Yale Daily News

If the SAT is what is keeping you from Yale, maybe you shouldn't be here. Everyone seems to forget this tests BASIC stuff. If you can't nail the basic stuff, why are you applying to Yale?

George Patsourakos

The SAT needs to be retained as a prerequisite for admission to Yale and other colleges, because it serves as a standard instrument that assesses all high school students equally. Some high schools may have grade inflation whereby teachers give students higher grades than they deserve; in other high schools, it may be difficult to receive an "A" from some teachers. The SAT corrects this discrepancy by being a standard test that is taken by all high school students. With the SAT, students are graded equally -- either their answers are right or they are wrong; there is no room for teacher bias. For example, if a student received all "A's" and "B's" in high school, and that student did poorly on the SAT, then that high school probably used grade inflation. Bottom line: Unless another evaluation instrument is developed to help to equally determine student knowledge, the SAT must continue to be the modus operandi for college admissions officers!

if you want to keep the quality of the class, SATs must be kept. Taking away SATs will lower standards, you can't do that at schools like Yale.

George, I understand your opinions about an equal measuring stick for all schools, and I also have to disagree with some of your statements. If a student receives all A's and B's in school and does poorly on the SAT, there are many other explanations. 1) Most of the other students paid for an expensive prep course which gave them an advantage and skewed the grade scale. 2) The student learns really well in a small classroom setting, but just doesn't do well on multiple choice reading comprehension exams. 3) The student's high school is a really great learning environment for him/her, but isn't a typical high school. The range in learning styles of adolescents is huge. Do we really expect all schools to be equally challenging in the same way? The SAT may level the playing field, but not on the basis of learning ability or intellectual potential. It simply determines who has the ability or the money to do really well on a multiple choice exam.

Ava P. is just an example of our current "don't hurt feelings" and "everyone has equal ability" society. If there are differences it MUST be the fault of somebody or something else (aka, money, "learning styles").

So let me get this straight. If you can't afford expensive prep classes, learn in small classrooms, or have an "atypical" high school, you will not be able to find out the "main idea of passages" and will put a wrong answer down? You will also not know basic algebra and geometry? You will not know how to write coherent passages? You will not be able to do these things AND you complain about not getting into Yale??

Just to put things into perspective. In Japan, you test into the university that you want to attend. I believe you can only choose one university, so if you don't get in, you don't go to school for a year. This has lead to many Tokyo University-calibre students not going to college for a couple years. Korea and China have once a year tests that will essentially determine students' futures.

The SAT? Practically monthly and you can take as many times as you want. It is possibly the SOFTEST test in the world. It bewilders me that any Yale-calibre student would complain about this.

All that is needed to dominate the SAT is prep tests.

Your high school guidance office (ESPECIALLY in poor areas) will readily supply you with these.

Practice, practice, practice- you will be fine.

It has worked for millions of college students.

Eli, I definitely agree with you. I am a high school senior and attend a fairly low-performing school that doesn't offer SAT prep classes and the like.

I borrowed a Princeton Review SAT book, did the practice tests, briefed through the chapters and scored a respectable 2200.

Expensive tutors and classes are very unnecessary.