Friday, July 09, 2010

Viewing the SAT as a Challenge and National Indicator

Viewing the SAT as a Challenge and National Indicator
in response to Washington Post article Your SAT Score Has Little to Do


As a Math peak performance coach, I have found that studying for the SAT can be challenging and entertaining while promoting brain fitness at any age. Although I graduated from college in 19XX, I took the SAT in 2009 to gain perspective, to have fun, and to boost mental fitness. I learned much reading and grammar while studying last summer.

Some fields of study use the SAT as a measure of being able to ‘keep up with the Joneses’. Engineering schools want high Math scores (to follow along with profs who write a dozen equations on the board); likewise, journalism schools want high verbal scores.

The SAT is important because there is no national standard of high school curriculum or a national exit exam. While the Core Standards have been in the works, the existing standard could be the SAT (or ACT or GED) as a unifier for a reasonable body of knowledge. http://www.corestandards.org/.

The GED is a formidable exam -- only 60% of high school graduates could pass the GED http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ged/etp/score.htm

If people could view the SAT like a marathon, it would give mental fitness a boost!! Test taking/studying just makes you smart just like working out makes you physically fit.

Try the free SAT Question of the Day!!
http://sat.collegeboard.com/practice/sat-question-of-the-day

Robin Schwartz
Author, Build Math Confidence e-newsletter
http://www.mathconfidence.com/

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