Opinion: The SAT is a good measure of knowledge
PHOTO April Carr
April 12, 2022
The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) measures how much students have learned throughout their years of high school. The test predicts success in college and how ready the student is.
A study done by the University of California found that the SAT better predicts college success for four year universities than other standardized tests. The performance on the test is a good predictor of college grade point average (GPA). The test also predicts life outcomes beyond college.
According to the New York Times, the SAT is a standardized test but it still measures knowledge. Scores on the test correlate with scores on standardized intelligence tests and they are stable across time.
The SAT is a large measure of intelligence and captures a number of different skills. When taking different tests, the student may use different knowledge. According to the Appalachian Online, there are two types of general intelligence, crystallized and fluid. Crystallized intelligence relies on second-hand knowledge and fluid intelligence is the ability to solve reasoning problems. The SAT captures both fluid and crystallized intelligence and is correlated with school performance and achievement.
A combination of test scores for the SAT and high school grades offers a good prediction for student success. According to the National Library of Medicine, the scores and GPA combined offered the best predictor for a student’s GPA in college . The article also states, “Additionally, SAT scores improved the prediction of student retention to the second year of college.” The test can improve a student’s performance in later years and will help a student in life.
The SAT can measure intelligence and can predict where students will be in the future, making it the best test of a person’s knowledge.
