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

161–170 of 403 posts

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#161

Post by ____tom____ »

jedberg wrote: post #84
buildsjets wrote: post #40

You cannot use the SAT as a metric to compare different cohorts. SAT scoring has been revised many times over the years. When I took it the highest possible score was 1600. From 2004 through 2016 the highest score was 2400. Now it is back to 1600 again. Plus, both the content and the format of the exam has changed many times over the years. At times, there was no essay requirement, at times the essay was required, an…

The scores have changed, but ideally they are asking for the percentiles. Those are scaled to the current year.

I somehow doubt that the people that would ask for SAT scores would actually be the sort to think about how those numbers should most effectively be used.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#163

Post by Maxatar »

WalterBright wrote: post #149
doctorpangloss wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how many elected leaders are in STEM? would high SAT scores and grades exclude many US presidents and congressmen? (yes) winning elections seems kind of important to me. so if you were just like, selecting for leadership - and many of our leaders are brilliant people, just not in the sense of being good at taking tests - would that be good or bad? or... what is your real opinion? what are you actually mad about? obvi…

> not in the sense of being good at taking tests The trick to doing well on the SATs is to pay attention in class.

That's not how it plays out in practice. There is overwhelming evidence that students who otherwise excel academically score fairly mediocre SAT scores on their first attempt and then jump substantially after weeks of targeted practice and/or tutoring, even though they didn't learn anything new in the classroom.

If attention in class were all it took then that improvement couldn't happen. What changed was familiarity with the test, not classroom focus.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#164

Post by lazyasciiart »

jedberg wrote: post #82
OptionOfT wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please note that we will also rely significantly on both solicited references (where you introduce us) as well as unsolicited or "back-end" references (where we do our own). For the latter, please rest assured that we will never contact a current employer without first getting your permission. References already give me goosebumps. Having them reach out to people who haven't given you permission to be a reference s…

Every job does that, whether they tell you or not.

No they don't. Source: have hired people without doing that.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#165

Post by ____tom____ »

apparent wrote: post #142
giantrobot wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which requires them to explicitly ask your age outside the bounds of qualification for a job (over 18 etc). Which ends up opening them to age discrimination lawsuits.

It does not require them to ask about your age, just the year in which you took the SAT. As other commenters have pointed out, this can range from 12 to 17. Also, they could just ask for your SAT score and any relevant info (if you took it during COVID from your car, etc.) and then you could disclose whatever context you wanted.

That tells them everything they'd need to know to discriminate. If you took the SAT 40 years ago, it doesn't really matter if it was 42 or 47.

People are biased 25 vs. 55 not 33 vs. 34.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#166

Post by WalterBright »

apparent wrote: post #154
WalterBright wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took the SAT 50 some years ago. I kinda doubt I would do so well on it today without doing remedial prep work on the math.

Apologies, but which part of my comment was this a reply to?

It was in the context of asking people for their SAT scores long after they had taken the tests. Perhaps I replied to the wrong person. Apologies.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#167

Post by ____tom____ »

sarchertech wrote: post #155
hardtke wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the scaled score is not that informative (and perhaps crosses the line on age discrimination) because for older workers the population of people taking the SAT was much smaller as a percentage of high school grads (and presumably weighted towards higher IQs). It's also why there were so many fewer perfect SAT scores -- smaller population in the bell curve.

Number of perfect scores is also affected by the increase in the number of students who spend 20 hours each a week or more doing SAT prep.

Yeah, test prep was considered more for people who were worried about low scores. 1500 vs 1600 wouldn't make much difference in college admissions at that point.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#168

Post by parpfish »

OptionOfT wrote: post #50
amazingamazing wrote: post #5

Company is Alpha Vantage: https://beaverhand.com/apply/alpha-vantage-gtm-team-various-...

> Please note that we will also rely significantly on both solicited references (where you introduce us) as well as unsolicited or "back-end" references (where we do our own). For the latter, please rest assured that we will never contact a current employer without first getting your permission. References already give me goosebumps. Having them reach out to people who haven't given you permission to be a reference s…

i hate references.

all a good reference means to a potential employer is "you are on good terms with somebody from a previous job".

and as a job seeker, it's awkward reaching out to people you may not have talked to in a couple years to announce that you're job hunting.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#169

Post by tjwebbnorfolk »

DANmode wrote: post #65

I’ll do you one better: I was denied a role with a major engineering firm based on my 3.something GPA! They needed a 3.4 or 3.5.

I remember the Cisco (!!) table was the most popular table at the campus job fair, and they turned away anyone without a 3.8+ GPA. I had a 2.42 (2.40 was minimum degree requirement).

Dodged a bullet there. I've worked happily at a FAANG for many years now and somehow I've avoided living in a cardboard box by a dumpster.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#170

Post by collabs »

stephenbez wrote: post #152
eikenberry wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is a lossy testing filter better than just failing out those who can't make it? Maybe allow for larger freshmen classes and smaller latter classes or adopt community colleges and have all students start there and advance into the UC system sophomore year on. Instead they bring back what is basically an IQ test for admission.

High graduation rates are an important metric to administrators. If a professor gave a failing grade to 1/3 of the class they would be in hot water.

> High graduation rates are an important metric to administrators. If a professor gave a failing grade to 1/3 of the class they would be in hot water.

I remember practically every single instructor/professor on the first day of class during my freshman year of my undergraduate study said something along the lines of "I have no curves. Your grades depend on you and nobody else. If the whole class does well, everyone can get an A. If nobody does well, everybody can fail."

So I guess this was more motivational to get us to study rather than stating facts?

Post reply on HN