The New SAT

March 8, 2005 8:24 AM

The New SAT: March 12, 2005 will be the first time in eleven years that high school juniors across the United States and U.S. territories will endure an amended SAT test. In addition to past math, verbal, and writing queries, there is now a critical writing section to test the students’ reasoning abilities, where they must pick one side of a polarizing argument and support it with evidence. Subtractions detail the omission of analogies and quantitative comparisons, which are found to pejoratively reinforce rote memorization. With the new critical writing section, an additional 800 points are feasible, raising the perfect SAT score from 1600 to 2400. According to the College Board, a non-profit composed of more than 4,500 educational organizations, the reasons why the test is being altered follows: “The SAT is changing so that the test is more closely aligned with what students are learning in high school and in college, and to include writing, which is an important skill for success in college and beyond.” (The changes were first proposed in March 2002, and were posted on Metafilter in regards to this article.)
posted by naxosaxur (12 comments total)

Well, if they can really grade the essays objectively then I see this could be usefull, but that's the question.

From what I've heard the grading works by having two people grade the test, If they give the exact same grade then thats the grade they get, otherwise it goes on to a third person and recives more scruitiny, in this way they 'program' the graders to grade in a deterministic manner. I've heard some tests use computerized grading systems as well.

I always wanted to take the SAT to see what I'd get (I took the ACT)
posted by delmoi at 8:38 AM on March 8, 2005

Pretty much the same as the only other story tagged with the SAT tag.
posted by smackfu at 8:38 AM on March 8, 2005

This post : This post :: double : original
posted by casu marzu at 8:40 AM on March 8, 2005

You are not an original and unique post.
posted by cavalier at 8:43 AM on March 8, 2005

"Essays will be evaluated holistically. Each essay will be read for the total impression it creates, rather than for its individual aspects." So now someone's chances of getting into college are going to depend upon the reader's subjective "holistic" "impression" of the essay? This is supposed to be an improvement? I thought a good test was supposed to eliminate subjective bias, not encourage it.
posted by SSShupe at 8:43 AM on March 8, 2005

Okay: I surrender. Mods, please delete away. I searched, but clearly not enough...thanks to casu marzu for showing me that previous post.

(I just flagged my own post as a double!)
posted by naxosaxur at 8:44 AM on March 8, 2005

sorry again for my laziness :(
posted by naxosaxur at 8:47 AM on March 8, 2005

It's an honest mistake. Don't feel bad about it. And an interesting topic, as evidenced by the discussion the previous thread.

I just wish I hadn't blown the joke so badly. I need more coffee.
posted by casu marzu at 8:48 AM on March 8, 2005

The other thread is still open, btw, if anyone wants to continue the conversation. The last post there, which I hadn't seen, has a hysterical link in it.
posted by casu marzu at 8:50 AM on March 8, 2005

It's not the only standardized test that tests writing samples, though. The English Composition Achievement test was around when I was in high school (and represented my lone '800' - I was so depressed).
posted by Karmakaze at 9:05 AM on March 8, 2005

delmoi & SSShupe, I work as an SAT Tutor, and have been trained in the fine art of essay grading. The writing subtest is out of 12 points, with each grader's opinion worth 6 points. If the same essay gets two different scores, but the scores are within a range of 1 point, they are simply added together. If the scores differ by more than 1 point (which is a pretty major disparity) then the head of the table decides the score.

"Holistic grading" means that essays are not instantly graded down for errors in punctuation/grammar/usage/etc, but are read as a whole. Which is to say, does this essay have a coherent argument? You can read the full rubric and a few student essays here. Also, if a student writes an excellent essay on, say, abortion, or how Hitler is a great example of a self-made man, etc. it is also not graded down just because it is ideologically suspect. The system is much fairer than most college classes.
posted by LimePi at 9:58 AM on March 8, 2005

I really don't trust such a subjective thing as essays as part of a standardized test. I remember writing a placement essay for college and received an absurdly low score (like a 1/10) which basically meant that I could barely write in English, even though I later did well in my required writing courses in college.
posted by gyc at 10:14 AM on March 8, 2005