How will this devalue the test? The only way in which the test is easier is that it's shorter, so students who lose steam toward the end will perform somewhat better. But this shorter test is dynamic, so it will still be able to assess students fairly, at all levels. In truth, it could even open the door to allowing for a higher ceiling, by offering even harder questions to students who score super well on earlier portions. That could make the test (and a coveted 1600+ score) even more trusted as a marker of academic ability/readiness.
Would not 'losing steam' on a long test be indicative of motivation and also be part of the test? Remember, the test is a lot more than the questions; the test is also about pacing and focus.
There is something to be said for endurance, and I admit that the new test will not test endurance as much. But I think most people don't think of the primary role of the SAT as an endurance test.
When I was in HS, we had IB tests that were much longer, and were seen as grueling tests of endurance. And after law school, I took the CA bar exam, which was at the time the only 3-day bar exam. It was (in)famous for endurance.
But do people think the SAT is measuring endurance? I don't, but perhaps others do.
One thing that won't change is any effect on pacing. The SAT previously had sections, and it will continue to have sections. You still have to pace yourself through each section. But there was never a way to pace yourself across sections, through the entire test. You had to wait until one section was done before starting the next.
"Students will still take the exam at a test center or at a high school."
You're not going to be able to take this with an iPad on your couch (or with a friend/parent nearby). Likely just as draconian as today, except no pencils required.
I don't know why the above got downvoted - it's absolutely true. There is a reason I have to go into a testing center or sit there with my camera on with a proctor watching when taking cloud exams.
I don't see how hard it can be to keep organizing SATs once a year - plus it really does generate a shared identity, which is something we are all sorely lacking. It was a big event to go to a different school to take the SAT.
This are big statements to be making with no rationale. These will still be proctored exams in person, so there is no reason to believe that cheating will increase. Additionally, there is low indicators from the start that standardized tests correlate with academic success, hence the number of higher ed institutions no longer requiring them.
People who want to cheat will always find a way to cheat. All you need to do now is go to the bathroom and lookup answers on your phone.
Standardized tests actually correlate better with academic success than a number of other measures. Some Ivies have recently been reinstituting standardized testing requirements.
That’s just straight false, or at least I have never seen any evidence showing a strong correlation. What has been shown is the negative advantage minorities, impoverished, ESL, disabled people have when taking the test and the advantages that wealthy people who can pay for tutors have.
>What has been shown is the negative advantage minorities, impoverished, ESL, disabled people have when taking the test and the advantages that wealthy people who can pay for tutors have.
How does this contradict the GP? This doesn't necessarily seem inconsistent with standardized tests correlating better with academic success on its face. Because I would expect that such people tend to have not just worse standardized test scores but also worse academic success (because of the advantages that wealthy people have that these people lack).
There is a difference between aptitude (intelligence) and academic success (grades). There is also the underlying issue of equity.
If someone with a high aptitude but low academic performance is put into a situation where they have more access to resources, they will perform better than someone with low aptitude that has the means to make up for it in their academic success.
For instance, the popular college prep hack is take the SAT three times. Study for a different section each time, and colleges will take your highest score of each section. That’s not possible without the moderate financial means to take the test multiple times.
Doing these online will create Lots of opportunities to cheat. You guys underestimate how much money there is in cheating these tests. It’s easily worth 100k per head maybe more.
It’s worth a lot to a small subset of people, but that’s an issue today. The biggest way the group you’re referring to cheats will not be made worse by having the system online (bribe proctors, have someone else take the test, SAT training, etc.)
Your average high school student does not have thousands, let alone tens of thousands, of dollars at their disposal to cheat on the SATs.
What angle? I'm talking about the definitions of the words.
Pandemic: occurring over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affecting a significant proportion of the population; characterized by very widespread growth or extent
Endemic: characteristic of or prevalent in a particular field, area, or environment; a disease or outbreak of disease that is typically present in a particular region or population : an endemic disease
COVID doesn't even really qualify as endemic based on the dictionary definition, but it's certainly not a pandemic.
None of those numbers indicate growth. None of those numbers indicate a significant proportion of the population. I'll give you geography, but that's also characteristic of an endemic illness - distributed across a large geographic region among a small percentage of the population with relatively little impact.
The severity has dropped more than the prevalence.
Hospitalizations suggest that in the US the peak in Jan 2024 was around 80% as big as Jan 2023. If that's accurate, then Jan 2024 had more cases per day than most of 2020 and a good chunk of 2021. That's a lot of extent. There had been 120 thousand cases in the entire world when pandemic was originally declared, and the US is currently doing a multiple of that each week.
