Preview

the SAT

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2757 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
the SAT
How Reliable and Valid Is the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)?

Lee Middleton
MGMT 640, Assessment
Professor White
February 14, 2013
Abstract
In the world of today, assessments and tests are used as a means to distinguish the knowledge and ability of individuals. The Scholastic Assessment Test, more commonly known as the SAT, is a standardized test that is consistently used throughout the United States. The SAT is used by Universities and Colleges to gain an understanding of a particular student’s academic knowledge. With the SAT being used to determine a student’s future, it is essential that this test provides data that is both reliable and valid. This paper will investigate into the process of the SAT and provide detailed analysis of the tests’ validity and reliability. The examination of the SAT will explore the different aspects of the test and analyze the data that can be derived and interpreted by universities, colleges, professors, and the students themselves.

How Reliable and Valid Is the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)?
The SAT is a standardized test, administrated by the College Board, which most Universities and Colleges in the United States require in order to be accepted. The SAT test was first designed and used in 1901 and has undergone many substantial changes since then. The test is made of three sections; mathematics, critical reading, and writing. The four hour test includes a range of questions which all vary in difficulty. The purpose of this test is primarily to judge the level of education each student has and whether they are at a sufficient level in order to meet the educational requirements of a particular college. Different colleges set different SAT requirement scores and therefore a SAT score can determine a student’s future and the likelihood of being accepted into the colleges of their choice.
As it stands today, the SAT is still predominantly used

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The title of the article is “Should SAT’s Matter?”. It was written by John Cloud and it was published on March 4, 2001. The main idea of the article is about should the SAT test matter as much as it does. The article shows how a kid that has a GPA of 3.9 and receives a SAT score below a 900 would be denied into the particular school. The article raises the question as to what if that person is very intelligent, but is not that great at standardized tests. The article also talks about colleges that have already done away with the SAT and focused more on what level class that student took when they were in high school.…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lyman, Howard Burbeck. Test Scores and What They Mean. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Print.…

    • 2569 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kristen Williams

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Upon entering college a student is required to take a standardized test, commonly the ACT or SAT. The score you receive on these standardized tests and the outcome of your cumulative GPA will determine if you can get accepted into the college you are interested in attending. Also, the test looks at the student’s ability on how they will succeed in school. An associate professor at Miami University discusses, “In 2012, only 25…

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Junior and senior years of high school are the most stressful time for students when you combined advanced classes, sports, and other extracurriculars. While trying to maintain a high collegiate level GPA, students must also deal with the stress of taking standardized tests, specifically the ACT and SAT. Many students will have to take both exams multiple times, not only to complete college applications but to ensure they score high enough to meet that college's requirements. Supporters believe that standardized tests are useful when determining a student's intellectual and academic level, and I have found that looking at this view to be eye-opening. Students, including myself, respect that supporters want students to do their best and…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abolish Sat

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Secondly, Murray announces that the meaning of SAT has changed. As Murray states “Originally, the point of the SAT-whose initials, after all, stood for Scholastic Aptitude Test” and “College Board abandoned aptitude altogether and changed the name of the SAT to “Scholastic Assessment Test,” the meaning has changed even though the initials are still “SAT.” Aptitude means “inherent ability,” but in the 1960s, the concept of aptitude has changed because the “temper of the times be interpreted as the fault of the tests that produced them.” It showed ethic and class differences, and it was favored of upper-middle-class white kids, which cannot be a good test.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before even getting to the components of the test, first lets take into account the fact that a lot of people out there do not have enough money for tutors or books who really need them for preparation. A lot of other people hire tutors or get a lot of books to prepare them well and therefore the preparation itself just went through an unfair process. Secondly, the test is timed and we all work at different paces. There are those of us who can read really fast and get all the information down fast but there are those of us who cant read as fast but can still get down all the information very well. There are those of us who can quickly think about how to format an essay but there are those of us who need more time are can still write a great essay. Therefore, the fact that it is timed definitely factors in to not being able to truly indicate how smart the student really is. The SAT is also very culturally biased in the way that there are many people out there who come to the United States late in their school career and barely know any English and are all of a sudden expected to have a great English vocabulary and great English reading skills just to have a chance to go to college. Once again, another reason the SAT does not truly determine the intelligence of the…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American College Test and Scholastic Assessment Test, commonly known as the ACT and SAT, are both standardized tests used to determine a student's academic knowledge and skills in order to identify which level of colleges and universities they can handle. The ACT Inc. calls their test an indicator of "college and career readiness" and college boards trust their numbers to reflect just that. Although it is known that college admission boards take into consideration many other factors, such as grade point average, extracurricular involvement and class rank when accepting and rejecting applicants, it in inevitable that students are still turned down because their standardized tests reflect that they are not "ready." As a result, high schools all over the nation put great emphasis on these college admissions tests that are administered nationwide to each high school junior. It is true that standardized testing is a method for colleges to rank and then select students by expressing each student's capability as a number. This number is useful because otherwise it would be very difficult to rank such a diverse group of people, each with his or her own strengths and achievements in different fields. Although this solves the problem of having to weigh the significance and precedence of each individual's past…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    SAT testing is not an appropriate method of measuring a student’s overall intelligence. This popular standardized test is offered in over 176 countries, including the United States. The SATs can be the deciding factor of college acceptance, making the exam itself too influential on a student’s future. Additionally, the test has been taken advantage of numerous times for higher scores. The legitimacy of the SATs is also questioned with the issue of income inequality. Most students in the 21st century are striving to achieve acceptance into elite colleges; henceforth, a single exam having the power to change one’s future is irrational. Despite these inconsistencies, some argue the SATs provide a cornerstone for the strengths and weaknesses of a student that can be compared to…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The SAT weighs heavily on admissions decisions to colleges so students spend months extensively preparing for the tests, trying to fit studying in among all other activities and often going to late night review classes. The SAT was originally designed to predict the achievement of students in their freshman year of college, which explains the test’s importance in determining admissions. However, the test has been proven to be inaccurate at measuring how students will do freshman year, and additionally it has been proven to be very “coachable,” meaning that with enough studying almost anyone can get a good score regardless of intelligence (Elert). Since the SAT is “coachable,” many students stress themselves out and spend all available time preparing because with enough effort they know they can get a good score. The SAT’s cause extreme amounts of stress and students devote much time to them even though the results have been proven to be essentially…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If I scored well on that test it would mean that I would have the choice, when the time came, to choose the exact university that suited me. For a fair chance at my goal, I would first need to prepare for the challenging exam. My school previously provided a class called the “SAT Boot Camp.” I ended up attending the boot camp three times consecutively. From that class, I received study materials specifically for the SAT. Practicing these learning materials assisted me in being prepared for the SAT more than anything else. Finally, I took the practice version of the SAT four times before actually taking the SAT. My first three years of taking a class structured specifically for the SAT, practicing an array of study materials, and taking the practice version of the SAT prepared me for the exam that would show colleges my academic…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thea Explanation

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The SAT test has 3 sections: Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing. The Reading section takes 70 minutes and has 3 sections. It has sentence completion questions where they test the student's vocabulary and sentence structure…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    SAT Testing Fair Essay

    • 2455 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a test designed for students of any age, but draws a large amount of juniors and seniors in high school. This test measures students’ skills in reading, writing and mathematics. The test is out of 2400 points, 800 points from reading, 800 from writing, and 800 from mathematics. If good test scores come from wealth, then the most important issue to consider is, the poorest families having a disadvantage because they cannot afford private elite tutoring to increase their kids score. Many sources say this elite tutoring is a huge problem, but other sources say the tutoring is not what gets you a high score. This is a nationwide test that is often used to help students’ chances…

    • 2455 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    SAT Persuasive Essay

    • 1357 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Thousands of high school students spend the spring semester of their junior year stressing and studying for one of the most important tests that will get them into college, the SAT. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), created in 1920, is used to select each year's incoming freshman class.(source ) The “standardized test” is regarded as the test that will predict how students do in college. Therefore, colleges use students SAT score as the deciding factor on whether they are accepted into their dream school or denied due to not reaching the “benchmark.” Many strongly stand by the SAT as they believe it is the test that provides students “equal footing” ( Source) and allows them to demonstrate what they have learned from their high school experience. However,…

    • 1357 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Standardized Testing

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Many people struggle on standardized tests because they are long, and stressful. There is a lot of pressure on the students to do well. The scores that a student will get on this test could affect where they go to college, or what job they…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In her op-ed piece, It Doesn’t Test For Success, (Creighton), Joanne V Creighton, PHD asserts that standardized test scores such as the SAT’s are no longer useful in predicting the potential successes of today’s students. Dr. Creighton, who at the time was President of Mount Holyoke College, cited the errors in scoring on the SAT for approximately 4,000 students. She further stated that while the test may have made sense when first developed, it no longer presents an accurate portrait of the potential of today’s college-bound students. While Dr. Creighton presents some valid points, I do not believe we should completely disregard the value of the SAT’s. This is a complex issue with many things to consider and, as the saying goes, let’s not…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays