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SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

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Re: SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

#71

Post by seacond »

hkmurakami wrote: post #4
maeon3 wrote: post #3

The SAT is an important measure of a humans intelligence and performance in the real world, that's why the best companies always filter candidates and select the ones with highest SAT scores. It's a good thing we have tests like these and pay large sums of money to the people who maintain it. Otherwise interviewing might be totally screwed up and completely fail at its intended purpose in this country.

The SAT is good for measuring how good one is at taking the SAT, which in turn is an indicator of how much the test taker took preparing for the exam seriously, which is an indirect indicator of the person's work ethic and attitude towards putting in effort for a means to an end (yes, despite the pointlessness of this exam). It does do a decent job at finding such people who strive to excel within the limits of a (fl…

Well said. Except I'd make the following corrections:

  s/[(]yes.*exam.//;
  s/.flawed.//;
  $d
I'd add that sometimes the "end" may be pointless, though you might not see it as such while working toward it; years later, in hindsight you might realise it was the "means", i.e., the process of working toward it, i.e. the "hard work", that was the point.

Interestingly, there's no "hard work" in taking a test you do not prepare for, e.g., an IQ test.

Re: SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

#72

Post by jobu »

zheng wrote: post #33

This is possibly the funniest thing I have read this year. As an aside, the amount of thought and focus this guy obviously can devote to a single topic is amazing. I really hope someone is paying him lots of money (or whatever he prefers) to use his talents for good.

It was funny, but in a somewhat disturbing, manic way. I skimmed much of it, but the reference to Weekly World News caught my eye and still can't figure out the point of the tangent even after going back and thoroughly reading most of the article.

Section 8.3.10 starts with possible numeric encodings for answers, but then jumps into a philosophical question about admission tests for religion and ends with the reference to WWN and the headline: "10 MORE COMMANDMENTS FOUND! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THEY SAY!"

Re: SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

#73

Post by devcpp »

swordswinger12 wrote: post #14

I honestly don't know whether to be impressed or frightened by the level of obsessive attention to detail on display here.

I visited some of the article from his homepage. This guy is an all-around genius! He writes every page on his website in this manner, on so many different fields. Bookmarked.

I hope no one will only look at his SAT.

Re: SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

#74

Post by seanlinehan »

imjk wrote: post #34
tokenadult wrote: post #19

A lot of the comments here are related to the idea of whether or not the SAT can be regarded as being much like an IQ test. It can, and psychologists routinely think of the SAT that way. Despite a number of statements to the contrary in the various comments here, taking SAT scores as an informative correlate (proxy) of what psychologists call "general intelligence" is a procedure often found in the professional liter…

How do you reconcile the large leaps in SAT scores that people achieve through preparing for the test? For example, while I had a fairly respectable score in high school, after I spent a little time working as an SAT tutor in college, I was regularly scoring perfectly on all practice tests and recently release new tests. Surely my IQ hadn't jumped drastically. Just curious for your take on this.

What I find interesting is that I achieved a massive leap in my SAT scores without studying. As a disclaimer, I grew up in a lower-income area with terrible college prep and neither of my parents knew the college admission process. In short, I didn't actually know that you could study for the SAT. So the first time I took it, I did so completely blind and got an 1800. I took the test, again without studying, two months later and got a 2100. Given that both times I took the exam I was neither stressed out, tired, or even the slightest bit prepared, I'm not sure how to reconcile the 300 point leap.

Re: SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

#77

Post by Evbn »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #59
imjk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you reconcile the large leaps in SAT scores that people achieve through preparing for the test? For example, while I had a fairly respectable score in high school, after I spent a little time working as an SAT tutor in college, I was regularly scoring perfectly on all practice tests and recently release new tests. Surely my IQ hadn't jumped drastically. Just curious for your take on this.

According to studies not performed by a company selling test prep, there is no large leap in SAT score. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124278685697537839.html

Yet practicing old tests clearly does increase scores, and token adult's comment above did not account for that. He assumed that everyone practices and so the measurements are unbiased, or that practice is highly correlated with IQ (which may be true)

Re: SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

#78

Post by Evbn »

jgeralnik wrote: post #75

Tangentially related, on one of my (national) highschool math finals, I decided to bring an abacus instead of a calculator. The proctor gave me a weird look, I explained I was using it as a calculator, and he gave me no problems.

Did you use it? Aren't abaci rather loud?

Re: SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

#79

Post by Evbn »

Steko wrote: post #15

Spoliers (it's very long): he got one question correct, sadly. I feel for him given the preparation and detail he put into it. I missed a few SAT questions my senior year but helpfully, The College Board decided to make the test easier the following year and magically recalibrate my scores to perfect. It was too late for colleges to care and the expected thousand girlfriends never materialized but it did make me feel…

I didn't get the recalibration :-( one off perfect forever. same as my LSAT.

Re: SAT: Getting the lowest score possible

#80

Post by jgeralnik »

Evbn wrote: post #78
jgeralnik wrote: post #75

Tangentially related, on one of my (national) highschool math finals, I decided to bring an abacus instead of a calculator. The proctor gave me a weird look, I explained I was using it as a calculator, and he gave me no problems.

Did you use it? Aren't abaci rather loud?

No, it was just for show.
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