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Standerdized Testing

Posted: 12th October 2005 15:12

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Black Waltz
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Well, I just finished taking my PSAT a couple of minutes ago. As a junoir in high school, I know this will be important for me. It was still BORING though wacko.gif Anyone else took SATs, PSAT, or other standerdized tests, or are preparing to?

Edit
Can't spell to


This post has been edited by Barrylocke on 12th October 2005 15:12

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Posted: 12th October 2005 15:45

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It's been nearly ten years since I did.

No, wait. I did in fact take my GRE when I was thinking about starting a Master's.

Suck it up and take them until you get the scores you need.

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Posted: 12th October 2005 17:21

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Crusader
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The SATs are highly overrated. And take this for example: Two of my friends took them. One got a 1000, the other an 1190 (back when it was still scaled to 1600). They both applied to the same college. My friend with the 1000 got accepted while my friend with the 1190 did not. It's in my experience that most colleges care more that you took the SATs than your score (well, obviously not including Ivy league schools and big time universities.) It's grades and extracurricular activies they look most at.

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Posted: 12th October 2005 17:41

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You know, a lot of people will tell you that the PSAT, SAT, are overrated for college admission.

The thing is... they're not, really. It's a delicate balance, sure, but a lot of weight is still placed on them, don't think otherwise.

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Posted: 12th October 2005 17:46

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Black Mage
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Not really sure what SATs imply in American, but in England, we done them at Year 6 (aged 10/11ish) and year 8 I think (aged 14ish). Pretty sure they've scraped them now as they meant absolutely nothing but more 'pressure' on children. The numbers were alot different too, 3 or 4 compared to your 1000's. They were just to help schools place you in the right sets for lessons, but they don't work.

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Posted: 12th October 2005 18:10
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Standardized.

I took the PSAT, the SAT, a bunch of SAT IIs, and the ACT before I entered college, and the FCAT, which is a special Florida test you have to take to graduate. I only had to take them once. Don't stress about it too much. Find out what range your school of choice is looking for and hope you can hit it.

Edit
And for the people who don't believe that I can spell... standerdized


This post has been edited by karasuman on 12th October 2005 20:10

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Posted: 12th October 2005 18:16

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Quote (karasuman @ 12th October 2005 13:10)
Standardized.

If your going to correct someone, you should give them the proper spelling in return. smile.gif

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Posted: 12th October 2005 19:06

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Quote (BASSsic @ 12th October 2005 13:16)
Quote (karasuman @ 12th October 2005 13:10)
Standardized.

If your going to correct someone, you should give them the proper spelling in return. smile.gif

But... that is the right spelling. In America, anyway.

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Posted: 12th October 2005 23:32

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i hated taking those. im not sure how the new ones are but its been about 3 years since ive taken mine. long and boring if you ask me. i got a 1000sumthin the 1st time and 1280 the 2nd time around. hope you did well on it barrylocke!

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Posted: 13th October 2005 00:14

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Chimera
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As a teacher I despise standardized testing. I always tested well, and did really well on the ACT and SAT, but it's terrible for elementary school students. Especially with the ridiculous emphasis NCLB has put on it. My 3rd graders had to take one a couple of weeks ago, filled with questions like:

Which one of these words has the same vowel sound as the end of the word "fully"?

A. reply
B. agree
C. play
D. fly

I don't think even my brightest students got it right. They look at that and even if they know agree and fully sound the same at the end, they all second guess themselves since they look different at the end. They throw TONS of trick questions at them, and our school funding is decided by it.

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Posted: 13th October 2005 00:42

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Holy Swordsman
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I wouldn't really know much about exams like that. Here in Quebec, the closest things to the like are Placement exams which you take after acceptance to a school at the college level, which then decide the level of intensity for the courses you're allotted to take. It's not really the same, but the closest we've got to it.

I don't think that things like that should mean as much as they do, but unfortunately, it provides the results that a lot of people are looking for and as such, they'll probably be around another long while. The best thing you can do is try not to stress over it too much and do the best you can.

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Posted: 13th October 2005 03:50

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Quote (Gears @ 12th October 2005 20:14)
I despise standardized testing [and] I always tested well

Right on, and ditto. I took the LSAT recently and did well on it. I understand that schools need some sort of index because of the large number of applicants. I also understand that these tests do, to some degree, measure applicable skills. However, success on these tests has become less about who is the brightest and more about who can "beat" the test. This includes paying outrageous fees for prep classes if you want to remain competitive, which is completely unfair to someone who might be bright but economically disadvantaged.

I was fortunate enough that my parents could foot the bill for one of these. You know what the class consisted of? Studying the format of the test (largely unchanged over the years) and trying to tackle it by deconstructing its design. There is little emphasis on practical knowledge or development of skills. Both of these play some role, and obviously will not hurt you on the test, but the tried and true method is understanding the nature of the test itself and trying to defeat it on that basis.
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Posted: 13th October 2005 10:21

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I wrote the MCAT in the summer of 2002, and though I did well, I don't feel that it's a useful method of ranking students. I'm starting my third year of medicine, and I can honestly say that today I am using absolutely none of the "skills" that I displayed on that test. If anything, I feel like writing the MCAT was a detriment to my development as a student, since I could have used that summer to gain relevant experience like doing research in a lab.

It's unfortunate, because these tests often "weed out" very capable and motivated students. I can think of many, many classmates from earlier years who had to pursue alternate careers because they scored a few points lower than I did. A handful of these were probably better candidates than I was.

Make no mistake, though, all of us are bright students who are doing quite well, but we're all aware that getting into med school was like making the last table of a poker tournament: It took some proportion of skills and luck, and we really were lucky to do well on a standardized test that none of us would recommend as a useful testing method.

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Posted: 13th October 2005 12:28

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I took the SAT in 1996 when I graduated from H.S. I *think* it was on the 1600 pt scale back then. Good times, good times. Remember, go to the bathroom BEFORE you start testing, and for the love of God, don't drink lot's of fluids before you go in to the testing room! You may think you really need that coffee, but I assure you... you don't.

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Posted: 13th October 2005 13:54

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Sat's are important
my brother had a 3.4 gpa average
and an 1184 on the sat

he went to apply to his dream college (CalPolySLO)
and they denied him saying his sat score was too low (they say they require 1200)
(while their gpa requirement is 3.0)
and also that if he had wanted a better chance he sould've taken the act

now its my turn to take the sat last year on the psat for sat2 i got a 1774
out of 2400, and right now i'm studying up n my one weak subject (got a in 780 math, 600 on my essay and about a 400 in vocab)
so right now i'm asking myself what is the set bar that most colleges have on the sat2
i'm thinking i need above a 2000, so i'll shoot for about 2200

Edit
funny thing is i misbubbled in my math section and didn't catch it until 50 questions later, and so i still had 3 questions left blank because the time ran out, when i was rectifying my mistake, and i still got that high score (each section is out of 800)


This post has been edited by Cloud_Strife510 on 13th October 2005 13:57

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Posted: 13th October 2005 14:01

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I have a funny story about the S.A.T. When I first took it, I did (as per usual) much better on the verbal than on the math. In fact, I finished one of the verbal sections about twenty minutes early. So I decided to take a little power nap. When the proctor announced it was time to move on to the next (math) section, I turned the page, and saw to my horror that I had missed an entire reading section (with like, twenty questions).

Curse that arrow that tells you to go on to the next page! It evaded me that day.

Anyway I retook it a few months later and got almost a hundred points higher on my verbal.

Let this be a lesson to you all! About, uh, something!

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Posted: 14th October 2005 03:01

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I just took the PSAT yesterday. I won't know what I scored until around December, though, but I'm sure I did fairly well.
I also have to pass a state test, the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills), in order to graduate from high school. The only problem I have with it is the fact that most teachers are forced to teach the test because a lot of people have trouble passing a section of it, so sometimes we don't learn a whole lot outside of the test in some classes.
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Posted: 14th October 2005 11:21

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Black Waltz
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In my PSAT, I think I did better in math than in reading. Darn those words I'd never heard of.

The PSAT has an important aspect because those that score high enough are elegible for Scholarships.

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Posted: 14th October 2005 13:37

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Quote
In my PSAT, I think I did better in math than in reading. Darn those words I'd never heard of.

The PSAT has an important aspect because those that score high enough are elegible for Scholarships.


I was told the same thing, and it's not as big of a deal as you think, for any possible scholarship you have to score very high, and even if you're close to that range, most of them are small colleges that all star out with;

...Do you know what's an advantage to going to a small school?....
...Teacher student ratio 1:15....
and then they show a pic of the campus which is probably the whole campus

so unless you get a 2250 or higher don't expect anything worth your while, so far nobody i know has gotten a scholarship from taking the psat2

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Posted: 14th October 2005 15:13
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The only tests I actually remember doing were the... I think the CATs. Maybe SATs, but I'm thinking CATs. I don't remember being that worried, our school atleast placed little emphasis on them, actually dropping one of the set of (I think) four tests because they didn't think it was worth doing. The school I go to now, you can enter in year 12 or in year 10, and these tests dictated whether or not the school would be considering us for year 10 entry. You needed a 107 total to get in, I got 97 maths, 100 or so on the other paper and 143 on English, out of 145, so I got a 116 overall. I seem to remember it being deceptive and at some points downright absurd.

Eh. I remember the exercise they made us do during the between-test intervals better. I near enough lol'd.
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Posted: 14th October 2005 19:37

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Climbing Marle!
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I took the PSATs last year, and I'm taking them again tomorrow. I really don't mind them too much. It has to be done.

I forgot what my overall score was last time I took them. I missed one question on the Math because I filled in the wrong bubble. Right answer, wrong bubble. Stupid confusing scantrons ( tongue.gif ). My writing score was significantly less, due to my preference for archaic grammer structure. I took 4 years of Latin, so all the literal translations sound just as good, and sometimes even better, than the typcail English sentence (for example, "Having completed the Math section, I put away the calculator for the purpose of the English section to be completed" sounds like a perfect sentence to me). That really botches up my "choose the best correction" score, since they all sound good. Gah. Whatever. At least my Latin grade makes up for it. happy.gif

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Posted: 14th October 2005 21:38

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We don't have anything like SAT's in Alberta. The only standardized testing we had were called Provincials, that were a 'test' test to see how the average student in the Grade 6 and 8 levels were doing, and comparing them to past levels to see if kids are still learning in school. There are no college entrance exams, you only do the finals for each curriculum you're taking, depending on the level... Getting an average score for English 30 would get you into university better than a high score on English 33, because the 30 course and test was much more diffcult.

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Posted: 15th October 2005 02:22

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Testing is standardized for the express purpose of making tests fair, but the problem is that some kids are more suited to take standardized tests. I can't say I hate them that much since I'm one of the kids that does very well on them (even if I don't necessarily know all of the information that I should), but I admit that they are unfair to others.

This post has been edited by The_Pink_Nu1 on 15th October 2005 02:22

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Posted: 15th October 2005 02:52

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I have to say I don't like standardized tests at all. They don't seem to be very fair to me. My friend Charles is way smarter than I am and he ended up getting 1110 or 1120 and my friend Chris got 1360 and is definitely not as smart as Charles. Anyways, my point is that as everyone knows some people are just better suited to tests
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Posted: 15th October 2005 07:10

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No matter how much I despise Standardized testing and believe they should toss the whole thing as it is a waste of time and money,... its not going to happen. I don't believe any college should admit students based on their SAT scores. However, if you can write well, as in getting A's and B's on your essays in school, you do have a great chance of getting in as they will require some type of essay.
As for my rant above, I feel better after saying that, even though I know nothing will change until I carry out my plans for world domination that I shouldn't have just mentioned...

At any rate, good luck on your SAT's! I'll be signing up for the Subject SAT's soon as well!

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Posted: 16th October 2005 23:44

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I took the SATs the first weekend in October. The test itself isn't that hard. The problem is the lenght of the test. Testing for hours on end can make the eaisest problems take the longest time. And most of the Pennsylvania state schools aren't even looking at the Writing score yet. Which is good because I bombed out on it.

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Posted: 19th October 2005 07:05
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geeez its been over a decade already. all I know is I was sitting beside a very gorgeous guy that day.

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Posted: 19th October 2005 11:08

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I took the PSATs 2 weeks ago. The Math sections were quite easy, but the reading section pissed me off so much. I’m much better in my English/Reading class than Math, yet I did better (I think) on the Math section. It’s all those difficult words that confuse me to no end! For both Math sections, I completed most of the questions. In both Reading sections, I barely went past 15 questions. The PSATs are just sooooooooooo boring! It’s hard for me to pay attention…

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