The SAT Reasoning Test - Essay Example

The SAT Reasoning Test Introduction The SAT Reasoning Test was developed first by Carl Brigham to test the mental ability of army officials (Wooller, 2004). After 80 years of the first test conducted by College Board, this standardized test is now used as a main criterion of admission in almost all top universities all over the world. This paper aims to investigate into why the present SAT design is not an appropriate indicator of a student’s capabilities and intelligence and why it needs to undergo further changes. Why SAT Needs Further Redesign? According to Karen Huffman in her book ‘Psychology in Action’, the scientific standards for a good Psychological Test to measure intelligence are standardization, reliability and validity. Standardization is when norms and uniform procedures must be established for giving and scoring in a particular test. Reliability includes that the test should be such that measures stable and consistent scores when the test is administered the second time and lastly validity is when the results measure what the true purpose of conducting the test was (Huffman, 2007). SAT is standard for everyone and is also reliable at the same time. But when it comes to validity, some people argue that the results of the test do not show the true intelligence of the person. Why is this so? According to K12 Academics, which is an Education Resource Centre, the analogies in the verbal section are ambiguous and there are errors in scoring of math scores. However, in 2001 Richard C. Atkinson urged the American Council of Education to drop SAT Reasoning test as a college admission requirement. He recommended making this test optional. Because of this, in 2005, the pattern of the SAT Reasoning test was changed. (K12 Academics, 2008) In 2006, the average national score of the SAT dropped by seven percentage points from 2005. This was the largest drop in 31 years and was reported in the ‘Yale Daily News’ by Josh Duboff (2008). An article published in 2007 by Maya Srikishnan, who is a reporter for ‘The Daily Texan’, reports that this new and improved test also got criticized because of its writing section. This section required students to write an essay in 25 minutes. The students argue that this does not show colleges their full potential, as 25 minutes is not enough to write something worth being in a college application. Also this test puts people who do not have English as their first language at a disadvantage as a bigger portion of the test now required the students to know English. This new test was also condemned because of the duration of the test. Students and educationalists argue that the test is too long and this affects the scores of students (Srikishnan, 2007). In short, the new test is argued to be even less valid than the older one. There have also been a lot of errors in the calculation of the final scores. In 2006, it was reported by ‘The Daily Gamecock’ that all together out of 495,000 tests, 4411 tests had been incorrectly marks. This error in checking makes the test unreliable to some extent. (Pope, 2006) In an article ‘Test Bias: The SAT in the College Admissions Process’ written by Susan Woollen, she reports that College Board itself emphasizes that SAT should not be used as a main criterion of admission and that it is wrong to determine the grade point average, class rank and other qualities in a student by just considering the score of SAT. She also argues that the questions in SAT are also culturally biased towards Blacks and Hispanics. In 2002, the average score of a white American was 527 in verbal and 533 on math section while blacks scored an average of 430 in verbal and 427 in math. This proves that when the scores of different ethnicities were compared, there was a huge difference and according to Susan and her sources, this difference is because of the cultural biased design of SAT. The minorities kept scoring consistently lower than whites. However, this could be because of the quality of education and low housing conditions that are given to the minorities. (Wooller, 2004). Therefore SAT should be designed in such a way that will not only increase the accuracy of the results but will also eliminate cultural differences. On the other hand, College Board argues that the new SAT design will project what the students actually need to know at that point. (Trojan, 2005). According to K12 Academics, SAT II which is also called SAT Subject Tests have said to be more content oriented which gives the students more opportunity to show their true potential in the subject they consider themselves to be good at. (K12 Academics, 2008) Also, for instance when there are 20 students with equal good grades; the SAT should then be used to decide on which one to be selected. Steve Vogel in 2007 indicates in his article that SAT’s present design is useful in measuring a student’s reasoning and critical thinking skills. Plus the SAT also tests a student’s ability of answer questions quickly as time constraint is also there. Lastly, it also helps improve a student’s vocabulary. Conclusion After considering both the sides, we come to the conclusion that even though SAT may have some benefits, but the criticism of SAT is valid and the SAT must therefore undergo further redesign which will make it less culturally biased, more accurate and valid. Till then it should not be the only indicator of a person’s success. According to Charles Buchanan the score of the SAT should be important but at the same time the most important factor that should be considered while giving admission should be the academic record of the student in high school. College Board must pass this point to parents and teachers and other universities so that everyone has equal opportunities when it comes to admission in universities. (Buchanan, 2001) WORK CITED 1. “New SAT could have benefits for colleges.” Daily Trojan. 23 Feb 2005. 2. Pope, Justin. “College Board endures sharp criticism on SAT”. The Daily Gamecock. 24 March 2006. 3. Charles Buchanan, “SAT not the best indicatior of Success” UCLA Today. 2001 4. Maya Srikishnan. “College Board faces criticism for new SAT section”. The Daily Texan. 13 April 2007. 5. Josh Duboff. “Criticism of SAT rises after average score decreases dramatically”. Yale Daily News. 6 September 2006 6. Susan Wooller, “Test Bias: The SAT in the College Admissions Process”. 2004 7. K12 Academics. 2008 8. Karen Huffman. “Psychology in Action”. 2007 Read More