ISSUE 3

6 ACADEMICS
Wed. Nov. 20, 2019
What do
you think of
universities
dropping the SAT
requirement?
ABRIL SANCHEZ
QUIERO
senior
‘‘I’m happy about it
because I feel that
SATs do not really show
how good of a student
soemone is.”
GRACE SUBU
senior
“If you have a high GPA,
it won’t affect you as
much. If your GPA is
lower, It might hurt your
chances.”
Photo created by Nathan Ferson.
Students weigh in on the SAT
BY NATHAN FERSON
Academics Editor
If you haven’t taken the SAT
already, chances are you will soon.
The SAT is a standardized intelligence
test administered by the College
Board company. Most colleges in
the US require applicants to submit
their SAT scores along with the rest of
their application. Students must sign
up through the College Board website
to schedule a day in which they will be
tested. But is the SAT worth it? Many
colleges are drifting away from standardized
testing and many students
believe the SAT is not a fair assessment
of a students abilities.
The SAT has been a part of the
American education system for
decades, but when did the first SAT
come to fruition? Robert Yerke, a
20th century American psychologist
and part of the “new IQ testing movement”,
proposed to the US army a
mass administered IQ test during the
first World War. The test, called the
“Army Alpha” was distributed to all
U.S. soldiers during World War I and
for all intents and purposes, was a
success.
In 1926, Carl Brigham, an apprentice
of Yerke, decided to adopt the
“Army Alpha” and alter it to make it
more difficult so it could be used as
a college admissions test. After the
apparent success of the adapted Army
Alpha test, it was distributed to more
college applicants and gained more
legitimacy. In 1933, Henry Chauncey,
an assistant dean at Harvard, sought
to use Brigham’s altered “Army
Alpha” test (now called the SAT) as
a national baseline test for college
admission. In 1948, the Educational
Testing Service was formed. The ETS
would distribute the SAT as more and
more colleges began to use the test.
However, in recent years, colleges
have been dropping the SAT requirement.
Although many colleges still
recommend the SAT, the general
trend has been that colleges will favor
a student’s SAT score less. This has
correlated with a drop in SAT tests
taken in the past few years, with a
gradual drop since 2016.
“College
Board comes
off as greedy
when they
charge
students
money for a test that is
seemingly required.”
--CRISTIAN ALFARO
senior
The SAT, like many other aspects
of college preparation, places a lot of
stress on students. Students must
study general math and english subjects
to prepare for the test, with many
taking online practice courses or hiring
a tutor. Many have accused College
Board (the company that distributes
the SAT) of overcharging
students. Students must pay around
Senior Zakaria Belkhayat bosses up on IB
$50 to reserve a spot to take the test,
with an extra twenty dollar fee for late
sign ups. College Board also charges
students $12 for each college they
want to submit their SAT to. “College
Board comes off as greedy when they
charge students money for a test that
is seemingly required.” said senior
Cristian Alfaro.
These fees have spawned debate
over College Board’s “non-profit” status.
The president of College Board is
set to earn $750,000 this year, along
with other high-ranking executives
that will make hundreds of thousands
of dollars. In addition, College Board’s
biggest revenue generator (pulling
in $446,000,000 last year) is classified
as “AP and instruction”, meaning
that College Board makes most of
their profit selling study programs and
other tools.
Many students who sign up for the
SAT early have ample time to study
and prepare for it. College Board
offers programs and books that guide
students through the studying process
and prepare them for the testing environment.
“I found YouTube videos to be
the most helpful tool for last minute
studying, the most important thing
is knowing the structure of the test. ”
senior Nathalia Burch said. However,
many students feel that they did
not have enough time to prepare. “I
couldn’t study for the SAT as I had to
work on other homework and focus on
extracurriculars.” senior Mohammed
Khatib said.
Currently there are only five
colleges in the U.S. that require the
SAT as a prerequisite for applications.
This is a stark drop in the number of
colleges that require the SAT, with the
number being 44 in 2006. Ivy league
colleges such as Cornell, MIT, and
CalTech require the SAT and have not
had any meaningful talk of moving
away from it.
Of the five colleges that still
require the SAT, the score requirements
are very high, with MIT having
a base score of 1490 to be considered.
Caltech has a 25th percentile score of
1530, meaning that a 1530 will put
you in the lower one fourth of students
with a shot at being accepted. Many of
the few colleges that still require the
SAT have dropped the writing portion.
Many see this action as a move away
from the SAT as a whole, following the
general trend.
Most colleges still recommend
that the SAT be submitted along with
the rest of the application because it
increases a student’s chance at being
accepted. Many colleges also release
a baseline SAT statistic that provides
a general range of scores that if met,
will increase your likelihood of being
accepted.
Tufts University students conducted
a study in which they looked at
a portion of the student bodies SAT
scores and compared them to the academic
success of the student. The
study found that there was almost no
correlation between the two factors
and in March of 2018, Tufts University
dropped the SAT.
SUDOKU
ASHISH SUBEDI
senior
“I believe this is a step
in the right direction
because SATs are honestly
just stressful and
shouldn’t define your
worth.”
THOMAS NGUYEN
senior
“I think it’s good
because I’ve heard it’s
not an accurate assessment
of a student’s
academic ability.”
ANDREW SILVERA
senior
“It’s good because the
SAT should be something
that is not mandatory.
Good students
sometimes do poorly
on the SAT.”
ASTA SINGUI
senior
“I think it’s a good thing
because not everybody
is a test taker and the
SAT is one of the hardest
tests.”
SAVANNAH
GRAVITT
senior
“I think ultimately it will
be a good thing. A student’s
identity can’t be
determined by a test.”
ANTHONY PHAM
senior
“I believe that the SAT
is important, but it
shouldn’t be the only
thing colleges look at.”
BY NATHAN FERSON
Academics Editor
Q: What clubs are you in?
A: I am in Marching Band, Science Olympiad,
along with honors societies including Math
Honors Society, Social Studies Honor Society
and National Honor Society.
Q: What is your favorite IB subject?
A: My favorite IB subject is physics because I
like the real world problem solving aspect.
Q: What made you decide
to do the IB diploma?
A: I decided to do the
diploma because my brother
and my sister did it. It
also has the most rigorous
coursework, giving me a few
more options after high with
credit transfers
abroad and other perks.
IB
Spotlight:
Profiles of
Diploma
Candidates
Q: What skills do you think the IB program
has taught you that can help you later in
life?
A: I definitely learned a lot more about meta
cognition (thinking about thinking) through
IB Theory of Knowledge. I also learned how
to connect different subjects together for an
interdisciplinary academic experience, which
is useful for college and pursuing a degree.
The focus on writing skills and open ended
questioning has also definitely improved my
ability in those areas.
Q: What is your extended essay topic?
A: My extended essay topic is in global politics,
focused on the increasing influence of Russian
propaganda through their manipulation of social
media and targeted advertising.
Q: What lasting impact do you want to
leave on this school?
A: I hope to leave a positive impact on this school
through the quality of my work, but more
importantly, I want to leave a positive impact on
my friends and teachers.
Q: What colleges have you applied to/plan
to apply to?
A: So far, I have applied to Georgia Tech,
CalTech, MIT and Purdue.
Belkhayat poses with astronaut Robert Krouch
during the VASTS summer academy at NASA’s
Langley Research Center. Belkhayat is involved in
a plethora of after school acitivties such as honors
societies, marching band and other clubs.
Q: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
A: Hopefully in ten years I’ll have a stable career
in an engineering field and I’ll be working to
make an impact on the lives of other’s through
innocvation and technology.
Q: What advice do you have for future IB
candidates?
A: For future IB candidates, I mainly suggest that
you try to see the benefits in taking the diploma
path more than the negatives, because while you
may not see a tangible payoff right now, there
is a lot of very useful experience to gain from it.
I also suggest that you definitely start early on
big written assignments or projects like Internal
Assessments, CAS and the extended essay.
SOLUTION:
LEVEL: EASY
SET NUMBER: 27