The Guilfordian

Issue date: 2/18/05 Section: World

If a random sample of 500 high school students across the nation were polled and asked which measure would carry the most weight in deciding their college entrance, the answers might be as follows. About 30 percent might indicate grades, 20 percent might choose extracurricular activities, and, according to a recent poll taken by The Kaplan Company, a whopping 50 percent would put the weight on their SAT scores.

The SAT is a nearly four-hour test that measures critical reading, writing, and mathematical reasoning skills that students have developed over time and skills the U.S. government has accepted as necessary for successful academic performance.

According to Collegeboard.com, the SAT is the best independent, standardized measure of a student's college readiness. This Scholastic Aptitude Test has also been called "Sick and Twisted" and "Slimy Atrocious Torture."

Over the years many students and educators have criticized the SAT for being too streamlined and not having the capacity to accurately measure a student's applied knowledge. In attempts to avoid further criticisms, the College Board has reformatted the test. They have added two more challenging sections in hopes of improving overall accuracy in the actual measure of academic intelligence.

This new test will cover third-year college-preparatory math, such as exponential growth, absolute value, functional notation, and negative and fractional exponents. In addition, a writing section will require students to write an essay in which they take a position on an issue and use reasoning and examples to support their position.

According to a recent press release by the College Board, the test will be first administered on March 12. This means that all juniors in high school and below have to prepare for an even more rigorous exam that will set the standard for excellence.

"I don't see how multiple choice questions can accurately measure a student's writing ability," said Early College (E.C.) junior Alden Mueller. "I am concerned with the scoring of the new writing section. Regardless of how detailed a rubric might be, there is still room for the opinion of the reader to affect the score."

According to Mike Harrison, student counselor at EC, the essays will be scored using a holistic approach. This means that a piece of writing is considered as a total work, the whole of which is greater than the sum of its parts. Each essay will be scored independently by two qualified readers and will be scored on a scale of 1 to 6 by each reader, with the combined score ranging from two to 12. If the two readers' scores differ by more than one point, a scoring leader will resolve the difference.

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