“The redesigned SAT college entrance exam that debuts nationally Saturday is getting good reviews from some of the students who took it early this week.” …
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20160303_ap_1f7124e14d484736b568a99b9516c121.html
Of course because the test is much easier.
Our own CC students are already talking about the questions from the March SAT (apparently given on Wednesday in some states) on this site and they are saying its easier, too.
Wow, that’s just unconscionable. Thumbs down to those students, but shame on the College Board, if it’s true.
I agree with Marvin…if they use the same test - shame on them, but it would be par for the course… However, I do think they may have two versions of the test because they will need future tests that they can recycle overseas in the next few months, or they can use as a Sunday test, a make-up exam, or a school day test. Also, since scores won’t be out until May, we have no idea what the scores will be like. It may be easier, but then the curve will be harsher and the scores lower . The reality is that we have no idea what a good score will be. And based on the inflated PSAT percentiles, it may be more of the same.
My daughter took the test today and told me that she thought they made it too easy. Her friend (who hasn’t performed particularly well on these tests in the past) also thought the test was pretty simple.
I greatly doubt that the SAT School Day and non-school day tests will be the same test. In fact, I also would not be surprised if the School Day test is easier than the Saturday test, because that would be one effective way to “narrow the gap”.
Are any adults going to be allowed to see the School Day SAT’s to check? Or are we going to just trust College Board’s infallible equating procedures?
No way adults will be able to see the test. And that would really not be fair if the school day test was easier…
D3 just got out of the test and thought it went pretty well. I don’t know any more in terms of specifics.
DS thought it was about the same level of difficulty as the PSAT.
I worry that the percentile scores will be hard to interpret, much like the PSAT, leaving us to wonder where he stands relative to other students.
@Plotinus
I kinda agree with you
My friend took both the school day test and the Saturday test and he said that the reading sections were both really simple but the Saturday test was a bit more straight forward then school day. But the math (no calc) one made him “think” more on the Saturday test and the grid ins were defiantly harder.
My son thought the March Saturday SAT was easy. Lets see if that equates to a great score.
The test is a bell shaped curve. So if it’s easier for everyone, it simply means the curve will shift and adjust. It doesn’t mean everyone will get a great score. A good standardized test is deliberately structured to create the bell shaped curve distribution.
College Board is still norming the test. Norming means that it is structuring it to fall in a bell shaped curve–meaning you are compared to all other test takers, not to an objective score. The SAT is not a criterion-referenced test, like most tests in school, for instance, in which everyone can theoretically get a 100. It is a standardized test that is designed to produce top 1% scorers, top 25%, top 50%, bottom 10% - compared to each other - through very carefully designed questions.
If a normed test is poorly written for the population it serves, it won’t do that. Then you will either have no bell shaped curve or a funky one, e.g. very steep at the edges and flat on the bottom (so if you get, say, 1 wrong, you can drop 100 points, but there is very little difference between 30 or 40 wrong). Again, College Board is still working on norming the test, because it raced to get this out. It is very difficult to predict what scores people will get.
The test is much more heavily reading-comprehension based (including math) and also much more content based (in math). Certainly it will not help math kids who are not verbal. But also I think it will favor kids who are in better schools and/or who have taken higher level math classes. The reading meanwhile, seems much easier, in that it tests more literal text questions and simple inferences. Neither is what the previous SAT did, so it remains to be seen how this will all pan out.
One of the reasons SAT changed format was because of the perception that ACT was ‘easier’ (not true, since it is a bell shaped curve). Regardless, they were losing a lot of students to ACT. So if students walk away now and say, “that was easier!” that is one goal accomplished.
There’s no bell shape if all the scores are smooshed up at the high end because the test isn’t hard enough.
Don’t worry. Top colleges might have 30,000 applicants with a 4.0 and a 1600, but holistic admissions will find the worthy 1,500 or 2,000. Right?
“There’s no bell shape if all the scores are smooshed up at the high end because the test isn’t hard enough.”
@GMTplus7, that’s my point–that was what my post was about. They are still norming the test. I doubt very much however that all the results will be smooched up at the high end (and if they are, they will change the test to ensure they aren’t). I’m a private tutor with over 10 years of experience and have been tutoring students on the new SAT; I can see already how some students will be tripped up. The only certainty that it is a very different test from the previous one and we cannot make accurate predictions yet.
Even if it is easier, regardless of how people think they do, it will all come down to the results and the percentages for the country. SATs don’t matter unless colleges see them and colleges will be the ones to determine what is competitive with the new SAT as far as scores go.
If new SAT is indeed easier than before, schools will give more weight to subject tests.
Yeah the thing is that a test like the SAT can’t really be “Easier” for the general public. Meaning that if everyone gets a higher proportion of questions right on average, then that will be reflected in the actual score. For example on the old SAT CR you could often miss 2 and still get 800. If the new reading was a lot easier and more people got a higher % of questions correct, then -1 may keep you from getting 800.
I think people are getting tricked into thinking it’s easier. It’s not. All the new test does - letting people guess with no penalty, perhaps easier questions/more focus on reading/writing - is make it so that the highest scorers need to get EVERYTHING right. I’ve walked away from tests I thought were easy and not gotten everything right, especially standardized. So you may come off it feeling great, but if you get even one or two questions wrong, that may really affect your score.