Stanley Kaplan is an enormous supporter of the SAT and has helped many students achieve higher test scores with his SAT study guides and tutor programs across the country. The fist time he heard of the SAT was when he was tutoring a girl who was planning to take the test to have a better chance to get into college. Today the SAT is basically required to get into college. It is a test of knowledge and intellectual capacity. I think the SAT is a good way to test prospective students, because it doesn't just ask math and english questions. It tests the thinking process of the test takers, that take their mind for a loop. Since some schools are stricter then others, as the text mentioned, we need a standardized test to show if the GPA the student has actually reflects their intellectual capacity. A student in a upper class private school will most likely have to work harder to get an A than a student in a public school.
One thing I disagree with the SAT is the time limits. A time limit makes me as an individual feel more pressured and therefor I am more likely to make mistakes. I think that this goes for other students too. Another problem with the time is the sheer length. Does it really need to contain 9 sections? The test takes so long that I start to get blurry vision from reading so long. The chairs are uncomfortable and even worse, it is on a saturday! I start to think about all the other things I could be doing on such a pretty saturday. The test takes about 6 hours altogether. I think this is way to long for any student to endure.
Stanley Kaplan is a great man to care so much about students and their success. He has paved the way for students success and future by allowing them to get into college if they are willing to put the effort in. I bought one of Kaplan's books to prepare myself for the SAT. It was very helpful in understanding the content of the questions and how to read between the lines of what it is actually asking. It taught methods on how to finish each section on time with extra time to look over. Stanley Kaplan was instrumental to my SAT success and millions of others. For that, I say thank you.
I totally agree with your comments about the time limits on the SAT. Time limits create more pressure on students so they are more likely to just jump to the next question, instead of taking the time to actually think about the right answer. This, of course, leads to lower test scores. The test being 9 sections is also a big problem for students to concentrate. I can tell that we can both agree that the SAT would be more helpful to us if it didn't consist of such pressure.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you about the time limits for the SAT. I believe in some ways this makes the test a little less than "standardized" because it doesn't take into account the individual students needs when answering the test questions. I can only remember there being 4 sections on the SAT, but then again, I last took it in 2000. Even so, I remember being a big ball of stress because of the pressure associated with time management on the test. How much do you think time management plays a part in SAT success? Is it a bigger deal than actually knowing the right answers? If so, I'm certain that test prep courses can help with that, and that concerns me because not every student has access to test prep resources that those desperately needed skills. Something to think about...
ReplyDeleteThey added a writing section and a couple others.
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