Re:SAT Scores Fall as More Students Take the Test
by gumby on Thursday September 26, 2019 @09:38AM
(#21080760)
Same: in 1981 our SAT "prep" was literally two sentences one morning: 1 - there will be little bubbles you need to fill in and you must use a pencil and 2 - some statistical strategy concerning guessing. Everybody took the test only once; I don't remember any efforts to game the system.
But that in itself points out the advantage: the test was basically designed to reflect the level of instruction my school already gave. If you don't get that from your school (or believed you don't) you would have resorted to additional study and the like.
Likewise back then there weren't "AP" classes and the like: if you wanted to take the AP test you could but there were no special arrangements at my school.
I don't know how much things might have changed: my kid's SAT prep in 2017 was simply to purchase the book but not open it. On the other hand there's a whole apparatus of AP infrastructure with special "AP" classes, different scoring for those classes(!!) etc. AN enormous kabuki of infrastructure that as far as I can tell signifies nothing.
But that in itself points out the advantage: the test was basically designed to reflect the level of instruction my school already gave. If you don't get that from your school (or believed you don't) you would have resorted to additional study and the like.
Likewise back then there weren't "AP" classes and the like: if you wanted to take the AP test you could but there were no special arrangements at my school.
I don't know how much things might have changed: my kid's SAT prep in 2017 was simply to purchase the book but not open it. On the other hand there's a whole apparatus of AP infrastructure with special "AP" classes, different scoring for those classes(!!) etc. AN enormous kabuki of infrastructure that as far as I can tell signifies nothing.