SAT

For other uses, see SAT (disambiguation).

The SAT is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is administered by the public College Board.[2] in the United States and is developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

The current "SAT Reasoning Test" is administered in about 5 hours and costs $41.50 ($63.50 International),[3] excluding late fees. After SAT's introduction in 1901, the name and scoring changed several times. In 2005, the test was renamed as "SAT Reasoning Test" with possible scores from "600R" to "2400R" combining test results from three 800-point sections (math, critical reading, and writing), along with other subsections scored separately (see details below). The scores contain the letter "R" to indicate re-centered average scores, adjusted in 1995, when possible scores had been 400R to 1600R, as the Scholastic Assessment Test. Between 1941-1994, when named the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the scores ranged 400-1600, but not all intermediate scores were possible every year, omitting 1550-1590 some years (see History below).

Function

There are substantial differences in funding, curricula, grading, and difficulty among U.S. secondary schools due to American federalism. Local governments fund and control the schools. Wealthier jurisdictions enjoy higher tax revenue, and as a result their public schools are better funded. SAT scores are intended to supplement the secondary school record and help admission officers put local data—such as course work, grades, and class rank—in a national perspective.

Structure

SAT consists of three major sections: Mathematics, Critical Reading, and Writing. Each section receives a score on the scale of 200-800. All scores are multiples of 10. Total scores are calculated by adding up scores of the three sections. Each major section is divided into three parts. There are a total of ten sub-sections, including an experimental section that may be in any of the three major sections. The experimental section is used to normalize questions for future administrations of the SAT and does not count toward the final score. The test contains 3 hours and 45 minutes of actual timed sections [4], although most administrations, including orientation, distribution of materials, and completion of the biographical sections, run about 5 hours (20 to 30 min per each section) long.

The Critical Reading section of the SAT is comprised of three or four sections, with varying types of questions, including sentence completions and questions about short and long reading passages. Critical Reading sections normally begin with five to ten sentence completion questions; the remainder of the questions are focused on the reading passages, although some sections do not contain any sentence completion questions. Sentence completions generally test the student's vocabulary and understanding of sentence structure and organization by requiring the student to select one or two words which best complete a given sentence. The bulk of Critical Reading questions is made up by questions regarding reading passages, in which students read short excerpts on social sciences, humanities, sciences, or personal narratives and answer questions based on the information they contain. Certain sections contain passages asking the student to compare two related passages; generally, these consist of short reading passages as well as longer passages.

The Mathematics section of the SAT consists of three scored sections, possibly four if the student's experimental section is a math section. There are two long (25-minute) sections and one short (20-minute) section, as follows:

• One of the 25-minute sections is entirely multiple choice, with 20 questions.
• The other 25-minute section contains 8 multiple choice questions and 10 grid-in questions.
• The shorter section is all multiple choice, with only 16 questions.

Notably, the SAT has done away with quantitative comparison questions on the math section, leaving only questions with straightforward symbolic or numerical answers. Since the quantitative comparison questions were well known for their deceptive nature - often turning on the student's recognition of a single exception to a rule or pattern - this choice has been equated to a philosophical shift away from "trickery" and toward "straight math" on the SAT. Also, many test experts have attributed this change, like the addition of the new writing section, to an attempt to make the SAT more like the ACT.

The writing section of the SAT includes multiple choice questions and a brief essay. The multiple choice questions include error identification questions, sentence improvement questions, and paragraph improvement questions. Error identification and sentence improvement questions test the student's knowledge of grammar, presenting an awkward or grammatically incorrect sentence; in the error identification section, the student must locate the word producing the source of the error or indicate that the sentence has no error, while the sentence improvement section requires the student to select an acceptable fix to the awkward sentence. The paragraph improvement questions test the student's understanding of logical organization of ideas, presenting a poorly written student essay and asking a series of questions as to what changes might be made to best improve it. The essay section, which is always administered as the first section of the test, is twenty-five minutes long. All essays must be in response to a given prompt. The prompts are broad and often philosophical, and are designed to be accessible to students regardless of their educational and social backgrounds. For instance, test takers may be asked to expound on such ideas as their opinion on the value of work in human life, or whether democracy represents an ideal system of government. No particular essay structure is required, and the College Board accepts using examples "taken from [the student's] reading, studies, experience, or observations." Two trained readers assign each essay a score between 1 and 6, where a score of 0 is reserved for essays that are blank, off-topic, or considered illegible after several attempts at reading. The scores are summed to produce a final score from 2 to 12 (or 0). If the two readers' scores differ by more than one point, then both are rejected, and the student's score is two times the 0-6 score given by a third reader. In the complex process of scaling a test-taker's writing score, the essay score accounts for roughly thirty percent; the multiple choice component, seventy percent.

Questions

Most of the questions on the SAT are multiple-choice; all multiple-choice questions have five answer choices, exactly one of which is correct. The questions of each section are generally ordered by difficulty. However, an important exception exists: Questions that follow the long and short reading passages are organized chronologically, rather than by difficulty. Ten of the questions in one of the math sub-sections are not multiple choice. They instead require the test taker to bubble in a number in a four-column grid.

The questions are weighted equally. For each correct answer, one raw point is added. For each incorrect answer one-fourth of a point is deducted. No points are deducted for incorrect math grid-in questions. This ensures that a student's mathematically expected gain from guessing is zero. The final score is derived from the raw score; the precise conversion chart varies between test administrations.

History of the structure of the test

In the early 1990s, the SAT consisted of six sections: Two math sections (scored together on a 200-800 scale), two verbal sections (scored together on a 200-800 scale), the Test of Standard Written English (scored on a 20-60+ scale), and an equating section. In 1994, the exam was modified, removing antonym questions, and adding math questions that were not multiple choice. The average score on the 1994 modification of the SAT I was usually around 1000 (500 on the verbal, 500 on the math). The most selective schools in the United States (for example, those in the Ivy League) typically had SAT averages exceeding 1400 on the old test.

Beginning with the March 12, 2005 administration of the exam, the SAT Reasoning Test was modified and lengthened. Changes included the removal of analogy questions from the Critical Reading (formerly Verbal) section and quantitative comparisons from the Math section, and the inclusion of a writing section (with an essay) based on the former SAT II Writing Subject Test. The Mathematics section was expanded to cover three years of high school mathematics.

Taking the test

The SAT is offered seven times a year in the United States, in October, November, December, January, March (or April, alternating), May, and June. The test is typically offered on the first Saturday of the month for the November, December, May and June administrations. In other countries, the SAT is offered on the same dates as in the United States except for the first spring test date (i.e. March or April), which is not offered.

Candidates may either take the SAT Reasoning Test or up to three SAT Subject Tests on any given test date, except the first spring test date, when only the SAT Reasoning Test is offered. Candidates wishing to take the test may register online at the College Board's website, by mail, or by telephone, at least three weeks before the test date.

The SAT Subject Tests are all given in one large book on test day. Therefore, it is actually immaterial which tests, and how many, the student signs up for; with the possible exception of the language tests with listening, the student may change his mind and take any tests, regardless of his initial signups.

The SAT Reasoning Test costs $41.50 ($63.50 International).[5] For the Subject tests, students pay an $18 Basic Registration Fee and $8 per test (except for language tests with listening, which cost $19 each). The College Board makes fee waivers available for low income students. Additional fees apply for late registration, standby testing, registration changes, scores by telephone, and extra score reports (beyond the four provided for free).

Candidates whose religious beliefs prevent them from taking the test on a Saturday may request to take the test on the following Sunday. Such requests must be made at the time of registration and are subject to denial.

Students with verifiable disabilities, including physical and learning disabilities, are eligible to take the SAT with accommodations. The standard time increase for students requiring additional time due to learning disabilities is 50 percent.

Raw scores, scaled scores and percentiles

Students receive their online score report approximately three weeks after administration of the test (6 weeks for mailed, paper scores), with each section graded on a scale of 200 to 800. In addition to their score, students receive their percentile (the percentage of other test takers with lower scores). The raw score, or the number of points gained from correct answers and lost from incorrect answers (ranges from just under 50 to just under 60, depending upon the test), is also included [6] . Students may also receive, for an additional fee, the Question and Answer Service, which provides the student's answer, the correct answer to each question, and online resources explaining each question.

The corresponding percentile of each scaled score varies from test to test — for example, in 2003, a scaled score of 800 in both sections of the SAT Reasoning Test corresponded to a percentile of 99.9, while a scaled score of 800 in the SAT Physics Test corresponded to the 94th percentile. The differences in what scores mean with regard to percentiles are because of the content of the exam and the caliber of students choosing to take each exam. Subject Tests are subject to intensive study (often in the form of an AP, which is relatively more difficult), and only those who know they will perform tend to take these tests, creating a skewed or non-linear distribution of scores.

The percentiles that various SAT scores for college-bound seniors correspond to are summarized in the following chart:

Percentile	Score, 1600 Scale (official, 2006)	Score, 2400 Scale (official, 2006)
99.98	1600	2400
99.65	≥1550	≥2300
99	≥1480	≥2200
98	≥1450	≥2150
97	≥1420	≥2100
93	≥1350	≥2000
88	≥1280	≥1900
81	≥1220	≥1800
72	≥1150	≥1700
61	≥1080	≥1600
48	≥1010	≥1500
36	≥950	≥1400
15	≥800	≥1200
4	≥660	≥1000
1	≥530	≥800

The "old" SAT (prior to 1995) had a very high ceiling. In any given year, only seven of the million test-takers scored above 1580. Assuming that all of the very brightest people in that U.S. age group, which numbered approximately 3 million, took the test, then a score above 1580 had a rarity of about one in 400,000, equivalent to the 99.9997 percentile.

History and name changes

The initials SAT have been used since the test was first introduced in 1901, when it was known as the Scholastic Achievement Test. The test was used mainly by colleges and universities in the northeastern United States. The SAT was originally developed as a way to eliminate test bias between people from different socio-economic backgrounds. It was developed by Carl C. Brigham, one of the psychologists who worked on the Army Alpha and Beta tests. In 1941, after considerable development, the College Board changed the name to the Scholastic Aptitude Test. While "achievement" suggests the students accomplishments, "aptitude" suggests the student's potential - i.e. intelligence. In 1990, because of uncertainty about the SAT's ability to function as an intelligence test, the name was changed to Scholastic Assessment Test. Finally, in 1994, the name was changed to simply SAT (with the letters not standing for anything), which amounts to a concession on the part of the College Board to specify anything definite that the test might measure[7].

The test scoring was initially scaled to make 500 the mean score on each section with a standard deviation of 100. As the test grew more popular and more students from less rigorous schools began taking the test, the average dropped to about 450 for each section. Various attempts to balance out this decline led to statistical anomalies. For example, in certain years it was impossible to get a score of 780 or 790 on a section; one could only get a 770 or below or an 800. To combat the trend toward declining scores, the SAT was "recentered" in 1995, and the average score became again closer to 500. All scores awarded after 1994 are officially reported with an "R" (e.g. 1260R) to reflect this change.

In 2005, the test was changed again, largely in response to criticism by the University of California system.[8] Because of issues concerning ambiguous questions, especially analogies, certain types of questions were eliminated (the analogies disappeared altogether). The test was made marginally harder, as a corrective to the rising number of perfect scores. A new writing section was added, in part to increase the chances of closing the opening gap between the highest and midrange scores. Other factors included the desire to test the writing ability of each student in a personal manner; hence the essay. The New SAT (officially the SAT Reasoning Test) was first offered on March 12, 2005, after the last administration of the "old" SAT in January of 2005.

In March of 2006, it was announced that a small percentage of the SAT tests taken in October 2005 had been scored incorrectly, giving some students substantially erroneous scores. The College Board announced they would change the scores for the students who were given a lower score than they earned, but at this point many of those students had already applied to colleges using their original scores. The College Board decided not to change the scores for the students who were given a higher score than they earned. A lawsuit has been filed by a student who received an incorrect low score on the SAT. [9] The lawsuit is currently seeking class action status.

Criticism

Bias

A famous example of alleged bias in the SAT I is the oarsman-regatta analogy question. The object of the question was to find the pair of terms that have the relationship most similar to the relationship between "runner" and "marathon". The correct answer was "oarsman" and "regatta".

As shown above, SAT scores vary according to race, income, and parental educational background

The question relied upon students knowing the meaning of the two terms, referring to a sport popular with the wealthy. While 53% of white students correctly answered the question, only 22% of black students did. [10] In response, the ETS reformed their fairness review process. Analogies questions have been eliminated entirely. It should be noted that gap in scores among races is even greater in the area of math, where it is difficult to posit cultural bias as an explanation. In 2006, the mean African American Math SAT score was 429, which is 107 points below the mean White Math score of 536, while on the (presumably more culturally loaded) Critical Reading Section, the mean African American SAT score was 434, only 93 points below the mean White score of 527. [11] In any case, isolated and outdated examples of alleged cultural bias (as noted earlier, not only has the "oarsman-regatta" question been eliminated, but so has the entire analogies section) do not constitute a compelling or scientifically valid explanation for the racial gap in scores. Nor does economic disadvantage form a complete explanation, since as shown in the sidebar chart, mean White SAT scores in the below $10,000 bracket are higher than the scores for Black test takers whose family income exceeds $70,000.

Dropping SAT

Some liberal arts colleges have responded to this criticism by joining the SAT optional movement. These colleges, which are listed by Fairtest, do not require the SAT for admission.

In a 2001 speech to the American Council on Education, Richard C. Atkinson, then president of the University of California, urged dropping the SAT Reasoning Test as a college admissions requirement:

"Anyone involved in education should be concerned about how overemphasis on the SAT is distorting educational priorities and practices, how the test is perceived by many as unfair, and how it can have a devastating impact on the self-esteem and aspirations of young students. There is widespread agreement that overemphasis on the SAT harms American education." [12]

In response to threats by the University of California to drop the SAT as an admission requirement, the College Entrance Examination Board announced the restructuring of the SAT, to take effect in March 2005, as detailed above.

Essay

In 2005, MIT professor Les Perelman plotted essay length versus essay score on the new SAT from released essays and found the correlation between them strikingly high.[13]

See also

• SAT Subject Tests.
• List of admissions tests.
• SAT Essay Prompts.
• PSAT/NMSQT.
• ACT (examination), a college entrance exam, competitor to the SAT.

Further reading

• Frey, M.C. and Detterman, D.K. (2003) Scholastic Assessment or g? The Relationship Between the Scholastic Assessment Test and General Cognitive Ability. Psychological Science, 15(6):373–378. PDF
• Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. W. W. Norton & Company; Rev/Expd edition 1996. ISBN 0-393-31425-1.
• Hoffman, Banesh. The Tyranny of Testing. Orig. pub. Collier, 1962. ISBN 0-486-43091-X (and others).
• Owen, David. None of the Above: The Truth Behind the SATs. Revised edition. Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. ISBN 0-8476-9507-7.
• Sacks, Peter. Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It. Perseus, 2001. ISBN 0-7382-0433-1.
• Zwick, Rebecca. Fair Game? The Use of Standardized Admissions Tests in Higher Education. Falmer, 2002. ISBN 0-415-92560-6.

External links

• Official SAT Reasoning Test page