New SAT, New Problems
theatlantic.com
New SAT, New Problems
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Re: New SAT, New Problems
#2In the 3rd question, if the fee were 6%, would the right answer be 7075 or 7076? I don't know the high school rules of rounding. Are you allowed to round to a number that doesn't satisfy the question? Fortunately they picked values where it is not ambiguous, but that question could be really nasty.
Re: New SAT, New Problems
#3Here's the College Board's page on the redesigned SAT: https://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat/rede...
Here's a 200 page PDF on the new format with lots of sample questions: https://www.collegeboard.org/pdf/sat/delivering-opportunity/...
The sentence completions are gone; now we have words in context. Essay is twice as long. No independent writing section. Math is more algebra and prob/stats focused, especially with graph and chart interpretations. Geometry has been all but eliminated, coming in at 6 total questions in the Additional Topics in Math (paraphrasing) category.
In my view, the main issue with this exam is that it's more coachable now. I feel you can learn less math/reading/writing now and just exploit the nature of the SAT to do well on the new exam. Good for test prep, not so great for everyone else. The main issue is that you kind of have to dumb yourself down to answer the questions - if you start actually thinking critically, you'll run into trouble.
Re: New SAT, New Problems
#4I know what that graph-line question is trying to ask, but I can't figure out those possible answers.
Re: New SAT, New Problems
#5In the 3rd question, if the fee were 6%, would the right answer be 7075 or 7076? I don't know the high school rules of rounding. Are you allowed to round to a number that doesn't satisfy the question? Fortunately they picked values where it is not ambiguous, but that question could be really nasty.
This is not really a 'high school rule' but I am almost certain that in a standardized test like the SAT you should round up for such a question, and not round down to a number that doesn't satisfy the question, since that would just be logically wrong and fail to correctly answer the question.
This was the kind of tricky question that would often annoy me in high school or college tests since teachers and professors were not always good at catching such ambiguity and resolving it in the most logical way. Standardized tests are usually pretty good about this.
Re: New SAT, New Problems
#6I know what that graph-line question is trying to ask, but I can't figure out those possible answers.
It seems pretty poor to me. I would think the correct answer should be something like: "The expected height on in centimeters for any person with a first metacarpal bone length between 4 and 5 centimeters." That may not be perfectly technical wording, but I think it's the general message the line conveys.
Edit: Whoops, misread the question. I see it's asking about what the slope of the line means and not just what the line represents in general.
Re: New SAT, New Problems
#7In the 3rd question, if the fee were 6%, would the right answer be 7075 or 7076? I don't know the high school rules of rounding. Are you allowed to round to a number that doesn't satisfy the question? Fortunately they picked values where it is not ambiguous, but that question could be really nasty.
Short answer - In general, item writers try to isolate one issue that they want to evaluate so that it is easier to determine where the knowledge/cognitive breakdown occurs.
Longer answer - According to test design principles, one would not use initial values that would lead to a potentially ambiguous rounding issue unless you were specifically testing the knowledge of rounding. In this particular case, there are much better ways to test knowledge of rounding than a two-step problem like the one your proposed.
Re: New SAT, New Problems
#8I know what that graph-line question is trying to ask, but I can't figure out those possible answers.
It seems pretty poor to me. I would think the correct answer should be something like: "The expected height on in centimeters for any person with a first metacarpal bone length between 4 and 5 centimeters." That may not be perfectly technical wording, but I think it's the general message the line conveys. Edit: Whoops, misread the question. I see it's asking about what the slope of the line means and not just what th…
It's a very twisted way of asking "do you know that slope is defined as 'rise over run'?"
Re: New SAT, New Problems
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems pretty poor to me. I would think the correct answer should be something like: "The expected height on in centimeters for any person with a first metacarpal bone length between 4 and 5 centimeters." That may not be perfectly technical wording, but I think it's the general message the line conveys. Edit: Whoops, misread the question. I see it's asking about what the slope of the line means and not just what th…
It's a very twisted way of asking "do you know that slope is defined as 'rise over run'?"
My bad - made a mistake reading the question (see my edit above). But still, completely agree that the answers are worded very strangely. I think going for "real" math is a fine idea, but if the questions are designed as poorly as this one, it's going to become as much about reading comprehension as math.
Re: New SAT, New Problems
#10In the 3rd question, if the fee were 6%, would the right answer be 7075 or 7076? I don't know the high school rules of rounding. Are you allowed to round to a number that doesn't satisfy the question? Fortunately they picked values where it is not ambiguous, but that question could be really nasty.
7075.471698 technically rounds to 7075. Less than 0.5, round down. 0.5 or greater, round up.[1]
But saying "what's the least" and then "round your answer" at the same time is silly. If you ask a student "each bus holds 10 people; how many buses do you need to move 32 people?" the answer is 4. I would hate to be asked to "round" that answer.
7075 rupees is too few; 7076 is the first whole number that is "enough."
The real meat of that question comes down to the student being able to figure out "do you multiply by 0.96, or do you divide by 1.04?" And the sample exchange with the fee is pure filler to distract the student.
EDIT Rerad Blackjack31's link, and you will find the original question, which isn't as butchered as it seems at The Atlantic. The present the example rate because they first ask the student to calculate the exchange rate. END EDIT
Plus, what about fluctuations in the daily exchange rate? The student is supposed to assume that isn't changing, but then why in the world are we talking about the daily exchange rate? Say it's a fixed exchange rate.
[1] I had a third grade teacher who insisted you could round to the tenths position and then the unit position, and always get the same answer if you just immediately rounded to the unit position. This is the test case that proves her wrong, but for some reason she didn't want to hear it.[2]
[2] I was in some ways a prat.