SAT scores

[Asphe]

The average for this year, 497 verbal, 512 math. So dig up your old scores and feel good about yourself (or not! ). [Min score is 400, max score is 1600. SATs since 2005 are actually 600-2400, 3 parts to the test now for your oldies out there. Just in case you get an employee boasting of a 1200 test score... on a 2005+ test]

I got interested in this when a manager remarked that another manager was "dumb as %%%%". So I looked up the relevant HR file... and the academic details were shockingly bad. Then I and the first manager wasted an afternoon looking up all the academic details for fun. It's work-related darn it, since privacy (invasion of and prevention of invasion thereof) is our business ^-^.



Wouldn't it be great if there was a gamer edition. Or an otaku edition of SAT. Ever wonder what the questions would be like.

[Fiye]

Never took the SAT. xD

Instead, I joined the Navy as a DoE certified nuclear reactor operator.

Doesn't that make you feel safe. <3

[Alya Mizar (Tsybil)]

As I remember it was 800 math, 720ish English.

But that was my senior year and after a prep course. Had I got scores like that on my junior boards my life would have been different. Junior was like 72, 53.

Yes tests are important enough to me that I remember scores from 1/2 a century ago. I always said I wanted a job taking tests.

99 /99 /99 /98. Guess where those numbers come from.

[Tivia]

800 math, 785 english...

Biggest waste of time in my life..The SATs are a sad joke inflicted on students that in no way measures their academic potential. Anyone who learns of my SAT scores and my IQ always goes "Oh you are super gifted, you must be extremely successful". The reality is my life is a constant chain of disasters, failure and a general waste of so called potential. If anything I have found my so called IQ which has been tested repeatedly over the years with nearly the same results to be more hindering then anything. Of course it is entirely possible that I actually have an undiagnosed attention disorder which causes me to self destruct midway though anything, but at this point it is too late to do anything about it.

[Sugami]

Pfft. Over here in England we actually have standardized testing that means a damn... well not really.

[Asphe]

99 /99 /99 /98. Guess where those numbers come from.

ACT? Or ACH? I remember being told that 97* was the highest possible score on Physics. They rigged it so no one could score 100. Can't remember why and it wasn't mentioned at Wiki. Either that or you are one short, fat kitty.

I don't remember my exact scores, it was 1520 so I'm calling it 760/760 Meow! I'm sure my mom has that tiny bit of paper framed up somewhere at home. I think it was a big deal then, Texas State gov was giving scholarships for certain score ranges with bonuses for being female and/or minority (what's the largest majority group in the world? Women ^-^). And if you took non-traditional courses (i.e. technical like CS, Engr/etc.) you got even more cash. Ahh... those were the good times. Female? $. Engineering? $. Mil-Brat? $. Alas, white women are the largest ethnic group in the US or more $.

Pfft. Over here in England we actually have standardized testing that means a damn... well not really.

For some reason, I also took the A-Levels** (it gets better, I took the TOEFL too because apparently studying for a few years in England... means my English is no longer good enough). O-levels too, I don't remember what I got for the my Owls, but my A levels were AAAAB for Math/Add Math***/Physics/Chem/Bio which I stupidly used to 'CLEP' out of 2 years of college credits (i.e. no easy As, no 4.0 credit for Phys-Ed 101...) Now why is it, that I had to take 12 Os but only 4 As? Brit Brats (you've just seen a new term coined, kitties!) takes 8-16 O-level subjects in school... but the Unis/Politechs only want 4 A-levels.

Oh yeah, I nailed 672/680* for my TOEFL. Now... WHY would you have a Test Of English as a Foreign Language testing center in the UK? I think it was Imperial College. So confusing, the departments are all over London, you have to travel 'outside' to get to class.

*Why is the maximum possible score less than the 'maximum'? I made one error on my TOEFL test, so instead of getting 677/680... I get 672/680. Shouldn't the maximum be 677 then? Idiots. Just like the ACH... congratulations, you score the highest possible score... 98%

**Yes, I studied overseas. I need to take what? Test of English as a Foreign Language? But my English is ok... and I studied in... ENGLAND. English... England... bad. Funny thing is, they allowed me to skip college English... because of my O-levels in English. I speak a sub-dialect of American. Texan.

***Crazy brits... advanced math = additional math. Sounds like normal math... but you also learn how to add.

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Ok, for those who are depressed by Tivia's scores compared to your own... here's a quick way to make a lot of bucks. And kids too.


http://thehairpin.com/2011/09/four-good ... ons-not-to

[Tivia]

Don't be depressed by my scores..they are nothing more than retarded numbers from someone who learned the "Tricks" to acing a test and nothing more. I didn't learn a damn thing from it nor walk away an ounce smarter. I did not post them to brag, I am not proud of them in any manner. Honestly if you scored lower than me, especially significantly lower. Chances are you both performed better academically and have been far more successful with your life than I am. I aced tests and still do to this day in just about anything. However I fail at just about everything else miserably. Testing is apparently the only thing I am good at.

[Asphe]

Tests. The be all and end all... during your school years. Then you leave school and life sucks. Instead of studying for a test at the end of the month, each day is a test in itself. Then at the end, you are guaranteed to fail as Death takes you to that giant litter box up there or the stinking, cramped litter box in the dogs kennel down there... I looked through my year books, every one of of those top-scorers... well actually they mostly turned out ok... even if some are now creepy otaku. The jocks... Meow! Are all doing manual labor, except for one who is a politician. One person in one of my classes actually got awarded a medal, but two ended up in prison for white-collar crime... ^-^ The in-betweens end up surfing the web while at work.

See!? So much to look forward to ^-^ Add to that, the possibility that someone will access your HR records!

Still, there's one test for which the scores should be posted on the windscreens of your car. Your driver's test scores. Otherwise, I assume the absence of which indicates a zero scored, proven by the way most people drive.

[Alya Mizar (Tsybil)]

"The only thing IQ tests are a predictor of is how well you will score on IQ tests."

I think the same people who make IQ tests make the SATs.

Another one: "The unexamined life is not worth living."

But then again the over-examined life isn't really living at all.

Tivia, it isn't just you. And the brainpower probably actually helped. These are HORRID times. The '50s and the '60s were really MUCH better, and the '70s a lot better.

Welcome to Ronald Regan's America.

99 /99 /99 /98. Guess where those numbers come from.

Military aptitude test ~ 1963, I forget the acronym. 98 was clerical, one of the 99s mechanical, I forget the other two. (The scores I remember, what they were in ... I don't. Somehow that's hilarious )

[Asphe]

Now now, don't look back that way. 'Now' sucks... yet we live longer, live better. The poorest american today, regardless of Obamacare or no-care has better health-care than the kings of the past although that's not saying much but it's true. The biggest health threat to the poor in the USA... is obesity.

I bet our parents thought the same way too... granddad's generation had it better... Yeah mom, granddad had WW2 and the threat of Nazi world domination and you had the threat of massive hippy infestation. I now face the threat of hipster infestation. It's not quite the same thing, Nazis and hipsters... but hipsters are more personal. The two largest deliberate murder of human beings in our history happened during the 30s-40s. Darn, that's not even 100 years ago. Oh, and the third? 60s-70s. Stalin, Hitler & Mao in that order. You can put Hitler in first place though if you count WW2 casualties. Russia alone... 9 million KIA russkies + 15 more WIA. What Stalin didn't kill in his purges, the Nazi's got. About one in every 4 russians during that time frame... dead.

Today sucks? But the Cold War is over. I bet if we asked those former East Germans or Poles if they thought the 50s, 60s or 70s were better... plus it could be worse. You could be Vietnamese. Or Best Korean. It's still Cold for them.

Besides, name any commodity besides gold... and it is cheaper today than it ever was. How long would it take granddad to earn enough to buy a car, if he was working as an accountant or a business executive. In the 50s? Oh about 3 years. How long would it take for you to earn enough to buy a Focus, if you flipped burgers at BK? About 3 years. Less if you didn't eat, drink or needed to pay rent.

And the best reason of all why today is way better... MMORPG. With cats. In Bikinis.

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Things you probably didn't know about the Reagan years.

Defence spending... went down (as a % of GDP, due to cuts elsewhere, it went up as a % of the fed's budget. But the biggest increases were/are in Medicare/Social Security... how is that an increase when I'm paying for retirees today...) In fact, the current Bush/Obama war on terror, about .9% of the GDP. It's the 'cheapest' war on record, as a % of GDP. WW2 was around 34%. The most costliest war? The Civil War, 1 million casualties plus, and 600k+ of that, KIA. Add up all the dead/wounded of every war, police action or whatnot, it doesn't touch the Civil War. Trust us Americans to fight that hard over slavery, the Brits just had a debate about it in Parliament and banned it.

Crime, serious crime anyway went down. Way down. Personally, I attribute this to the NES and PS1/2, more potential criminals stayed home. The trend continues. Yet, I bet you do NOT feel safer. Blame CNN.

Taxes went down for every one. Well except the poor... who didn't pay much before and so nothing changed. Besides, when you're homeless, capital gains tax doesn't affect you. Trickle down economics... yeah it sure trickled. Yet every successive administration continued it... for corporations. When you talk about deficit spending and the national debt... Obama takes the cake. And eats it too. But at least we're not Japanese. Our debt is a fraction (LARGE) of our GDP. Japan's is over TWICE as large. No wonder most modern anime sucks.

Just to play devil's advocate here. Name any war in US history. Was the president when the war started, a Democrat, Republican or Whig? When the war ended, which party did the then president belong to? Now which party is known as the 'hawks' and which are the 'doves'?

Which party did Nathan Bedford Forrest belong to? Which party do most blacks belong to? Who's Nathan? Besides being the guy I would be named after if I had been born with a certain appendage... he's pretty much the guy who founded the Klu Klux Klan. I always found it odd that David Duke was a Republican. A grand wizard joins the party of Abraham Lincoln... and Obama joins the party that sparked the Civil War over slavery.

Darn, at this rate... my grandkids will be speaking mandarin or best korean.

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Today. Only tomorrow's better.

Just don't lick the toys as they are covered with lead paint courtesy of China. Don't breath in too deeply, toxic smog from Africa makes it across the Atlantic. Did you know Yellowstone is an active volcano and that if it blew... life as we know it... oh well. I wonder if an asteroid's headed our way... it's a mathematical certainty you know...

[Asphe]

I take that all back, we're all going to die.

http://news.yahoo.com/farmers-flee-worl ... 59369.html

... and even if we survive that...

http://education.yahoo.net/articles/deg ... ?kid=1BWAL

We'd be sick, in debt and terminally stupid. But we'll have video games.

[Sugami]

O-Levels? I didn't think you were that old. They've been called GCSEs for quite a while now.

[Asphe]

Weren't they called that all the time? Classmates and teachers just called them O-levels. Could be a more fogey institution though.

And why are your private schools... called public schools?

[Sugami]

We have private public schools... Basically have crappy state schools, public schools that have fees and usually involve taking some exams to get in and private schools like Eton that will only let certain people in.

GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) used to be called O-levels.
A-levels used to be called GCEs (General Certificate of Education).
And now there's A2-Levels I think, which is basically half an A-Level (AS-Level), which is just a different system than before (started year after me) so that at the end of the first year everyone should have 4 AS-Levels and can send choose 3 of which to turn into a full A-Level.

[Asphe]

Better than us then. We only have paid for good schools and crappy schools (which are not always free).

I took the 'A-levels' since I was in Belfast and although it only took 9 months for the A-Levels, it was worth almost 2 years of college for me when I went back home. I like the idea of standardized tests that allow you to compare test scores. Back home, we are starting to have programs like ZAP! (Zeroes are not permitted! As in zero scores. 'Zero' students are ok.) It looks like I will have to get student loan debt... to send kids to 'primary' and 'secondary' schools. In my day, 'not allowed to fail' meant you got a whipping if your score was too low. Now... you could forget to write your name and get a 'H'... which will turn into at worst a 'D' no matter what you do.

[Sugami]

GCSE grades from best to worst:
A* - Excellent (top 3%)
A - Very Good
B - Good
C - Okay (average)
D - Poor
E - Very Poor
F - Fail
G - Super fail
N - Not graded
U - Unmarkable
X - Absent

Anything that's E and higher is considered a passing grade. N basically means they didn't mark the whole thing as it was garbage and U... no name I guess. A-Levels don't have A* and G I think, though the government wants to add A*.

BTW I got A* in GCSE Maths when I was 15 (school made us do it a year early) and ABD Maths, Further Maths and Physics for A-levels (was predicted AAC ).

[Asphe]

Why can't they just use

0 -> 100%

or maybe 100 -> 1% (as in 1% means you're smarter/luckier than the other 99%) like the IQ tests.

Or even band it like top 3/5/... argh... back to ABCDE....

Not like it means much. Last month, I interviewed a potential tech. Had straight As for English through school and college. I couldn't understand much of what he was saying... and his writing was terrible. Since this is in Japan, I wonder how he could've gotten those As. He was much worse than some Singaporeans and Malaysians I spoke to before. We specifically specified a high English proficiency (our Indian/Russian/Canadian programmers are asked this too... I bet those Canadians feel insulted lol) and Singapore regularly tops the world rankings of standardized scores.

Oh well... we're still number one!! (You brits can be the 'number one' to our 'Captain America') Still the world's largest debtor! Makes you wonder sometimes. Are we good for some unknown reason or just plain lucky... or riding on the previous generation's coat-tails?

[Sugami]

I'm not sure about GCSEs but A-levels are (or at least were) standardized across the country, that means that only 8% of the students that took the exam can get an A grade, so 85% might get you an A one year but the next year only a B. Of course that's only for the exam you took, a complete A-level is usually made up of multiple modules (usually exams), for instance the Maths exams we took required 6 modules for a single A-level, only Maths required Pure 1-3 as 3 of the modules. The possible Maths modules you could take were Pure 1-6, Stats 1-6, Mechanics 1-6 and a few more, so it is actually possible to get 3 A-levels in Maths. I did Pure, Stats & Mechanics 1-4 and Discrete & Decision, I ignored the worst result (Mechanics 3) for my second A-level. The scores were then standardised to something out of 70 where 60-70 = A, 50-59 = B, 40-49 = C, 30-39 = D, 20-29 = E, 0-19 = N (I think). As long as you averaged 60+ in the 6 modules you'd get an A. If I remember correctly the exams for Pure/Stats/Mech 1-3 had 4 questions, each worth a maximum of 20 marks, and Pure/Stats/Mech 4-6 had 4 questions where you could choose 3 of which, not sure if it was 20 or 25 for a maximum score on each one.

Also to get into university, depending on your predicted grades, the university will either accept you unconditionally (super rare), will accept you if you can get x amount of points or just plain out reject you. As such when I was applying to university points were assigned to grades as such:
A - 10
B - 8
C - 6
D - 4
E - 2
Half points for AS-level that's if they're accepted and usually they'll only say something like 22 points from 3 A-level. I applied to University of Kent and Reading to study Computer Science, both asked for 22 points (and Kent even made me go for an interview). ABD = 10+8+4=22 (also had A in AS General Studies) so I was accepted into Kent.

I think Canadians speak better English than Americans