So. Took the new SAT today. Remember, kids, pencils are for making your mark heavy and dark, not stabbing through the eyes.

I'm ready to pass out. It was more draining than anything else. It's really nerve wracking to be constantly reminded that my entire college-going career rests on the results of four hours of filling in little circles. Wish me luck (ugh).

Anyone else share in the four hour fun? Going to? Thoughts on the new, improved test? What is the UK equivalent, anyway?

Don't think like that. I've never been a particularly good test taker -- at least with multiple choice questions. I'm much better at the short answer response.

As far as the test goes it used to stand for Scholastic Apttitude Tesing. Now guess what it stands for. SAT -- the SAT's stand for SAT.

Yeah, that's great.
But you're not really being tested on anything but your ability to take the test. I suggest the ACTs if you can take them. I would have liked to but didn't get the chance. The ACTs give you the information you need and the questions -- so it tests your ability to use the information that you are presented with.

And besides, even if you did poorly (which I doubt) you can always retake them up to 6 times! Plus more and more colleges are starting to base their acceptances on your outside of school activities rather than test scores.


Even so, I'm sure you did fine.

It's irritating as hell that it's now for four hours, but I am glad they ditched the analogies. God, I hate analogies.

To be honest, I have mixed feeling over Albany's insistance that this test will raise scores for women. It smells of cheating to me, such that I don't think I'll have earned my score, that I needed the test to be "fixed" so I'd be able to score the same as a boy getting about the same grades. Though I suppose one could argue that the previous test was tailored for white men and they're just levelling out the scores now.

However, I think I've read that colleges don't care about SAT scores as much, because the percentage of students with high grades applying to college is higher. They're really focusing on extras, which is why (in the years between being five and now) I've taken: ballet, art classes, horse-riding classes, viola, voice, a journalism course on weekends and girl scouting (until my mother got the hint when I buried my vest in the backyard). I've written for the school paper, joined an interfaith volunteer group, done extra volunteer work in another group, built sets for the drama club, and been an active member of the school orchestras in various schools for seven years. The purple ones were voluntary.

(is it overly obvious that I'm from Westchester, land of the stage parent?)

I'm sure you did well, but here's some very pretty good luck anyway :\~//Good luck!:/~\\

"done extra volunteer work in another group" wasn't voluntary?

I was probably something like Key Club where it's mandatory that you do some kind of service project to stay in the club.

As for the SATs, I'm really not the one to comment about how hard it is. I mean, I made an average of 1480 the numerous times I've taken it... ::gloats :: Good luck on them, though! ::sends her smarts::

We have SATs (Standard Attainment Tests) but it doesn't sound like they're the same thing. They only last about 40 minutes and don't matter at all.

Yeah, I think it's another thing that our government thought would be a good idea to pilfer from the Americans. I imagine the exchange followed thus:

"Hey, I've a really great idea!"

"What?"

"Lets put more stress on the nation's schoolchildren by making them do some more exams."

"Oooh, I dunno, that sounds a bit harsh."

"Nah, it'll be fun, trust me. A right laugh."

"Oh go on then. But what test are we going to use. I can't be arsed to think up one myself."

"God knows. Oh, wait a sec! Why don't we just nick the SATs from the Yanks and dumb it down a bit."

"Sounds like a good idea to me. Fancy a brew?"

"Yeah, go on then."

UK SATs are completely different from the US exams...

You're supposed to take three rounds of SATs here throughout the education process, but I only took one - I missed the first one because they were still arguing over whether kids of that age should sit them, and I missed the last one because I was at a private school.

Isn't it more keeping track of how well schools are achieveing at levels lower than GCSE? Plus the ones you do when you're in year 9 count toward which set you're in for GSCE's and so which teir of GSCE you sit (foundation, intermediate or higher)? Well they did in my school...

That's the impression I got!

My school also based GCSE subject sets on SATs but if you did better in the coursework and generally then you could get moved up to the next teir.

They stopped the SATs for 7 year olds here now though, haven't they?

Canada doesn't have SATs. They tend to trust the nation's school teachers to give decent final exams to the seniors of high schools. Granted, you get 5 exams at 3 hours each, but still you're tested on what you know and what you've been taught in the classroom all year instead of having to cram for a standardized test.

Funny that, no?

I'm moving to Canada.

And everyone where I live has to take the ACT. However, to apply to some other colleges I have to take the SAT too. I'll end up taking both. Yaay.

And I was actually good at analogies.

I'm so angry those are gone...they were fun.

I'm mostly worried because of the mathematics section. For my PSATs (practice ones, for UK folk; they count towards nil but getting a National Merit award if you do really well, which is spiffy and can get you a free education in some schools) I got two perfect scores, but my math grade was unimpressive. I'm not worried about admission into college, it's the inverse relationship between higher scores and lower tuition that I'm concerned about. oof.

It was a fundy (fundamentalist) group that tried to brainwash me. They did some good stuff as far as volunteering went (packing food for the poor, reading to kids and all that) but you were required to attend this meeting afterwards where they literally tried to brainwash you. Twasn't fun, but my mother twisted my arm with "you don't want to help others?" logic.

Same here except I learned the hard way that they ask only from your freshman year of high school up.

*expires over her keyboard*

That's a bit annoying. Freshman year was about when I started quitting things. Damn and blast.

What's really quite annoying about the SAT's (American) is now that they've changed it, it's become more subjective. Of course, that negating the fact that the test was biased anyway, but now it's blatently subjective.

Oh, and believe me, most schools don't really look at SAT scores anymore. That's why they felt they needed to change it in the first place.



But of course, I'm already done taking mine