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A comment on SAT Scores Fall as More Students Take the Test. Parent comment

Re:SAT Scores Fall as More Students Take the Test by akhilcacharya on Thursday September 26, 2019 @10:00AM (#21080918)
> I think we had a class period where they talked about the sorts of questions that appear on the exam, told us about when/where it'd be offered, etc., along with ads for SAT-prep services, but I think a lot of folks ended up deciding it would be best to get a good-night's sleep before walking in on it.

That's actually non-trivial amount of prep, but I personally don't know anybody that took the SAT "cold". Everyone prepped quite a bit - I prepped for months and got mediocre scores consistently ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Re:SAT Scores Fall as More Students Take the Test by _Nat_ on Thursday September 26, 2019 @10:25AM (#21081131)
Yeah.. prep doesn't seem too effective. That's what they told us at prep school (heh). I mean, they basically just said that we ought to ensure that we have sharpened pencils; adequate batteries for our calculator; a good-night's sleep; and to show up early.

I can appreciate how some folks want to do better, and are willing to work for better scores by investing in test-prep. And I can understand how test-prep providers would encourage them to do so, talking up their own services, as any business would.

But, I don't think it's that big a thing in the end. If anything, I worry that students who spend a lot of time prepping are being cheated out of their time, money, and education.

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PS: To be clear, students would definitely do well to spend time studying for their future. Just, instead of trying to game the SAT, they can learn something useful, whether that's math, physics, computer programming, philosophy, creative writing, or whatever.

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Re:SAT Scores Fall as More Students Take the Test by vonmoltke on Thursday September 26, 2019 @02:42PM (#21084075)
> I personally don't know anybody that took the SAT "cold"

How do you define "cold"? IIRC, my prep consisted of just taking the PSAT. I ended up with a 1370 (700 verbal, 670 math), which was good enough for my purposes.

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