November 18th, 2009 | 
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We are frequently asked whether or not studying for the SAT can make that much difference on your score. “Isn’t the SAT more of an intelligence test?”students often ask. No, it’s not. In fact, do you know what the acronym “SAT” stands for? According to the College Board, which administers the SAT, it stands for nothing. That’s right, nothing. A look at how this came to be will give you some insight into what you’re really up against on the SAT.
The first SAT, the “Scholastic Aptitude Test” was administered in 1926. It had been adapted by a Princeton professor from an IQ test first given to US Army recruits during WWI, when the entire concept of IQ testing was still new. The test was later adopted by Harvard University as a way to identify potential scholarship students who did not come from Harvard’s traditional student base of upper-class Eastern boarding schools. By 1942, the College Board had adopted the SAT as the single test it administered for all college applicants. The key word in this version of the acronym SAT is aptitude—by definition an ability you are born with, a discrete, innate quality that cannot be fundamentally changed, like your hair color or eye color. By extension, aptitude cannot be taught.
But throughout the 1970s-80s, one-size-fits-all IQ tests were beginning to fall out of favor as people began to recognize inherent biases in the tests and the fact that successful people can have different types of intelligence and performance styles. Furthermore, evidence that the SAT predicts college success is sketchy, at best, even by the College Board’s own admission. Studies have shown anywhere from a 6% to 25% correlation between SAT test scores and first-year college grades. The poor reliability of SAT scores to predict college grades drops off even further after the freshman year and further still in predicting who will eventually graduate. And perhaps the most damning evidence against the SAT’s measure of “aptitude” came in the success of the myriad test-prep companies that sprang up to coach students to higher scores on the test. If aptitude really is an innate quality, how could it be taught?
Seeking to defend their multi-million dollar monopoly on a college admission test whose merits could not really be pinned down, the College Board renamed the test in 1990, and the Scholastic Aptitude Test became the Scholastic Assessment Test, an implicit acknowledgment that the test had never measured aptitude all along. Same acronym, same dodgy test, different name.
Still facing criticism that the name did not aptly describe the test, in 1994, the College Board changed the name again: this time SAT wasn’t an acronym for anything. Sort of like “KFC”—if you’re catching flak because time has shown that fried foods are unhealthy, don’t change the food, just change the name. Maybe no one will notice.
Perhaps the irony of an acronym that stands for nothing as the name of a test that basically predicts nothing became apparent to the College Board, because in 2005, the name of the test was changed yet again to the SAT Reasoning Test. The “SAT” part still doesn’t stand for anything.
In the absence of scientific evidence of what the SAT actually measures and growing criticism from students and universities of the high value placed on a single test, Wayne Camara, head of College Board’s Office of Research, has described the test thus:
It’s not an achievement measure, which would be redundant with what grades are. But it’s certainly not an IQ test…. It’s far from it…. It’s much more developed reasoning—the type of skills students develop over an extended period of time. (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/test/views.html)
Perhaps. But what a number of experts believe is that the only thing the test measures is your ability to take the test. And we here at SAT Speed Prep can certainly teach you to do that.
The SAT Information and tips posts on The Fastlane are written by Donna Lack, The Chief of the Pit Crew and Education Director for Speed Prep, LLC.
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It is true that there is a need for preparation for the SAT exams. to score good marks. Intelligence is the base, but unless it is honed on a particular way, one does not expect to get good marks.
Tony Smith
these exams try to evaluate how intelligent someone is, but
most times, people get nervous during the tests, and that is
what makes them fail. In your first day in university, you’ll
realize that everything you studied for the SATs was very easy.
That is exactly why it’s a good idea to study and take practice tests before attempting to take the SAT. Repetition of any exercise, whether it be a math problem, writing, sports or playing a musical instrument, goes a long way to reducing performance anxiety at the time you are called upon to deliver the results of all your practice. Take a look at our practice tests and work the weekly challenge for a couple of months and on test day you may find that your nervousness has disappeared.
I know that some people will get nervous and forget everything that they studied, but it’s very true that repetition goes a long way. It’s better to get nervous and know things by repetition than to get nervous without having any practice under your belt.
There is also the likelihood of becoming nervous when the students prepare until the last minute of the examination. It is always better to relax a bit before the start of the examinations. Preparing till the last minute adds to tension and may intensify nervousness.
SAT examination demands special preparation and it very much clear. SAT is such an examination that it testifies that practice awards perfection. Yes, perfection and time-framed answering are developed if one practice and clears the tests necessary for the SAT examination.
SAT is basically about reasoning of an individual however its not a form of IQ tests. SAT is a way in which the individual can be prepared for further tests or it can be considered as a preliminary way for students to establish themselves as bright students.
You learn something new every day. I had no idea that the name of this test has changed so much over the years and that SAT itself doesn’t mean anything now. Regardless, you definitely need to prep for the test. Not doing so is inviting danger.
I gotta speak out that I don’t really care if it means anything or not. My mom calls the SATs a necessary evil. It sounds right to me. I want to do well or I wouldn’t be here. Mom found it for me and told me to check it out.
I consider SAT as a form of IQ test but doesn’t consider it to be strictly an IQ test. It is more like a way of evaluating ourselves in what we learned and grabbed so far in our study life.
With the kind of competition evolved against SAT from the time of its inception till 2005, and the consequent admission of the SAT academic to say that it takes many thing to assess one’s aptitude and one among them is the most prolific and accepted mode is attempting SAT test. With the help of satspeedprep, students can stay assure to clear the test in flying colours.
‘Want to Succeed’. You may be right when you call SAT ‘a necessary evil’. You may not be right too. Your exercises must yield fruit in future. May it be that you have not succeeded in securing good scores in the exam. I do not think anything is lost. What you are learning today may be useful a decade later. I am sure of it.
It’s true that SAT has been chosen as the model to select students and as one cannot deny it, without any doubt students can approach SAT Speed Prep to groom themselves for passing the test with flying colors.
It’s a great piece of history about SAT and definitely it makes students to set higher goals and achieve it with great results in their college studies. But of late, it’s being reported that SAT is lacking in developing intellectual growth among students.
It’s understood that SAT is used to predict the reasoning and basic mathematical ability of students for first year grades. Very much in line with to predict the IQ level of any student and but stay short of it. Still, the most prominent method to assess the college entry of all students.
As time evolves and along with it different important instances, upgrade in SAT’s acronym as Scholastic Asessment Test is also one among them. Scholars and distinguished intellectual members of the society are debating to improve the working of SAT to serve the student community even better.
The College Board is indeed working hard to improve the SAT exam – both preparation and the exam – to more fully to a common acceptable level by both the student and parent communities alike. It’s a tough proportion to enumerate the pitfalls.
Right from the first SAT, the “Scholastic Aptitude Test” administered in 1926 to till date, the education system has undergone a sea change and academicians and intellectuals alike are deliberating to find a suitable test to check the IQ or the nearest relevant skill to stir that passion within inside for the betterment of an individual.
When you learn that the word SAT stands for nothing, it really makes one to wonder to take it. But as it’s a practice to get admission in college, one has to take it whether like it or not.
It’s nothing important to note about the name and all that’s important is developing the knowledge of students by making them understand a given situation with reasoning and evaluating to arrive at a meaningful conclusion.
Over the periods SAT has evolved into one of the most important test to evaluate the aptitude skills of students want to get inot college. But has informed a change in name is not important, the skill test and its effect in evaluating the credence of a studente is important.
Even though it’s been argued and debated about the real potentioal of the test, it does help to reveal the true skill of a student and still able to stir the reasoning and analysing ability. With its vast cover of all subjects, it does help a student to start to thinking about the importance of reasoning and analysing which are not only going to help during education, but through out life.
Let SAT stand for the scholastic aptitude test or so but what is more important is the fact that sitting for the SAT sharpens one’s skills in taking any other examination with confidence.
Passing the SAT examination is taken as a criterion for admission into several higher degree courses in different universities across the world. This is a good trend and it should also be made mandatory.
If you are going to study then your chances of getting a high score is better compared to not studying at all. I think that it resembles studying for those exams when you are still at school. Don’t expect to get a good grade if you are not going to study. Just where do you think will those answers come from?
I often heard boys and girls saying it is amazing to appear for SAT examinations. Many have said that these examinations sharpen their thinking power and have promoted their skills to a great extent. This kind of a trend is very encouraging indeed
With the sole purpose of analyzing the theoretical skills of all students, discussing the mere purpose in itself will help the students to take the exam in full confidence.
Students knowledge in scoring the marks in the SAT is most important than discussing about the title of the exam. The college board’s intention is also to impress upon the students to develop knowledge and securing the college seat.
Just by scoring a high mark in SAT test and securing a college seat will not bring out the real true potential within a student. One can have many talents and can prove the prowess if provided with right kind of ambience.
One cannot question the name or its antonym or synonym. All i requires is bold decision at the benefits to the students community upon taking this exam and how it help student develop any special skills.