The news is out about a recent drop in SAT scores and it’s generating a lot of noise! The new SAT scores released show the largest decline in 31 years and one of the largest in the history of the SAT test. The College Board insists that the drop in scores is not due to the length of the new test (the New SAT takes over 4 hours to administer!) Read the article and decide for yourself. It appears many of the SAT test advantages learned by students in prep courses are being eroded by the length of the new test.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this one. Maybe we aren’t pushing our kids hard enough 
August 30th, 2006 at 2:27 am
So is it really the length of the test or is it the stamina of the students? Are our kids getting the education they need, and I am not talking about being taught to pass the test–I am talking about good old fashioned education–giving kids the tools to work their way through a problem. I hear teachers saying they \”spend the whole year teaching the test\” ( I know this is for the standardized tests as opposed to the SAT/ACT). But if the teachers were teaching the kids the basics so they had the fundamental SKILLS needed to take ANY test, they should be \”covered\” when it comes to the kids taking any test. Our school, 20 years ago, never even suggested we prepare for the SAT, it was one of those things that you either had the skills to tackle it or you didn\’t. Looking back, I am sure I would have done much better had I had a website like this one–but I didn\’t. I would have done better if I had taken some kind of study course–but I didn\’t. So I guess I am wondering if this drop is really about the length of the test or is it about a lack of education and reasoning skills?
September 1st, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Josh R.
I agree 100% with your thoughts on the importance of teaching fundamental skills like critical thinking and problem solving along with content. If a student develops those skills, he/she will be able to successfully tackle any problem that comes along on a standardized test.
I think the recent drop in scores can be attributed to the both a lack of education and the length of the test.
I have met plenty of teenagers who are somewhat “under-educated” and, therefore, rightly overwhelmed with the notion of preparing for all three of the subject areas tested on the new SAT. With schedules that are already jam packed, most students forge ahead, however, and put in the extra time.
After months of effort and a grueling test that takes over four hours to administer, many are then rewarded with a mediocre score in at least one subject area. At that point, the notion of retaking the entire test is unpalatable for many. They wind up deciding to roll the dice and stick with the scores they have.
That is why I think the national average has gone down ever so slightly. Yes, as silly as it sounds, a lot of kids are not willing to give up another Saturday to take another full-length SAT. It requires too much prep time and there is no improvement guaranteed. That’s the bottom line.
I think The College Board should make the Writing section a separate subject test again. In fact, I think the math and critical reading sections should be offered as separate subject tests too
September 1st, 2006 at 10:24 pm
I think The College Board should make the Writing section a separate subject test again. In fact, I think the math and critical reading sections should be offered as separate subject tests too
Yes, they are considered separately anyway.
September 2nd, 2006 at 9:06 am
Sorry if I was not clear, Nay. (I was writing late at night.) When I stated that the math and critical reading sections should be \\\”offered\\\” as separate subject tests, I meant that students should be able to take them separately, just like subject tests. For example, a student would be able to take the math in October and the critical reading in November. Offering the two separately would allow students the opportunity to focus their prep efforts. It would also afford them the opportunity to retake only the section that needs improvement.
September 4th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Karl, your idea is much better, and that will definitely take a lot of pressure from the students. At least for me. Hopefully, CB will consider this idea and we can witness this change.
September 5th, 2006 at 9:16 am
I don’t understand why the College Board is so adamant in their explanation WHY scores have dropped off. They claim that scores have declined not because the test is longer, but because fewer people are taking the test multiple times. But aren’t fewer people taking the test multiple times because the test is longer? I was never good with circular logic…
September 5th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Myles,
Thank you for sharing. I could not have said it better myself.
Over the past year, I have tutored numerous students who ultimately decided to stick with their then-current scores because they did not want to “waste” another Saturday.
The length of the test is clearly related to the recent drop in scores. It is still not clear to me why the SAT I is not simply repackaged as three separate (hour-long) tests that can be offered along with the current SAT II subject tests.
Thanks again for your comment.
Karl
September 6th, 2006 at 12:46 am
How much longer is the test–isn’t it just about 30 minutes longer? Does one more 1/2 hour or even one hour out of a day a small sacrifice for getting a better score, which in turn can get you into a much better school? Sounds like a bunch of self absorbed “me” generation kids, who don’t want to “waste” their own time. I am not sure they deserve to get into the best schools if they think of themselves so highly….
September 7th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Sue,
To answer your question, the new test is 45 minutes longer than the old one. This does not seem like a big deal standing alone, but remember, it is 45 minutes tacked on to the end of a 3 hour exam. (The typical teen would likely argue that it\\\’s like adding another 6.5 miles onto a 26 mile marathon.)
I agree with your sentiment for the most part. Some kids are self absorbed \\\”me\\\” generation kids, but I have met plenty of others who are not. They are just adolescents trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be — a tall task in my opinion. Now, throw in the opposite sex, a few pimples and parents who \\\”just don\\\’t get it\\\” and you have a kid who is excited, anxious and insecure all in one. What I am trying to say is that the decision to pass on the SAT retake is not made in a vacuum and it is not made by what Wikipedia would define as a rational human being.
That being said, I do agree that the truly lazy and self-absorbed kids don\\\’t deserve a higher score or the opportunity to attend our nation\\\’s elite universities. I just have a hard time figuring out which teenagers are truly lazy and which are just being teenagers. Sometimes you cannot tell until years later.
September 24th, 2006 at 8:42 am
I agree that the forty-five minutes added to the end is material. I wonder why the CB just doesn’t offer the Math, CR and Writing as separate exams as you suggested in one of your posts. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me to do so.
February 1st, 2008 at 6:20 am
Wow. What responses! Take this section in X and another in Y, so the kids will have more time to focus their study efforts? When I took the SAT in 1963, I reported to a designated classroom at an assigned time and challenged an examination with eleven years of acquired knowledge. My classmates and I had no idea what would be on the exam, on in what format the questions would be posed. The SAT is not a measure of what you can “cram for”; it is an assessment of what you know. I personally scored 1300 (675 Verbal, 625 Math), and was in the 85th percentile! 15 percent of the kids scored higher than I.
Shortly after I returned from Vietnam in 1969, I was playing golf with my father and we talked about the net effect of forced integration with respect to the educational system. We agreed that when all was said and done, the same academic disparity between black and white students would exist, but on a much lower level. That is exactly what we see today. It’s not that the black students cannot perform to the level of the whites, but that the two groups were thrown together by the federal government before they were ready for that type of intimacy. The result was mass discomfort on both sides, failure of the black students, and loweringso that al students would appear to be equal. of the academic standards that
February 1st, 2008 at 9:11 am
Things are different these days, Charles. The internet has helped level the playing field and there is more competition than ever for spots at selective colleges.