"What they found is that students’ test scores were actually “strongly predictive of academic success” at the school". I'm truly blown away and shocked to learn this.
This struck me as well. I wrote a short paper on this my freshman year of college, 20 years ago. Then, if I recall correctly, the research as presented to our class was that SAT/ACT was reasonably predictive of academic success in the first semester and not at all in the second semester and beyond. I am vaguely aware of the test changing since then (a 1600 was a perfect score back then) but I’d be curious to know the definition of “strongly predictive of academic success”. What changed to make it “strongly predictive”.
I can tell you it would have hurt me. My home life was dangerous, and I had to run away before finishing high school. Without the SATS, my grades from my last two years of school would have destroyed any chance of going to university (and graduating suma cum laude)
20 years ago, I went to a poor school in the LA area but I had a very impressive SAT score, which was equivalent to a typical Ivy League applicant. This was during a time when they were deweighting the SAT in California and I didn’t get into any of my chosen UC schools.
Stupidly, I was honest in my applications and marked White and Asian on them. I have no idea how my life trajectory may have changed due to the capriciousness of the UC board. Now I am 145 IQ and work a mid office job and honestly would rather not put too much effort into social climbing and don’t need a bunch of success to be happy. If I got into Berkeley or Stanford back then, though, I wonder.
more than anything, certainly more than intelligence, although a modicum of intelligence is required and more helps, standardized tests, and more so grades, tells you how hard someone works. it is an indicator of work ethic, dedication, perseverance, motivation and effort. turns out these correlate highly with academic and career success. what a fucking shock.
"What they found is that students’ test scores were actually “strongly predictive of academic success” at the school". I'm truly blown away and shocked to learn this.
This struck me as well. I wrote a short paper on this my freshman year of college, 20 years ago. Then, if I recall correctly, the research as presented to our class was that SAT/ACT was reasonably predictive of academic success in the first semester and not at all in the second semester and beyond. I am vaguely aware of the test changing since then (a 1600 was a perfect score back then) but I’d be curious to know the definition of “strongly predictive of academic success”. What changed to make it “strongly predictive”.
I can tell you it would have hurt me. My home life was dangerous, and I had to run away before finishing high school. Without the SATS, my grades from my last two years of school would have destroyed any chance of going to university (and graduating suma cum laude)
20 years ago, I went to a poor school in the LA area but I had a very impressive SAT score, which was equivalent to a typical Ivy League applicant. This was during a time when they were deweighting the SAT in California and I didn’t get into any of my chosen UC schools.
Stupidly, I was honest in my applications and marked White and Asian on them. I have no idea how my life trajectory may have changed due to the capriciousness of the UC board. Now I am 145 IQ and work a mid office job and honestly would rather not put too much effort into social climbing and don’t need a bunch of success to be happy. If I got into Berkeley or Stanford back then, though, I wonder.
more than anything, certainly more than intelligence, although a modicum of intelligence is required and more helps, standardized tests, and more so grades, tells you how hard someone works. it is an indicator of work ethic, dedication, perseverance, motivation and effort. turns out these correlate highly with academic and career success. what a fucking shock.