NT Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 6, 2014 Page: 2 of 12
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2 OPINION
NORTH TEXAS DAILY
VOI JME 102
ISSUE 16
OPINION
P. 2
POP CULTURE
P. 3
NEWS
P. 4
FEATURES
P. 5-7
SPORTS
P. 9-10
EDITORIAL
BOARD
William A. Darnell
editor-in-chief
willdarnell@gmail.com
Melissa Wylie
managing editor
melissawylieol @gmail.com
Tim Cato
news editor
tcatO 75@gmail.com
Trent Johnson
features editor
tj_21 59@yahoo.com
John Lugo
sports editor
john.lugo@unt.edu
Nicole Arnold
visuals editor
nicoleameliaa@gmail.com
Christina Ulsh
design editor
christina.ulsh@me.com
Standardize This: changes to SAT
James i am bi n
Contributing Writer
Yesterday, the College
Board testing company an-
nounced major changes to
their flagship product - the SAT
college entrance exam.
Starting in 2016, the test - which
is taken by a large portion of high
school students to judge college
readiness and attain acceptance to
a university - will no longer require
an essay, won't penalize students
for guessing on questions they
don't know and will change some
of its tested vocabulary words to
better match words that appear in
an academic and professional en-
vironment.
The test will still evaluate read-
ing, writing, vocabulary and math
skills - but the College Board hopes
that these changes will encourage
actual critical thinking instead of
endless preparation and memori-
zation of vocabulary words.
The response to these changes
has been largely positive, but a
few commenters have decried the
alterations as further proof that
American students are being sys-
tematically "dumbed down" with
falling educational standards.
Maybe back in your day, you
had to walk uphill both ways for
10 miles to reach the one-room
schoolhouse where they adminis-
tered tests at gunpoint, but cry me
a river, grandpa - the new SAT is
a more adequate preparation for
the challenges students actually
face in college, the workplace and
beyond.
Right out of the gate, the idea
that test-takers were previously
penalized for guessing wrong on
questions they didn't know, and
were instead encouraged to leave
that question blank is completely
absurd. Seriously, how many times
have you taken a college exam
that worked like that? The edu-
cated guess is practically a founda-
tional building block of our society
- have you ever heard of the scien-
tific method?
Additionally, changing the vo-
cabulary words on the test to re-
Seoman Chanthorn Peou of San Diego, Calif., takes his Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty
Hawk. Photo by U.S. Navy Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Jason T. Poplin. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy.
fleet what you see in academic
and professional language is a no-
brainer.
Unless you plan to be Charles
Dickens for a living, words like
"turpitude" and "obstreperous"
are going to bid your brain fare-
well about twenty minutes after
you walk out of the test - why not
replace them with words like "em-
pirical" that you'll actually use?
If you've written an essay for the
SAT in the years since the section
was added in 2005, you probably
won't mourn its passing - unless
you're just mad that future high
school students will no longer be
required to suffer the same way
you did.
Dumping a formulaic five-
paragraph essay out of your head
within a 2 5-minute time limit was
always an exercise in limiting cre-
ativity. Considering that most grad-
ers say they only read an essay for
about 90 seconds before deciding
on a score, the best you could re-
ally do was stuff in as many token
vocabulary words as possible to
try and catch their eye during that
short window.
And sure, that's sort of an exer-
cise in critical thinking right there
- but anyone who writes for a liv-
ing, or even just writes in college,
knows that nobody operates like
that outside of a standardized test.
In a perfect world, the bench-
mark of college acceptance would
function like a job interview. The
prospective student would meet
with a professor from the subject
they wished to major in, discuss
their goals, talk about their grades
in high school, and generally do
their best to convey through the
conversation that they were mar-
ginally functioning human beings
capable of both participating in a
discussion and expressing them-
selves thoughtfully.
There'd probably have to be a
math or science test for the people
pursuing more technical paths,
but generally speaking, this sort of
experience is what tests like the
SAT should strive to replicate in a
standardized format, instead of
an exam requiring years of prepa-
ration and rote memorization to
achieve exceptional scores.
That's why you should be ex-
cited about the test's upcoming
changes - even if it's tragically too
late for you to benefit from them.
James Rambin is an English ju-
nior. He can be reached at James-
Rambin@my.unt.edu.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THIS PAGE DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE
OPINIONS OF THE NORTH TEXAS DAILY STAFF.
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Darnell, William A. NT Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 6, 2014, newspaper, March 6, 2014; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth531884/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.