<p>“Using the Crab kid’s horrendous argument(s), couldn’t one also argue that SAT IIs are equally biased considering they are based on knowledge taught in school and some may teach it more indepth than others, and people can also purchase the SAT II practice/prep exams, making it at least as biased as the SAT.” - it’s a lot easier to study for the SAT IIs than it is for the SAT I. any public library (or school library) will have some books with a subject survey.</p>
<p>i hadn’t taken a full US History survey when i took the SAT II for it but i still got an 800 on it because i studied the two books i got (kaplan and barron’s) and i watch the history channel a lot.</p>
<p>i can sorta understand the “i don’t test well so i got a 1200 despite my 4.0” argument but the “i don’t test well so i got a 500 on the bio sat ii despite my A in the class” couldn’t pass anyone’s BS radar.</p>
<p>and yea, sometimes someone’s school or home situation can explain a poor score which is why i support AA but that’s a whole other can of worms so i really hope no one responds to this part of my post…</p>
<p>“For example, if my school doesn’t offer AP History and someone else’s does, doesn’t that person have an inherent advantage over me on that SAT II exam. Looks like the Math and Writing SAT IIs are the least biased ones, and I wouldd like to see a comparison between NYU and Berkeley on that.” - nyu doesn’t even require SAT IIs so i’m sure their ranges are lower.</p>
<p>“Like you said, a 4.0 gpa at a ghetto school is nothing to be proud of. Perhaps someone here can dig up info. on the average SAT I and II’s at the high schools from which enrolled Berkeley students attended, to see if these gpas were earned or just handed out.” - i really doubt too many berkeley students went to really" ghetto" schools…it’s 44% asian and 31% white.</p>
<p>“If the SAT I is biased, then so is every other test out there. You can cry bias at every test, what if my AP Bio teacher was horrible, then I too should be able to claim the test was biased against me. Since the SAT i is based mostly on stuff learned well before high school, it’s probably the most fair test, more than all the others.” - colleges shouldn’t care what you learned in middle school maybe. maybe they should have you solve a rubik’s cube or beat an adcom in chess as part of the admissions process too.</p>
<p>after all, those are innate logic skills that aren’t picked up in high school.</p>
<p>if your ap bio teacher was horrible then that’s just bad luck and i offer you my condolences. at least you were lucky enough to go to a school that offered AP classes and where you wouldn’t be ostracized for taking them. you might have bad professors in college too but grad schools won’t know that. a bad teacher doesn’t prevent you from reading the textbook and looking stuff up.</p>
<p>difference is is that the SAT IIs are way less biased than the SAT which is why there’s no outcry against them.</p>