Read the article below and post a one-paragraph summary of the author's argument and a one-paragraph response.
http://american.com/archive/2007/july-august-magazine-contents/abolish-the-sat
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About Me
- Mr. Dalton
- Mr. Dalton is an instructor in the Upper School at Beaufort Academy. He is inept at car repair and home or lawn maintanance of any sort, but is an accomplished philosopher. In his spare time he enjoys throwing darts while listening to old Duran Duran cassettes.
The SAT has a negative effect on American life, and Charles Murray argues that the SAT is uneccessary. He argues that it is redunant, and that it measures the intellect of the test taker and how well they would do as a college freshman. Scores coud be influenced by the school and at home. Students wil focus on the school subject and materials itself, not the "how to take the test" method. Murray explains that is a student comes from a rich family, they are likely to score better on the SAT then the middle/lower classes students because they can afford a tutor to coach them, but they ignore the role of self-education, which is vital for any tests.
ReplyDelete1. The author has many arguments of why the SAT should be gotten rid of. He also believes that the SAT is not an "achievement test" as they say it is, and that it is geared towards one type of student, and lets the other students down. He says that the test has changed over the years and become harder, and less of and test of aptitude. Finally he says a solution to the problem could be for the student to take a test in each subject, not one big test, like the SAT.
ReplyDelete2. I think that the SAT should stay, and still influence colleges making decisions, but everything shouldn't be based on the SAT scores. Unlike him I believe that the SAT was made for anyone, and anyone could do just the same on it. I do like his idea to have tests in each subject and not a big test like the SAT, it's less stressful and it would be easier.
Summary-
ReplyDeleteThe author argued that the SAT is unnecessary for students who want to go to colleges.There are several resons for that. First, SAT and the achievement teste scores have a highly correlation.As the result of research, that achievement tests better than SAT in predicting freshman grades. Therefore, the SAT becomes unnecessary because the achievenment tests conveyed about the same picture to college as the SAT.Secondly, since the freshman grades are not created equal because of the different college campus and major, it states again that SAT is unnecessary because it added nothing to the forecasts provided by high school grades and achievement tests.Thirdly,the SAT has become a corrosive symbol of privilege which regard to the different background of the students, and their parents' income and education. Some rich family may afford to pay the tuition of the SAT tutoring for their kids,even though the tutoring did not have too much effect on the scores.Finally, the SAT scores is too dispiriting for those who do poorly and too inspiriting for those who do well.
Response-
I agree with the author that he said about the correlation between the SAT and the achievement tests, also the different background and family education history of the student can make the different scores and gained the privilge.However, I would said that there will be competition everywhere, and going to college is the first competition we have to face in this society. No one wants to go to a bad college, therefore, competition will be the best way to solve the problem, in other words, the SAT might not be the best test for going to college, but once you get rid of the SAT, there always be other standard test like SAT we need to take for get into college.Hence, I would say that to maintain a positive attitude is the most important, the SAT just a method of getting in college. Indeed, getting a bad score is depressing, but no pain no gain,and ask yourself did you really put your mind into it.