The SAT, or scholastic aptitude test, is a test that is given every April in high schools across the US in a student's junior year. In the years before it is given students prepare by taking other standardized tests that are supposed to reflect the SAT. The SAT is used as evidence for many colleges to make their admission decisions. Likewise, standardized tests like this one are used to determine funding for school districts through the government as well as by schools to help place students in classes. This is not to mention the stress this causes students on a regular day to day basis.

Complicatedly, the SAT appears to be a mix between an intelligence test and a knowledge test. The college board, who creates the test, argues that the test measures "What you need to learn in high school" and "what you need to succeed in college" (College Board, 2017). What you learn in high school would be labeled as knowledge, but the latter is a type of intelligence.

In order to score the SAT they state that they have the test "pre-screened" to determine the difficulty of each question and then "equate" them so that the scores are equal and mean the same no matter when you took the test or which version of the test you take (because on each day each test is different to prevent cheating). Then, they state that they do not scale scores (as to not limit how many people can get the highest score) and make scores out of 800 for each subsection (which includes reading, math, science, and writing) (College Board, 2017).This can be seen in the video below.

The benefit of this scoring system is that according to some researchers "There was a significant positive relationship between exam score and college success" (Curabay, 2017). This allows colleges to make accurate predictions about who will be successful at their universities.

One downfall of the SAT is that many "colleges have long tried to bring diversity of all sorts to their student bodies, and they have raised concerns over whether the SAT, once seen as a test of merit, can be gamed by families who hire expensive consultants and tutors" (Hartecollis, 2019). As professor Cope explained with IQ testing, this would give students from certain cultural backgrounds a benefit over other students. Recently, the SAT has decided to add an adversity score that will measure a students "educational and socioeconomic backgrounds" (Hartecollis, 2019). This will not affect their inherent test scores but will be reported as a larger scoring package to colleges. While this is an attempt to fix the cultural bias of the test, many feel as if it is papering over the fact that the test itself is biased in the first place.

Citations

College Board. (2017, December 18). Inside the Test. Retrieved January 19, 2020, from https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/inside-the-test

Curabay, M. (2017). Meta-analysis of the predictive validity of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) scores for college GPA. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsndl&AN=edsndl.oai.union.ndltd.org.PROQUEST.oai.pqdtoai.proquest.com.10242126&site=eds-live&scope=site

Hartocollis, A. (2019, May 16). SAT's New 'Adversity Score' Will Take Students' Hardships Into Account. Retrieved January 19, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/us/sat-score.html