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The SATs [message #45225]

Sat, 22 September 2007 12:11

Whitewaterkid

Likes it here

Location: United States
Registered: May 2007
Messages: 341

For those of you who are my age, and in high school, it's nearly time for the PSAT and SAT. I'm taking the SAT on October sixth. Let's all symbolically join hands and wish each other well.

Break a leg!

Jonny
xoxo

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Re: The SATs [message #45227 is a reply to message #45225]

Sat, 22 September 2007 12:51

timmy

Has no life at all

Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800

Can you enlighten those of us who are not ex colonials about SATS

Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School

Re: The SATs [message #45234 is a reply to message #45227]

Sat, 22 September 2007 15:09

Whitewaterkid

Likes it here

Location: United States
Registered: May 2007
Messages: 341

The SATs are the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, and are usually taken in the Fall semester of our senior years in high school. We get ready for them by taking the PSATs or Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Tests in our junior year. The tests used to be known as The College Boards.

I'm not sure exactly how our tests match the "O" and "A" level tests in the United Kingdom and the British Empire. I have a feeling from what I've heard from British exchange students that your tests are much more difficult.

Colleges use the test scores to rank applicants for acceptance.

Here's the link to find out more:
http://www.collegeboard.com

My gripe with the SAT and PSAT is that they really don't measure the things that are really important. Like they don't measure basic intelligence, and they don't measure the real depth and expanse of our high school experiences, which predict college success better than a standardized test. Also, some kids like my friend Mark just don't do well on standardized tests, but are brilliant in school.

I'm really lucky because I do well on tests, and have done well on my PSATs and the AP tests for my AP courses that earned college credits while in high school. If I do well on the AP courses I'm taking this semester and the next, I can shave off about two semesters of college lower level courses.

The cool dude Curtis who posts here is smarter than I am and he's got AP courses where he goes to school too. His GPA is higher than mine too. (Curtis, DO NOT blush! You know you're cool and you know you're smart Mr. Killer-Grin!!)

To get into a good college they look at not only the SAT scores, and sometimes another test called the ACT, but also the AP test scores, how involved you were with extra activities in high school, and your high school grades. Simply getting great SAT scores is not a shoo-in for college, but we sweat them anyway. We all worry about them, and study for them, and our parents buy four inch thick books of hints and practice tests, and we worry about worrying about worrying so much.

High school is nothing if there's no drama. The SATs just add another level of drama above who's dating whom, and who's having sex with whom, and did-you-hear-about-what-happend-at-Michelle's-party-oh-my-God-her-father-caught-Bobby-and-her-naked-in-her-bedroom. Don't laugh, a girl just emailed me this news!

Jonny
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[Updated on: Sat, 22 September 2007 17:30]

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