Comparing Generational Dick Sizes to Get Even More Difficult

[100% Wolf]

The terms certainly are vague but I have a feeling they are dumbing down the test because they think the current test requires too much preparation.

[MikeH]

Exactly my point - adults always have a gut feeling that any change to the exams they took must be making them easier.

[100% Wolf]

Their stated goal is "putting SAT test prep companies out of business and aligning the test to the Common Core academic standards". I don't know what Common Core is but if they want to destroy the SAT test prep industry they're probably not going to accomplish that by making the test harder.

[Sava]

As long as overprivileged upper-middle class children exist, there will be useless services catering to the whim of their achievement-obsessed parents.

[MikeH]

I totally agree that a goal of preventing people getting additional test prep is insane. If they'd thought that through they'd realise that that'd mean making an unteachable test so it would also make it impossible for school teachers.

You can test understanding rather than rote responses. You can't prevent people paying for additional test prep, but testing understanding would at least mean that the outcome is that people actually ain a firm understanding of principles rather than a few quickly forgotten stock answers.

[MikeH]

Anyway, that makes for a better test, regardless of whether or not it's "harder".

[snoopy369]

The point of the "put test prep out of business" is that test prep largely exists because it teaches you 'testing strategies', how to figure out the 'trick questions' and things like that - things related to testing but not to actual intelligence or predictive of ability to succeed (beyond the link to income).

Prep will always help, but if they make it freely available and make the test more reasonable - not necessarily harder or easier, but more useful in identifying intelligence and knowledge - that will make it more accessible to the less well off who can't afford the thousand dollar prep classes. That's a good goal, in my opinion.

[Sava]

If a kid can take a relatively short test prep class and significantly increase their score, then the test is faulty and should be reformed or scrapped altogether.

[Dauphin]

Exactly my point - adults always have a gut feeling that any change to the exams they took must be making them easier.

Grade on a curve.

[Hauldren Collider]

If you need a thousand dollar prep class to do well on the SAT, you're probably retarded.

Anyway there's nothing wrong with prep classes. Objecting to them is silly. The problem is that the prep classes successfully manage to improve scores without teaching anything of academic value--just strategies for the SAT itself. If the test were better constructed, a prep class would involve actually learning material. If the test forces students to learn things they wouldn't otherwise know, then it is doing its job. And there is nothing wrong with paying money to actually learn new things.

[regexcellent]

I aced the math portion with minimal effort. If English isn't your first language then I could understand having some trouble on the verbal.

[EPW]

I didn't study for the SAT and got 1350/1600 on it. I can't remember the verbal/math breakdown or whatever. I didn't need to do better to get into the school I wanted to go to, so why bother?

[DaShi]

Man, too easy.

[molly bloom]

I tried to publish a short story about Ben Kenobi and Kidiocious crushing each others' testicles with bibles while they french kissed each other, but I couldn't find any takers.

Oliver Reed gets his 'nads crushed in Ken Russell's 'The Devils'.

Did you include any references to nymphomaniac hunchbacked nuns ? If not, that could be one reason for the lack of uptake...

[molly bloom]

If you need a thousand dollar prep class to do well on the SAT, you're probably retarded.

I think the same of people who consistently overuse the word '******' and variations on it.