Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Job application asked for my SAT scores

mrmarket.lol

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 403 posts

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#21

Post by porridgeraisin »

prpl wrote: post #12
EgregiousCube wrote: post #2

"You're partly making your decision based on who someone was as a 17 year old." Sure, but IQ tests show a high degree of stability over a person's life. It's not unreasonable to be interested in it for sorting.

SAT isn’t an IQ test, and probably all sorts of people took it before they had cultural awareness or a diagnosis that would have lead to different testing conditions had it been taken after diagnosis, let alone the fact that test scores are not comparable. GPAs similarly not comparable over large time ranges, schools, or degrees without normalization you can’t get.

While edge cases may exist, for the most part, a test score / GPA / anything where the numerator is almost as big as the denominator is a good signal.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#22

Post by OptionOfT »

This by default includes a whole bunch of people who didn't take any kind of standardized tests (most notably, immigrants).

The (albeit small) country I'm from doesn't do any. Reasoning was that standardized tests create an environment where teaching is merely done to create good test scores, not to actually teach.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#23

Post by ogou »

I have seen company descriptions in job ads that list college achievements of founders. They are invariably young Asian men. I understand that it's a cultural signifier and don't judge them. But, I also understand that I will never hear back from them because I don't share that background. So, I never apply to any job listing that references college experience of either side, other than wanting a degree in general.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#24

Post by nephihaha »

EgregiousCube wrote: post #2

"You're partly making your decision based on who someone was as a 17 year old." Sure, but IQ tests show a high degree of stability over a person's life. It's not unreasonable to be interested in it for sorting.

I can't speak for others here and we don't have SATs in this country, but these things can be very unfair. When I was seventeen, I had a lot of things to deal with which were not of my own making, such as caring for a terminally ill relative and wondering if I would even have a roof over my head a few months down the line. That kind of thing tends to take your mind off school work. Several years later and I was in a much better place.

I think it's fair enough to say teenagers in general have more instability in their life even without this.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#25

Post by annzabelle »

alephnerd wrote: post #10

As I mentioned elsewhere on HN [0], younger generations are much more competitive now. Visit and talk with undergrads at a top CS program like Stanford, Cal, UIUC, MIT, etc. The culture is different because this is a much more competitive generation. When the acceptance rate into a top CS program is in the 1-5% range and laurels like being a Valedictorian, NHS member, JV or Varsity sports team member in HS, getting a…

I disagree with the increase in competitiveness being a good thing. Excessive filtering at all levels has meant that eccentrics or absent minded professor types are not making it into research roles, and creatives or mad geniuses are filtered out before they have the chance to make an impact. There are a lot of people who are extremely bright and creative, but just don't have it all together the whole time from ages 14-25, and these days they have no chance of making it into research positions.

The system is rewarding conscientiousness and consistency over creativity.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#26

Post by tmule »

alephnerd wrote: post #10

As I mentioned elsewhere on HN [0], younger generations are much more competitive now. Visit and talk with undergrads at a top CS program like Stanford, Cal, UIUC, MIT, etc. The culture is different because this is a much more competitive generation. When the acceptance rate into a top CS program is in the 1-5% range and laurels like being a Valedictorian, NHS member, JV or Varsity sports team member in HS, getting a…

“ getting a 2100/1500+ on the SAT” Typo? 2100/2400 << 1500/1600 in terms of rarity.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#27

Post by beambot »

quux0r wrote: post #16
EgregiousCube wrote: post #2

"You're partly making your decision based on who someone was as a 17 year old." Sure, but IQ tests show a high degree of stability over a person's life. It's not unreasonable to be interested in it for sorting.

I dislike this argument. I think in some dimensions these types of tests can work, but I’ve never been the type of person who’s been able to score well, and I don’t test particularly well in general, yet I did my PhD work at and have had a great career despite this. I think that testing is good for people who can be adequately evaluated, but for people like me it just leads to a lifetime of feeling like something’s w…

Test-taking may only roughly correlate to intelligence, and is just one dimension of a human... but they likely care less about false negatives (like you) than they do about false positives in alternative assessments.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#28

Post by delichon »

Last month 2,400 University of California faculty asked for admissions to resume using the SAT "to ensure foundational fluency." Of course many employers want to ensure that too, especially when college degrees don't anymore.

  The widening abilities gap followed the 2020 elimination of the SAT/ACT, a temporary measure that has now become a permanent vulnerability. This outcome was explicitly predicted by the Academic Senate’s 2020 Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF) report, which warned that removing these tests would eliminate a vital predictor of college success and obscure the impact of severe high-school grade inflation. Unfortunately, the outcomes cautioned against in that report have now materialized in the data across our campuses. All other leading STEM institutions, including the UC’s primary peers, have resumed using SAT/ACT in their admissions to ensure foundational fluency. For the University of California to remain a global leader in STEM, it is essential to restore these objective benchmarks. -- https://ucstudentsuccess.org/
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/learning-assessm...

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#29

Post by Hax0r778 »

janalsncm wrote: post #3
EgregiousCube wrote: post #2

"You're partly making your decision based on who someone was as a 17 year old." Sure, but IQ tests show a high degree of stability over a person's life. It's not unreasonable to be interested in it for sorting.

Can you say the same for SAT tests, where the score is best of N and N is however many the person can afford and varies between candidates?

Not only that, but the SAT is not an IQ test and you can definitely study for it. Students with wealthy or motivated parents can get study books or tutors which makes a huge difference in score.

The Princeton Review promises a 200 point score improvement with some of their packages. And they can fairly-reliably achieve it too.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#30

Post by cm2012 »

I would never ask for them since its so cringe. But SAT scores correlate to IQ at .81, and IQ is one of the few things that strongly correlates to knowledge work performance positively. There is probably a lot of alpha from knowing candidates SAT scores. Its more useful than knowing the college they went to.
Post reply on HN