SAT's and ACT and all that.

Zat0pek wrote:

The correlation coefficient of SAT performance to college grades is about +.40 (I\'ve seen numbers from +.38 to +.42). Not a huge correlation, to be sure, but enough to be a useful tool when included with other methods of evaluation (grades, letters of recommendation, achievement in other fields, etc.)

The corellation for Freshman year grades is only this strong for caucasian men. Outside of this group, it\'s a fairly poor predictor. Actually High School grades are far more predictive of Freshman year grades despite the differences in grading between schools/regions etc.

Extremists always want to claim that the SAT is either completely worthless or the be all, end all of evaluations. It\'s neither. It\'s one of several useful tools of evaluation, nothing more, nothing less.

Accusations of extremism aside, I don\'t believe it\'s completely worthless, it\'s just not worth the amount of time and money and anxiety that is put into it.

If we got rid of it tomorrow, I think just about everyone would be fine (aside from a number of folks outside of Princeton, NJ).

Still we live with it, so if Long View is scared because he didn\'t do well on the test, he should make sure that he makes it clear to the college he is applying to that he has other winning attributes. Many colleges will be able to overlook the SAT if the student applicant has enough going for him. Do well in your classes, that is always the most important.

If you haven\'t taken the test yet, see if you can get a coach. It\'s funny how people who can afford coaches do better than those who can\'t. And yes, coaching for this test is different from studying for a class or an Achievement test.

I've been out of college for over a decade now. I questioned the need for them then, and do now.

Got a problem with that?

they have professors like that "millions Mogadishus" DeGenova there

cripes what did you expect? it's a commie paradaise

Flagpole Willy wrote:

Post of the day. Good show brother.

Agree - Well done!

grif wrote:

Hey Longview, I'll take fries with that shake, too!

The ACT's and the SAT's are incredibly good measures both of what one has learned and one's intelligence. And college and university admissions officials look at them quite strenuously, unless of course you can throw a football, shoot a basketball. Even diversity students need a quality score on their tests, as the student populations become more and more diverse. If you took them and did poorly, go to the library and take out some study exams, and re-do them.

They're good, but not incredibly good. One thing they need to do is get rid of the 'essay' which has turned into a tool to boost scores, especially if the person manages to work into their essay they are from some 'historically aggrieved' group. In other words, more PC nonsense.

Between the recentering of scores, and 'adjusting' the weight of questions, the SAT is no longer what it once was in judging ability or intelligence.

White people write a test that shows that white people are smarter than black people. Why are they smarter than black people? Because they scored better on the test.

Then the white people write another test that shows that white people are smarter than black people. Why does this test work? Because it correlates to the first test.

But now white people are twice as sure that they are smarter than black people because they now have two tests that demonstrate it.

the tests aren't so good

i mean, I got 1500 (750/750) and my grades are down the shitter senior year my totoal gpa is like 3.0

but how can I complain man, they're getting me inta colege

...keep you out of Iraq, according to John Kerry.

Asian people wrote tests that showed that Asian people are on average better at certain visuospatial tasks than White people. Asian people also wrote tests that showed White people are on average better than Asian people at certain verbal and analytical tasks. The Asian tests showed both Asian people and White people were better than Black people at these tests. So now where do you go?