What is SAT?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Dennis, Mar 22, 2001.

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  1. Dennis

    Dennis New Member

    Hello,

    There is an examination kind with the name SAT. What is does it encompass and can it somehow be useful to someone pursueing an undergraduate degree from Excelsior, COSC or TESC?

    Thank you,

    Dennis Siemens
     
  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    SAT bad. Not used at three schools you say. That good.

    (There are a couple of lengthy threads about the SAT on this board, one of which contains a link to the online version of Time Magazine, which did a cover story about the SAT a few weeks ago.)

    Rich Douglas
     
  3. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    The SAT is the Scholastic Aptitude Test, which is kind of like the entrance exam to college. It's the holy grail of college bound high school students, but I don't know of any college that grants credit for it.

    Bruce
     
  4. Peter Glaeser

    Peter Glaeser New Member


    No college grants credit for the SAT. It's a test designed to predict how a student will do in college. It tests mathematical and verbal intelligence, not knowledge.

    The percentile will give you your position on the bell curve. I took the SAT for the heck of it in 1996 and made a perfect score on the math section, followed by hundreds of advertising letters from colleges.
     
  5. mlomker

    mlomker New Member

    SAT bad. Not used at three schools you say. That good.

    I'm actually half-way through the book "Standardized Minds" by Peter Sacks. It has been a very interesting read so far.

    I went into the book biased against it (I've always excelled at such exams) but I'm starting to believe some of what he has to say.

    He seems to be an advocate of competency/performance based testing. As good as it sounds, I'm not sure if that is feasible. That type of testing is very time consuming. Perhaps the answer is to lessen the scope of how these tests are used.

    Interestingly enough, we have all of these same problems with the certifications used in the computer industry.
     
  6. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I recommend "None of the Above" by David Owen (recently updated by another author). Mr. Owen started off to write an article about the ETS for Harper's, became appalled at what he found, and turned it into a book that undresses both the SAT and the ETS. It is excellent, well-researched, and fun to read.

    Rich Douglas
     

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