs, and so forth.
I agree with the need for an out-of-school standard to evaluate students. I do think the standard needs to be a reflection of the student’s abilities though, which the SAT isn’t. But yeah, colleges ARE looking more and more at other stuff like AP, which is good.
Well…AP tests are primarily composed of multiple-choice tests also, though most have some sort of free response to go along with it. AP Tests really aren’t a fair indicator, because a majority of students currently don’t even take a single AP test, nor are AP Tests equally available to all students (inner city and catholic school students often have far fewer opportunities for AP…at least here in Chicago), so I don’t think it’s really fair to use the AP as the great equalizing factor. Nor do I think it will ever replace the ACT/SAT, even if the important of those tests have decreased marginally, which in reality they might not have.
Being a British boy, we don’t do those sorts of SATs. We do sats, which look at our english, maths and science, seperately. In years 6 and 9.
However we do, do a CATs (Cognitive Ability Test). Which looks at verbal, math and visual skills. Which sounds very similar to your SATs. And from what I have been told, I had one of the higher CATs results in my year, but I never found out the exact figures.
I also think this sort of test is rather useful, but people take it far too seriously.
I think that adding a writing section will greatly improve the relevancy of SATs. As far as including a science section as the ACTs have, well, that depends on the nature of this section. I think they should give you data and ask you to interpret the data to make a judgement, but quizzing you on factual knowledge of science or history seems pretty useless as a guage of natural intelligence. They should also beef up the math section but make it more logical in nature instead of what they teach you in high school math.
The ACT sounds well-rounded, but is it rigorous? Are the questions hard?
Personally, I don’t think that multiple choice tests can accurately assess academic ability. There are too many of those lucky people that just guess and still come out with a good mark. We don’t take SATs in England, but I did take a similar kind of test called ALICE last year which tells you the percentage of students in the country who got a lower mark than you in maths, English and reasoning or visual skills or something. I don’t think they give a good indication of ability because I managed to get full marks in the English section, and my GCSE results in English were a full grade lower than anything else I got. I’ve not even had to write in a full sentence at school for the last two years, so it can’t assess things like writing ability, or the way your thought processes work like some essay based questions can. I did think that the visual skills section was a fairly good estimate of basic intelligence though, that section was more like an IQ test.