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Job application asked for my SAT scores

mrmarket.lol

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Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#201

Post by hammock »

varun_ch wrote: post #177
rayiner wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah they’re much easier now.

When I took the digital SAT a couple years ago, we had access to the Desmos Graphing Calculator during the whole math section. The entire point of the exam was to test whether you can read a math question, input it into the calculator and select the option that matches the result within 60 seconds. If you get a couple questions wrong, you drop hundreds of points. I don’t think it was a valuable test whatsoever (and o…

Everything you’re saying makes me so mad

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#202

Post by WalterBright »

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.

Caltech did not grade on a curve. I recall one class were half the class failed.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#204

Post by Maxatar »

WalterBright wrote: post #200
Maxatar wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really comparable... the overwhelming majority of flight tests involve flying an aircraft. There is no meaningful way someone can be excellent at flying an aircraft but can't pass a test which involves flying an aircraft. The same can't be said for many other tests. If the test involves the practical application of the very skill being tested, then that test has direct relevance to he competency of said skill. Bu…

They are never going to let you into a cockpit until you pass ground school, which involves a lot of math. > A teacher can be brilliant in the classroom yet stumble on a standardized certification exam full of pedagogical jargon. A teacher that cannot explain how calculus works cannot teach it to anybody. > a coding interview that relies on whiteboarding algorithms from memory can easily fail an excellent engineer wh…

This has to be a joke...

Ground school most certainly does not involve a lot of math, it's not like there's any calculus or algebra involved... it's basic arithmetic. Furthermore it's categorically false that you need to pass ground school before you're allowed to fly.

Are you just making things up?

>A teacher that cannot explain how calculus works cannot teach it to anybody.

This is a strawman argument, I never made anything that could even remotely be interpreted as this.

>I've seen too many coders using bubble sort because they don't know enough to look for a better algorithm.

This is committing a very basic logical fallacy. The fact that someone who is incompetent likely can't pass a test is not the same claim as someone who can't pass a test is likely incompetent.

Hopefully you are able to identify this logical mistake that you're committing and revise your position accordingly.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#205

Post by WalterBright »

Maxatar wrote: post #163
WalterBright wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I guess times have changed. When I took the SAT, I did zero prep work. Nobody else I knew did prep work, either.

Paul Graham recently posted SAT advice along the form of "when you finish the test and have more time, go back over the test and check for mistakes."

I was kinda astonished at this advice, isn't it obvious? A strategy I also employed was to do the easy problems first, so I don't miss a question that would have been easy. Apparently this has to be explained to people?

I suppose prep work would be fine for the students who didn't pay attention in class.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#206

Post by brightball »

delichon wrote: post #28

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…

It’s frustrating when easily predicted outcomes are ignored for the sake of feel good policy.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#208

Post by [deleted] »

cm2012 wrote: post #30

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.

[deleted]

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#209

Post by WalterBright »

hammock wrote: post #188
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.

The SAT is actually a lot easier today than it was when most of us took it. It is an hour or more shorter in length, the long reading passages have been replaced with short paragraphs, calculators are allowed, and vocabulary has been removed.

> calculators are allowed

OMG. Calculators are useless on the SAT anyway.

> vocabulary has been removed.

I flipped through a book that coached on SAT vocabulary. I knew all the words. Oh well. I never learned vocabulary as an explicit task. I simply read a lot.

I remember one question on the SAT verbal because it irked me. It asked an analogy question which required knowledge of mixed alcoholic drinks. Since I was far from drinking age, I had no idea.

Re: Job application asked for my SAT scores

#210

Post by Maxatar »

WalterBright wrote: post #205
Maxatar wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I guess times have changed. When I took the SAT, I did zero prep work. Nobody else I knew did prep work, either. Paul Graham recently posted SAT advice along the form of "when you finish the test and have more time, go back over the test and check for mistakes." I was kinda astonished at this advice, isn't it obvious? A strategy I also employed was to do the easy problems first, so I don't miss a question that would…

Yes, if you took your SAT among a cohort of people where none of you practiced for the SAT, then what you're saying holds true.

That's not really the case anymore. Top tier students nowadays prepare for the SAT, they don't go into it blind and haven't done so for the better part of 20 years.

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