Even if none of that applies, any high school student can prepare for the SAT by taking prep courses and purchasing books that contain test taking strategies and practice tests, and then taking the actual test multiple times. (You don’t have to report scores to the college of your choice the first time you take it, and can select which test results to send to the college.) If one is not naturally a good test taker, the practice alone should increase scores. I believe college admissions officers are required to consider other factors besides SAT scores, such as course grades, personal essay, and teacher recommendations.

The SAT is supposed to be simply a predictor of likely college success. It provides “some” information about that likelihood, but are not 100% perfectly correlated. The SAT or ACT is only one hurdle. Other obstacles would include the sheer quantity of red tape and bureaucracy involved in simply being a college student. A hundred and one daily decisions are involved in making the best choices as to courses, time management, and study habits, and that’s aside from navigating the muddy waters of cross-cultural competence in negotiating with predominantly white professors and university staff.

Go figure.

Nope, I am not bored at all with your comments. Keep them comin’! As for the B.I.T.C.H. test, yep, I’ve heard of it. Made perfect sense anyway since testing was a bitch for most people!

At my high school, I scored fairly high on the S.A.T.s (considering that I didn’t really study), and some teachers were wondering why some of my black counterparts didn’t fare so well. I told them that’s partly because I had a couple toes in the “white” world, so I understood the subtle nuances of the test. That statement blew them out of the water, and they treaded water by denying the cold, wet reality of it all. A few years later, that’s when the uproar about these tests really reared its head above water.

http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=170

here’s another one:

http://wilderdom.com/personali.....Short.html

Joking aside, there are thousands of ability tests on the market today, and one of the hot issues in psychological assessment nowadays is to design, administer, and interpret ability tests in a manner that is culturally appropriate, meaningful, and fair to diverse populations. To achieve this aim, the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) have established standards of validity, fairness, and uses of tests, especially for testing individuals with disabilities and different language or cultural backgrounds.

Newer tests are required to draw normative information from a sample that is geographically and ethnically representative of the U.S. population, as well as stratified by age, gender, socio-economic status, and other factors. A well-designed test should demonstrate NO significant differences between groups. If it does, then you should not use that test with that population. All this information is published in the test manual, and consumers have a right to request it.

More to come… if y’all are thoroughly bored by now, just tell me to shut it! ;)

Vikki, would it be fair to say that when black person puts down another black people for “acting white” (i.e., being good in school), that’s an example of internalized racism? If so, what can he or she do to overcome it? Does the person have any incentive to change his/her beliefs, especially if they are supported by one’s community?