Tuesday, January 7, 2014

a hard look at the SAT

This weekend I was working with one of my own children on SAT questions.  We were looking at questions he had either missed or omitted.  I offer a pair of such questions for your consideration. 



Chose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

The director's __________ anything outside the cocooned world of her film's protagonist is evident in the __________ of the few stilted scenes depicting unrelated events in the lives of other characters.

a) apathy toward ... raptness
b) infatuation with ... timorousness
c) veneration of ... adroitness
d) impatience with ... desultoriness
e) honesty about ... disingenuousness


Solve the problem and choose the correct answer.

If j is a positive integer and the remainder when j is divided by 11 is 5, what is the remainder when 3j+2 is divided by 11?

a)  3
b)  5
c)  6
d)  8
e)  9

So I have some questions about these two examples, both rated "hard" by the SAT folks.

  • Which question was harder for you?
  • What is the purpose of each question in the context of English or math?
  • What does the ability to answer either of these questions tell you about a person?
  • Would the ability to answer these questions help you be more successful in college?  If so, how?

Genuine discussion requested here... 

(I know many of you are wont to wander back over to my Facebook page to discuss, but I am hoping you'll do it here.  I've made commenting easier at this site, and you can even be anonymous if you like.) 


P.S.  The answers to the above questions are d and c. 

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7 comments:

  1. I got them right. The English was harder than the Math. When I thought about it, the English question came down to looking for like terms for the blanks, not opposites, and both meaning something negative. It took me a good bit of time and I had to think through each answer. I may have skipped that one on the actual test. I plugged in 16 for the Math question, which may have been what they wanted? But I felt like I was cheating a little. Using reasoning instead of making equations with J and stuff. I think the complex reasoning needed for these is beneficial for problem solving in college, but not essential. I'm not a big fan of standardized tests anyway. I think that the ability to answer these questions doesn't say anything about a person except their aptitude at test taking. There's my piece. Katie Engel

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  2. Even though I'm a science teacher and pretty good at math, the math one was harder for me. (Maybe it's too early in the morning for me to think this way!) At any rate, I don't feel that either of these questions is really that important in determining a student's success in college; rather, it seems to me they're testing the student's "adroitness" in reading & interpreting context clues, which may or may not be useful in determining future outcomes. As my state's high stakes testing has moved into using EOC's for high school graduation requirements, I've definitely noticed an increase in questions that are less about the content to be tested than about the student's ability to read and interpret what the question is really asking.

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    1. When I discussed the English questions on the SAT with my son, he definitely mentioned that he didn't know the meanings to all the words. I think I am a reasonably literate person and have read quite a bit, but I too wasn't 100% sure of the meanings of all the words. So in that case we talked about whether we wanted "positive" or "negative" words and whether we wanted them to be similar or different. I started to explain to him how to do the math problem analytically and then thought, why? If we just choose a number that fits the first criteria, we can answer the question. Choosing a second number that also works confirms the result. So in both cases, I think the key to success was more about finding a "work around" to solve a problem and less about pure knowledge. As you suggest, do you think that's the intent?

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  3. I got them right. The English was harder than the Math. When I thought about it, the English question came down to looking for like terms for the blanks, not opposites, and both meaning something negative. It took me a good bit of time and I had to think through each answer. I may have skipped that one on the actual test. I plugged in 16 for the Math question, which may have been what they wanted? But I felt like I was cheating a little. Using reasoning instead of making equations with J and stuff. I think the complex reasoning needed for these is beneficial for problem solving in college, but not essential. I'm not a big fan of standardized tests anyway. I think that the ability to answer these questions doesn't say anything about a person except their aptitude at test taking. Katie Engel

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    1. Do you think the purpose of this type of question actually is to solve it using alternate means? Is the SAT a measure of actual knowledge or one of reasoning skills... or both??? Do you ever remember times in college where you used either the knowledge in these questions or the reasoning skills?? For example, does it make sense to know the meanings of lots of words if we never use them in actual writing or conversation? Does it make sense to know how to form and solve algebra equations if we never actually apply them to anything practical in life?? It's a question I wrestle with often. And to be fair, I thought the English questions overall were far more difficult than the math questions. The highest level of math required for the SAT is algebra II, a course learned by most in 10th or 11th grade. The vocabulary and analysis skills of the English sections are not always directly taught in high school at all which means some students never learn it.

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  4. Deb, welcome to my 'frustrating' world. Students who can answer those questions in the required time are not necessarily students who have the aptitude, but students who are properly prepped. And as you pointed out, it does not indicate or predict future success in college. Of course there are always those exceptional students.

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    1. There is plenty of evidence that preparation is a big part of the SAT. Otherwise companies like Princeton Review would be out of business. This begs the question of reliability, as tests should yield consistent results. The purpose of the test has always been to give colleges a means to compare students from varied backgrounds and choose those most likely to succeed in college. Several studies have shown that performance on the test and success in college are correlated, but this is not a causal relationship. Do you have ideas on a better means by which colleges can compare students and choose those best suited for their communities? It is a challenging proposal...

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