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Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

nytimes.com

11–20 of 152 posts

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#11
post #5

"Math questions will focus on three areas: linear equations; complex equations or functions; and ratios, percentages and proportional reasoning. Calculators will be permitted on only part of the math section." As if math requirements for American students aren't low enough already.

What do you propose to add to this list?

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#12
This is great. I think the changes to the essay portion are excellent.

As a native english speaker, my instinct is to emphasize the essay part - but I realize that's idealistic. Still, I think essays and writing are critical for showing one's ability to synthesize (there's that word) and organize one's ideas or those of others. I think writing should be emphasized and multiple native languages supported... but that's work for the next revision. This one is certainly welcome.

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#13
post #3
post #2

At Khan Academy, we're really excited to work with the College Board to provide awesome, free test prep to everyone. We're putting huge emphasis on really learning the material instead of practicing test-taking skills that won't be useful afterwards. Here's a little more about the partnership if you're interested: http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/05/khan-academy-gets-major-par...

"Instead of teaching to the test we're going to put huge emphasis on really learning the material instead of practicing test-taking skills that won't be useful afterwards." Now how do we get the schools to actually do that?

Changing the incentives would be a start. If you give schools very specific metrics, and then judge them on how well they optimize those metrics for the least money, it's no surprise that they are going to... try to find the most direct way of optimizing those metrics. In fact, the ones who don't do that will be penalized!

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#14
post #5

"Math questions will focus on three areas: linear equations; complex equations or functions; and ratios, percentages and proportional reasoning. Calculators will be permitted on only part of the math section." As if math requirements for American students aren't low enough already.

Voluntary extra tests are required for people who need to prove more than competence in fundamentals. I'm sure there are many people who wish their field was better represented in the test. But you have 3 hours to get a read on quite a spread of topics, it necessarily must be rather hit and run, with the deep dives saved for later.

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#15
This is the best news about college admissions that I've heard in a very long time. As someone who was fortunate enough not to be disadvantaged by the clear socioeconomic preferences of the SAT (and I'm guessing the ACT as well, though I had much less exposure to it), this is absolutely a step in the right direction.

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#16
post #3
post #2

At Khan Academy, we're really excited to work with the College Board to provide awesome, free test prep to everyone. We're putting huge emphasis on really learning the material instead of practicing test-taking skills that won't be useful afterwards. Here's a little more about the partnership if you're interested: http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/05/khan-academy-gets-major-par...

"Instead of teaching to the test we're going to put huge emphasis on really learning the material instead of practicing test-taking skills that won't be useful afterwards." Now how do we get the schools to actually do that?

Ideally you test better, such that teaching to the test is identical to teaching well. That's the theory behind the Oxbridge tutorial system. Unfortunately good tests and scalable tests seem to be mutually incompatible, and non-scalable tests incommensurable.

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#17
post #9

To be honest I'm somewhat sad that Khan Academy is jumping on board with this and planning on offering SAT prep videos. I don't think it's appropriate to mix such meaningless skills as test taking, with the true skills Khan Academy helps teach. I believe it could distract students from the important material, by allowing them to care more of what will help them improve that one particular test score.

The official SAT problems are well-written and so we're happy to teach students how to do them.

We're not going to teach test-taking.

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#18
I think these changes are long overdue. To me, the CR portion of the SAT seemed incredibly biased against people from other cultures. Not only was there a language barrier, but also there was the problem of allusions. Many of the passages contained references to things that you wouldn't expect a typical immigrant to know (things like Greek mythology, the indulgences of the wealthy, cultural icons, etc).

I think the waivers for low-income students are also pretty great. When I was in high school, taking all of the standardized exams cost me hundreds of dollars. I went to school in a place with a lot of gentrification, so a lot of my classmates could barely afford to get their high school transcript (let alone pay to take tests). There were many efforts to get the school system to subsidize standardized exams, but they were all unsuccessful.

Re: Major Changes in SAT Announced by College Board

#20
post #2

At Khan Academy, we're really excited to work with the College Board to provide awesome, free test prep to everyone. We're putting huge emphasis on really learning the material instead of practicing test-taking skills that won't be useful afterwards. Here's a little more about the partnership if you're interested: http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/05/khan-academy-gets-major-par...

As a former SAT prep teacher, I'm very excited to learn about Khan Academy's partnership with the College Board. Previously, success on the SAT seemed to depend solely on how much money was spent on SAT prep. Glad to hear that the College Board is interested in leveling the playing field.

Eh, maybe I'm just an outlier but I got a 1370 in 1997 without really trying, let alone actually spending money to prepare. I'm also a 100% product of public schools.
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