revisiting the SAT exam

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GrayHare

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Discussion of personality tests here got me wondering about the SAT exam. Have I forgotten more than I've learned during the decades since high school? So, I tried one of the sample/practice SATs online without any advance prep.

The test's duration seemed uncomfortably long, but then I realized it's been quite awhile sit I've sat that long for a test, at least a non-medical one. The result: I was surprised both my Math and Language scores rose, with the one that originally had been lower gaining more. Then I saw that changes to the test in 1992 increased the average total score by about 50 points.

There are free, self-scored sample tests at Full-Length SAT Suite Practice Tests – SAT Suite | College Board"]Full-Length SAT Suite Practice Tests – SAT Suite | College Board
 
IF I wanted to take them again, I would need prep.
Took them twice, Jr and Sr year in HS as they were required. My Jr year, we also had the Armed Forces show up and our class took a bunch of tests for them. I have no idea why. I had tons of recruiters calling (actually, that's probably why). I was interested in a specific Nurse program the Army had, but it had stopped that year!
I also had a two day test to get into nursing school. And a two day test to get my RN license.
That's enough testing for me!
 
I have no interest in taking the SAT exams again.

I took certification exams for my c@reer choice and it was two 7-hour days in a room with a pencil and a cheap calculator as my only tools. No desire to subject myself to that kind of stress again.

YMMV
 
The time limit is about 40 minutes for each of math and language. The toughest section for me was geometry because I don't use it much and have forgotten some of those formulas.

After seeing a relative with Alzheimers during Thanksgiving, I've wondered about my own mental state. Retaking a standardized exam every 5 or so years might be a way to monitor and obtain an objective measure, but I've not heard of this being done by others.
 
Koolau said:
I have no interest in taking the SAT exams again.

I took certification exams for my c@reer choice and it was two 7-hour days in a room with a pencil and a cheap calculator as my only tools. No desire to subject myself to that kind of stress again.

YMMV
Click to expand...
One of my services as a consultant is to assist organizations in evaluating how fairly and accurately their certification exams measure what they are intended to measure. Or, as my better-half calls it, "some sort of stats thing that nobody cares about."
 
Koolau said:
I have no interest in taking the SAT exams again.
Click to expand...
This! I have the common/recurring nightmare that I forgot a test or class and they came back to get my Bachelors, which in turn negated my Masters! Like the DNA testing out there, I'm not putting anything out there that I don't have to! :LOL:

Flieger
 
GrayHare said:
After seeing a relative with Alzheimers during Thanksgiving, I've wondered about my own mental state.
Click to expand...
After reading this thread, so have I. :2funny:

Innumerable standardized tests over the years, and every single one was stressful. Absolutely no desire to subject myself to that stuff again!
 
As a Comp Sci faculty member, I proctored a calc 3 exam once (did the calc series plus additional match classes in college long ago w/o issue and liked them).

Looking at the exam, I realized I would likely fail it had I taken it. Ugh.
 
I have never in my life worried about taking an exam, either before or after the test, and I've taken several where the stakes were pretty high. I have just done the best I could and moved on. I recall the day when one of the partners in my law firm found me in the law library to tell me that I had passed the bar exam. I said "Thanks, I figured I would" and went back to work. The rest of the first year associates knocked off and went out to celebrate.
 
pacergal said:
IF I wanted to take them again, I would need prep.
Took them twice, Jr and Sr year in HS as they were required. My Jr year, we also had the Armed Forces show up and our class took a bunch of tests for them. I have no idea why. I had tons of recruiters calling (actually, that's probably why). I was interested in a specific Nurse program the Army had, but it had stopped that year!
I also had a two day test to get into nursing school. And a two day test to get my RN license.
That's enough testing for me!
Click to expand...
Going from memory which can be failing... but it is the ASVAB test... Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery... I was told that I scored the highest in Houston when I took it... got a LOT of recruiters calling me as I was in NROTC at the time...

I actually thought that test was really easy..
 
I took the SAT way back in 1986 or so. My Dad was really supportive and so he helped make sure I prepped well, got a good night's rest, had the sharp #2 pencils ready to go, and so forth. He even got up the morning of my SAT exam and made me French toast (my favorite breakfast)!

I did really well. Well enough to get into some of the top schools in the country.

Fast forward to 2013 or so, and my oldest son takes the SAT. I encourage him to do some of the practice tests; he decides to look at them at 11pm the night before the exam and says, "Huh, weird questions". I encourage him to go to bed early; he goes to bed at like 3am. I offer to fix him breakfast and he says no thanks he's fine.

It turns out in 2013 they are doing the SAT on a 2400 point scale unlike the 1600 point scale when I did. So my son gets his score back and it's X out of 2400. I think, "That sounds pretty good, I wonder how it compares on the 1600 point scale."

So I put it into google and his score scaled to the exact same as mine. At first I think, "Hey, that's pretty good, we're equally smart." And then I realize that he did the same score as I did with essentially zero prep, zero food, and minimal sleep.

Proud of him for sure but I was also a bit jealous!
 
For me the worst thing about the SAT was because of the way you were scored you weren't supposed to guess. I don't remember the details but getting it wrong was apparently worse than leaving it unanswered somehow. I did better on the ACT I think because you could guess. I remember my scores for both of them but they were not good. Did really great on the ASVAB though.
 
I may give this a shot. See how much I have declined since 1965.
 
Regarding SAT’s, once is enough. Taking it now, once again, would show me nothing I don’t already know. This thread is one answer to the perennial question “what will you do all day?”
 
Of mental decline, I think the saying is "You're the last one to know." And maybe that's a good thing.

Another saying is, "Use it or lose it." For those like me that did not originally log a perfect, or near-perfect, SAT score, I would expect a lifetime of experiences to boost at least one's language skills. Anyone who has w*rked in a science or tech field might be the most likely among us to see an increase in math. Something else that can boost scores is there's no pressure now. No one but you will know the results.
 
Taking it now isn't really going to give you a meaningful measure. Taking it in school, it's not even prep, it's your daily all-day learning that's getting tested. I mean if you wanted to prep for several months, then maybe.

Which is what the high performers do today - in addition to being good students (or not, ha!) they are paying big bucks for big prep to improved their scores.
 
GrayHare said:
I would expect a lifetime of experiences to boost at least one's language skills. Anyone who has w*rked in a science or tech field might be the most likely among us to see an increase in math.
Click to expand...
But I'd argue, no. The language, I might know more words and be better able to spot something that looks wrong, would I know the grammatical term anymore? Would I know all the statistics equations and what scenario was called for in the questions because I was a good techie?

Nah.
 
I had never sat for the SAT since it was GCE A levels for us to enter university. But I did take GMAT to apply for my MBA which I thought was kind of fun and scored very well.
 
No desire to take any tests not required. I don't recall my exact SAT score, but it was fairly high and got me into a real competitive college engineering program. Only took it once, even though they allowed a person to take again. I also took the ASVAB and had a lot of interest from the military, but after getting into my chosen college for engineering, that was my path.
 
CO-guy said:
One of my services as a consultant is to assist organizations in evaluating how fairly and accurately their certification exams measure what they are intended to measure. Or, as my better-half calls it, "some sort of stats thing that nobody cares about."
Click to expand...
The cert exams I took were put together by the "good ol' boys" of the profession years before and they would not have looked kindly on anyone checking their exams for fairness or accuracy of measurement. The good news was that there were reams of "practice exams" available for study.

At least in terms of how I used my degree and certificate, what the exams tested was mostly trivia and bore very little resemblance to what I did with my knowledge in the field.

I'm sure your evaluation would have pointed out those flaws and your advice would have been promptly ignored. :facepalm: :cool:

Heh, heh, what else is new?
 
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