No one should take SAT in 2016

[212]

Mar 9, 2015 10:15:49 GMT -5 @kirkette said:

Mar 9, 2015 9:29:22 GMT -5 212 said:

[

It does, but there are many programs out there that are attempting to bridge this gap and provide free test prep for students of lower means by big gun tutors. We donate (both time and money) heavily to one such organization.

Also, the company that H works for has never turned down a student due to financial means. They do a ton of pro bono work and community outreach. Not perfect, but it's at least they're aware of the issue and doing their part!

I have a side job ( I was an instructor, now I grade essays, and give feed back)with one of these organizations. I have been with them for 4 years. The work that's done, and what we can offer the kids is really amazing! 

PM me the name! We love supporting this stuff.

[mandapanda18]

So.... just wanted to sign in a say that I didn't take either test, and have my MBA. You can skip all together if you go the community college route for the first two years (which I did because we were broke!)

[MadamePresident]

Mar 9, 2015 10:13:34 GMT -5 rbp said:

Mar 9, 2015 10:07:36 GMT -5 MadamePresident said:

I consider myself fairly intelligent, but didn't do really great on the ACT. Its one of the few bad things about being home schooled, and having parents who didn't attend college after high school. I didn't really prepare for the tests, nor did I know you could take it more than once. I did great in college and graduated with honors. With my masters I even had a 4.0.

My younger sister however benefited greatly from my mistakes and got like a 31 or 32.

How did your parents homeschool without having college degrees themselves?

My mom is really intelligent and well read and studied, despite not having a college degree. She probably would have gone to college had she more opportunity when she was younger but instead she did not have parental support.

The curriculum that I used was a lot of work book so things were explained in the book themselves. There wasn't a ton of "teaching" for her to do. In this area they also have a lot of classes that homeschoolers can take outside the home such as as English, Math, Science, and speech.

[h]

Mar 9, 2015 12:14:11 GMT -5 @starry said:

I really want to AW my scores but won't. Also then I will be one upped. #peakedearly

I generally rock at standardized tests, so I kind of wish everyone was required to tattoo their test scores on their foreheads. But alas, I realize both that standardized tests are problematic for various reasons and that a 37 yo mom AWing her SAT score is really lame.

[rootbeerfloat]

Mar 9, 2015 13:34:03 GMT -5 h said:

Mar 9, 2015 12:14:11 GMT -5 @starry said:

I really want to AW my scores but won't. Also then I will be one upped. #peakedearly

I generally rock at standardized tests, so I kind of wish everyone was required to tattoo their test scores on their foreheads. But alas, I realize both that standardized tests are problematic for various reasons and that a 37 yo mom AWing her SAT score is really lame.

Instead if getting a tattoo related to my kids, I will get a tramp stamp with "Perfect GRE Math, 1998"

[SJ]

Mar 9, 2015 12:14:11 GMT -5 @starry said:

I really want to AW my scores but won't. Also then I will be one upped. #peakedearly

Clicky poll.

[sparkythelawyer]

I did much better on the SAT than the ACT, but that was back in the 90s

[h]

Mar 9, 2015 14:26:37 GMT -5 @starry said:

Mar 9, 2015 14:01:36 GMT -5 SJ said:

Clicky poll.

I know someone got a 1600... can't remember who...

What year? Pre-1995, you couldn't get a 1600 unless you didn't miss a single question. (I only missed one question on the verbal section, and that alone took be down to a 750 verbal.) I think only one or two people a year pulled off a 1600. My understanding is that post-1995, you could miss like three questions or something and still get a 1600. Impressive either way, though, obviously.

[Velar Fricative]

I got a 1502 and got recruited by Stansbury University, the Harvard of the West.

[212]

Mar 9, 2015 15:22:46 GMT -5 h said:

Mar 9, 2015 14:26:37 GMT -5 @starry said:

I know someone got a 1600... can't remember who...

What year? Pre-1995, you couldn't get a 1600 unless you didn't miss a single question. (I only missed one question on the verbal section, and that alone took be down to a 750 verbal.) I think only one or two people a year pulled off a 1600. My understanding is that post-1995, you could miss like three questions or something and still get a 1600. Impressive either way, though, obviously.

Yup, truth. H missed one question and scored a 1550 as a sophomore. Took it again junior year and same thing. Said eff it and didn't go for the third attempt at perfect and that's tge year they changed the curve. Lol. I have a tiny violin I play for him.

Now when he takes it he purposely misses questions to figure out the "perfect score" threshold.

[h]

Mar 9, 2015 15:55:47 GMT -5 212 said:

Mar 9, 2015 15:22:46 GMT -5 h said:

What year? Pre-1995, you couldn't get a 1600 unless you didn't miss a single question. (I only missed one question on the verbal section, and that alone took be down to a 750 verbal.) I think only one or two people a year pulled off a 1600. My understanding is that post-1995, you could miss like three questions or something and still get a 1600. Impressive either way, though, obviously.

Yup, truth. H missed one question and scored a 1550 as a sophomore. Took it again junior year and same thing. Said eff it and didn't go for the third attempt at perfect and that's tge year they changed the curve. Lol. I have a tiny violin I play for him.

Now when he takes it he purposely misses questions to figure out the "perfect score" threshold.

I admit I was wondering whether your H got a perfect score . See, guys, it used to be freaking hard to ace the SATs!

[212]

Mar 9, 2015 16:22:19 GMT -5 h said:

Mar 9, 2015 15:55:47 GMT -5 212 said:

Yup, truth. H missed one question and scored a 1550 as a sophomore. Took it again junior year and same thing. Said eff it and didn't go for the third attempt at perfect and that's tge year they changed the curve. Lol. I have a tiny violin I play for him.

Now when he takes it he purposely misses questions to figure out the "perfect score" threshold.

I admit I was wondering whether your H got a perfect score . See, guys, it used to be freaking hard to ace the SATs!

He did not. Lol. He did however get perfect scores on all SAT IIs, the GMAT, LSAT, and GRE. He's just one of those. It's mildly annoying to live with.

[212]

Mar 9, 2015 17:23:09 GMT -5 @lcap said:

Huh that's weird. DH says he got a 780 on the verbal section. He graduated in 2000 so this would have been like 95 or maybe 94? How can you get a 1580 if getting a q wrong automatically knocks you down 50 points?

This reminds me how much I hate the SATs! He looooves to rub it in that he beat me on it. I actually can't remember what I got exactly anymore.I have a feeling you in remember it if you got a "good" score

Maybe I'm remembering wrong and he got a 1580. I'll text him.

ETA: yup, 1580. Guess I blocked that out because it widens our score gap even more (I got a 1350).

[h]

Mar 9, 2015 17:23:09 GMT -5 @lcap said:

Huh that's weird. DH says he got a 780 on the verbal section. He graduated in 2000 so this would have been like 95 or maybe 94? How can you get a 1580 if getting a q wrong automatically knocks you down 50 points?

This reminds me how much I hate the SATs! He looooves to rub it in that he beat me on it. I actually can't remember what I got exactly anymore.I have a feeling you in remember it if you got a "good" score

I graduated from college in 1999, and the test re-centered my senior year of high school, I think. If he graduated college in 2000, it might have been the new scoring. Also, I think leaving one blank versus marking one wring might have yielded a 1580 due to the penalty for incorrect answers.

But DH missed one math question and got a 750 math, I missed one verbal and got a 750 verbal, and apparently Mr. 212 missed one overall and got a 1550, so I am fairly positive that the first incorrect answer cost you 50 points back in the day. There was nothing between a 1550 and a 1600 if you answered every question.

[h]

Mar 9, 2015 17:34:16 GMT -5 h said:

Mar 9, 2015 17:23:09 GMT -5 @lcap said:

Huh that's weird. DH says he got a 780 on the verbal section. He graduated in 2000 so this would have been like 95 or maybe 94? How can you get a 1580 if getting a q wrong automatically knocks you down 50 points?

This reminds me how much I hate the SATs! He looooves to rub it in that he beat me on it. I actually can't remember what I got exactly anymore.I have a feeling you in remember it if you got a "good" score

I graduated from college in 1999, and the test re-centered my senior year of high school, I think. If he graduated college in 2000, it might have been the new scoring. Also, I think leaving one blank versus marking one wring might have yielded a 1580 due to the penalty for incorrect answers.

But DH missed one math question and got a 750 math, I missed one verbal and got a 750 verbal, and apparently Mr. 212 missed one overall and got a 1550, so I am fairly positive that the first incorrect answer cost you 50 points back in the day. There was nothing between a 1550 and a 1600 if you answered every question.

Ignore me--I just saw 212's update. Maybe it depended on the test since the scores were calibrated so that the average on each section was a 500 or something like that? I am not sure an incorrect answer resulted in getting docked the same number of points every time.

[212]

Mar 9, 2015 17:36:05 GMT -5 h said:

Mar 9, 2015 17:34:16 GMT -5 h said:

I graduated from college in 1999, and the test re-centered my senior year of high school, I think. If he graduated college in 2000, it might have been the new scoring. Also, I think leaving one blank versus marking one wring might have yielded a 1580 due to the penalty for incorrect answers.

But DH missed one math question and got a 750 math, I missed one verbal and got a 750 verbal, and apparently Mr. 212 missed one overall and got a 1550, so I am fairly positive that the first incorrect answer cost you 50 points back in the day. There was nothing between a 1550 and a 1600 if you answered every question.

Ignore me--I just saw 212's update. Maybe it depended on the test since the scores were calibrated so that the average on each section was a 500 or something like that? I am not sure an incorrect answer resulted in getting docked the same number of points every time.

My H missed a verbal question. Maybe math is scored differently?

Who the fuck knows. They're all fucking smart and it's annoying. The end! Lol

[teatimefor2]

My BFF got 1500 something, I'd have to ask him. He has a BA, MA and JD. He never had to pay for schooling until the JD and even then he got a fairly good scholarship at a top tier law firm. I remember the 'agony' he felt having to pay for school.

[h]

@lcap and 212 -- apparently one wrong answer used to cost you at least 20 points, so 1580 was the highest possible score if you missed a question. But depending on the version of the test you took, one wrong answer could also cost you more than 20 points. (And sometimes on the old test apparently you could end up with a 760 or 770 verbal without even missing a question?)

This NYT article explains the old scoring and how the 1995 re-centering changed things:

www.nytimes.com/1995/07/26/us/when-close-is-perfect-even-4-errors-can-t-prevent-top-score-on-new-sat.html

"Mr. Quin attributed this to an algorithm used to translate the raw score -- the number of questions on the test minus the number of wrong answers -- into the make-or-break three-digit score. Complicating things was a little-known fact about the S.A.T.: 790's are never awarded. If a student does not score 800, Mr. Quin said, his score automatically dropped to 780 -- or less, depending on the version of the test taken."