Do the new SATs discriminate?

[Amplifier]

All I can say is I'm glad I'm out of highschool. The new SATs would have really hurt my score. My sister will be taking these tests now and informed me that the writting is done by hand and timed.

So girls that can write at 30 wpm neatly are going to go up against guys who can barely break 20wpm with terrible handwritting. And before any scripting gods get on me, it's a fact that girls have better handwritting skills than guys.

Note: Typing will be available but only on a very limited basis.

I personally don't mind the thought of adding a writting section to the SATs. But making people who are slower writers (guys like me), write by hand seems very unfair. So what do you think?

Are the new SAT's fair for guys?

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Amplifier
All I can say is I'm glad I'm out of highschool. The new SATs would have really hurt my score. My sister will be taking these tests now and informed me that the writting is done by hand and timed.

So girls that can write at 30 wpm neatly are going to go up against guys who can barely break 20wpm with terrible handwritting. And before any scripting gods get on me, it's a fact that girls have better handwritting skills than guys.

Note: Typing will be available but only on a very limited basis.

I personally don't mind the thought of adding a writting section to the SATs. But making people who are slower writers (guys like me), write by hand seems very unfair. So what do you think?

Are the new SAT's fair for guys?

Study the following phrase:

Life isn't fair.

Even if it wasn't fair... it selects appropriately for those more suited for advancement. Who wants to hire someone who can't type and has crappy slow hand-writing? Ans: McD's. Learn to type or learn to write faster.

 

[MisterCornell]

Actually he has a good point. Boys have consistently outscored girls on the old SAT (Math and Verbal together). The new Writing section is seen as a politically correct means of helping girls out, who have done better on the SAT II Writing section in the past.

 

[Atomicus]

Originally posted by: MisterCornell
Actually he has a good point. Boys have consistently outscored girls on the old SAT (Math and Verbal together). The new Writing section is seen as a politically correct means of helping girls out, who have done better on the SAT II Writing section in the past.

Does that mean the feminists will be stepping in to stop the new SAT format? From their perspective, they don't need help from men :roll:

 

[Amplifier]

The only way you can type is to have a disability at this point. Myself, typing at 65wpm, would be owned by some girl who can write by hand faster than me.

I'm completely cool with the writting portion if typing is available to everyone.

Then again I'm out of school so why should I care ?

 

[Orsorum]

If they made typing a mandatory part of the writing assessment, I would think it completely appropriate and fair. Of course, I've consistently scored in the top 96+ percentile in writing ability on standardized tests throughout my lifetime, so I have no qualms about writing. Regardless, written communication is an important component of success and in my opinion overall intelligence. Writing skills should be considered when assessing someone's ability to succeed in college and beyond.

 

[tami]

get over it. i was a better typist than a writer (i'm female) when i took the writing section of the SATs (SAT IIs at the time) and didn't complain. my handwriting in a test-taking environment isn't good either, and heck, i can barely write now -- thank god for keyboards.

maybe boys should learn how to write correctly when they take handwriting lessons in elementary school. it's not our fault that you have no faith in yourself and in your ability to write a few sentences.

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

The writing tests (when I took them as SAT IIs) weren't about "how much can you write", they were about "can you form a thesis and write a decent, concise paper in this amount of time". Even 20 words a minute should be plenty if they knew what they were going to say. I don't believe I ran out of time on any of the writing sections, and I'm not terribly fast (something like 20 to 30 wpm).

 

[Baked]

I write 60+ wpm (legible) and I'm a guy, what's your point. Don't assume 'cause you can't think and write fast enough, that other guys can't either.

 

[Zeeky Boogy Doog]

i agree, i feel that there should be an option to type the answer out, i can type much better than i can write, more quickly ect... my mind doesn't have to slow down for my hands when i'm typing, and i can read it at the end. (i honestly have a hard time reading my own writing at times...)

edit: the writing section on the sat should measure your ability to write coherant sentances, not your ability to write ledgibly, some of us were born with bad handwriting, and no amout of elementary school lessons helped, they didn't even teach you to write, just how to write in cursive, and i don't use that any more, except to write my name, as that just slows me down even more...
i've kind of evolved my own style of handwriting that is a cross between cursive and printing, i run the letters together, they're just print type letters...

edit2: this typing system should, of course, be available to everyone, typing for some people is about 200x faster than writing, but the people who two finger type may find writing easier.
i took the ap world history test two days ago, 3 essays in 2 hours, i barely squeaked that out, i feel my essays were well written though, and i will do fairly well on them, save for possibly one, which i really didn't get to think enough on as i was running out of time quite quickly... my sentences were well formed and all, i'm just not sure if i said what i wanted to say, how i wanted to say it and in the order i wanted it said in

 

[Amplifier]

Originally posted by: Baked
I write 60+ wpm (legible) and I'm a guy, what's your point. Don't assume 'cause you can't think and write fast enough, that other guys can't either.

Haha not at all, I'm sure there are more than a few guys out there who can write faster than I can type. The point is that there are guys who are extremely good writters but don't write by hand. The test is "Can you get ready for college" not "have you mastered a system of writting that is no longer relavant".

Maybe the current system (writting by hand) works for you, but it disproportionately favors females who are by all accounts better at hand writting.

And if you don't think life has to be fair, add in Calculus II, programming, and networking into the SATs .

 

[Anubis]

i can write over 50 wpm, if i really am going at it i can prob hit 100

however there are prob only 2 people in the world that would be able to read it, Me and my dad who actually has worse handwrighting then me, however he is a Doctor and can get away with it

and its pretty pointless IMO

they pounded cursive into my head in grade school saying that that is how we would write in HS, that never happened

in HS they told us we woudl have to study all day in college - wrongt again, they also preached on hand wrighting papers all the time, again nope

in 4 years of college teh longest hand written paper i turned in was less then a page

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Amplifier
All I can say is I'm glad I'm out of highschool. The new SATs would have really hurt my score. My sister will be taking these tests now and informed me that the writting is done by hand and timed.

So girls that can write at 30 wpm neatly are going to go up against guys who can barely break 20wpm with terrible handwritting. And before any scripting gods get on me, it's a fact that girls have better handwritting skills than guys.

Note: Typing will be available but only on a very limited basis.

I personally don't mind the thought of adding a writing section to the SATs. But making people who are slower writers (guys like me), write by hand seems very unfair. So what do you think?

Are the new SAT's fair for guys?

Study the following phrase:

Life isn't fair.

Even if it wasn't fair... it selects appropriately for those more suited for advancement. Who wants to hire someone who can't type and has crappy slow hand-writing? Ans: McD's. Learn to type or learn to write faster.

But how many people are going to get to type for it? At my high school I seriously doubt they'd have bothered to make this available.

Being good at handwriting doesn't count for much either, anything lengthy you're going to type almost all of the time.

I'll agree that girls have better handwriting than guys though.

EDIT:

The writing tests (when I took them as SAT IIs) weren't about "how much can you write", they were about "can you form a thesis and write a decent, concise paper in this amount of time". Even 20 words a minute should be plenty if they knew what they were going to say. I don't believe I ran out of time on any of the writing sections, and I'm not terribly fast (something like 20 to 30 wpm).

Yes, if they stuck to this there shouldn't be much of a problem. It shouldn't be about how pretty your handwriting looks or how much BS you can fill up pages with.

 

[tami]

Originally posted by: ArmchairAthlete

I'll agree that girls have better handwriting than guys though.

and some guys have better handwriting than girls.

and some girls are better at math than guys.

it's the way it works, kids. this isn't much of a "new" SAT; it's just the old SATs plus SAT II-writing, which was required of most prestigious universities prior to the introduction of the new SATs.