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So if you're not penalized for the wrong answer, why take the test?
1 posted on 03/05/2014 12:48:19 PM PST by edcoil
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To: edcoil
The SAT is a multiple-guess test.

Now you get credit for right answers, but no penalty for wrong answers.

This way if you completely guess and there are 5 choices for each question, you will get a 20%.

If wrong answers are penalized you will get a zero if you completely guess.

2 posted on 03/05/2014 12:51:27 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (If Barack Hussein Obama entertains a thought that he does not verbalize, is it still a lie?)
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To: edcoil

Take the test, just don’t bother studying.


3 posted on 03/05/2014 12:51:29 PM PST by psjones (u)
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To: edcoil
So if you're not penalized for the wrong answer, why take the test?

Because you're still graded on the number of correct answers. To put it simply, the change is something like this:

Old system: Score = (number of correct answers) - ((some factor) * (number of incorrect answers))

New system: Score = (number of correct answers)

4 posted on 03/05/2014 12:51:51 PM PST by Conscience of a Conservative
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To: edcoil

The SAT had a system to try to eliminate the guessed answers by subtraction of wrong answers.

https://sat.collegeboard.org/scores/how-sat-is-scored

+1 point for questions you get correct

-1/4 point subtracted for incorrect multiple-choice

0 points subtracted for incorrect student-produced response (math section)

0 points subtracted for questions you don’t answer


5 posted on 03/05/2014 12:52:16 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: edcoil

You might as well ask, if you’re not impeached for not upholding the law, why uphold the law?


6 posted on 03/05/2014 12:54:21 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: edcoil

Note the connection to Common Core. Everybody should be working to eliminate Common Core from our education system. It’s bad enough that the materials are all highly sexualized at a very young age, what they are doing to Math is a crime in itself.

In the last 2 days my husband and I have phoned our Archbishop (yes it’s in Catholic schools too) 4 State Senators and 2 Assemblymen about this abomination called Common Core.


7 posted on 03/05/2014 12:55:43 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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I guessed despite the penalty out of defiance.


8 posted on 03/05/2014 12:55:53 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: edcoil

The New York Times highlighted a sample of the changes coming:

The SAT’s rarefied vocabulary words will be replaced by words that are common in college courses, such as “empirical” and “synthesis.” The math questions, now scattered widely across many topics, will focus more narrowly on linear equations, functions and proportional thinking. The use of a calculator will no longer be allowed on some of the math sections. The new exam will be available on paper and computer, and the scoring will revert to the old 1600 scale, with a top score of 800 on math and what will now be called “Evidence-Based Reading and Writing.” The optional essay will have a separate score.


9 posted on 03/05/2014 12:57:21 PM PST by Wyatt's Torch
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To: edcoil

As I recall, wrong answers are penalized to cut down on guessing. A right answer would count as a point, a wrong answer would cause a deduction of one-quarter point, and no answer would count as no points.

The questions had five possible answers. If one didn’t have a clue, then the chance of getting the right answer was 20%, so the expected value was 0.2, but a wrong answer would be a deduction of a quarter of a point, so the chances were that a guess would be a net cost. Of course, if you could narrow the answer down to two choices, it made sense to select one of the two.

If the change to scoring is being made as reported, then one might as well answer every question - there’s nothing to lose by answering a question incorrectly and a gain if the guess is correct.

[I haven’t taken such tests in forty years, so my recollection of the penalty imposed for a wrong answer may be incorrect. I was always pretty good at such tests - I got either a 790 or an 800 on the GRE Quantitative section (I was a math/physics major, so not a surprise), and out-scored my room-mate, who was an English major and no dummy, on the Verbal section.]


10 posted on 03/05/2014 12:58:57 PM PST by bagman
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To: edcoil

Great, now I can lord my good SAT score on the old, harder test over people even more :)


11 posted on 03/05/2014 12:59:03 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: edcoil
The SAT college entrance exam will no longer require a written essay

Lemme guess....because black people cannot be expected to write a coherent English sentence?

And they say WE'RE the racists!


12 posted on 03/05/2014 1:00:13 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: edcoil

If they can conceive it, they can achieve it.


13 posted on 03/05/2014 1:00:20 PM PST by ex-snook (God is Love)
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To: edcoil

Give everybody an 800 and be done with it. Don’t want to damage students’ self esteem, y’know.


16 posted on 03/05/2014 1:05:19 PM PST by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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To: edcoil

They are trying to control the homeschoolers and all others by - if they don’t learn to think/ to answer/ to guess/ to recognize test questions in the NEW way, they won’t get high SAT scores and will be excluded from the ‘elite’ universities. I know they are trying to control homeschoolers!!


17 posted on 03/05/2014 1:06:30 PM PST by bboop (does not suffer fools gladly)
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To: edcoil

Gotta get those test scores up so they can claim credit for Common (rotten) core.

You can tell it’s from progressives, ‘cuz there’s a free worm inside.


18 posted on 03/05/2014 1:06:53 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: edcoil

They are trying to control the homeschoolers and all others by - if they don’t learn to think/ to answer/ to guess/ to recognize test questions in the NEW way, they won’t get high SAT scores and will be excluded from the ‘elite’ universities. I know they are trying to control homeschoolers!!


20 posted on 03/05/2014 1:08:09 PM PST by bboop (does not suffer fools gladly)
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To: edcoil

OMG WTF U ME4N I CN TXT MY ANSWER’S? UR DA BOMB!!!:):):)


28 posted on 03/05/2014 1:13:26 PM PST by Rodamala
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To: edcoil
This will be the second time in my memory that the SAT has dumbed itself down. As before, it is meant to obscure the fact that chronically declining performance reflects the deliberate dumbing of America by the leftwing antiAmerican operatives of the NEA.
33 posted on 03/05/2014 1:26:44 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: edcoil
THE COMPLETE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA!
34 posted on 03/05/2014 1:27:31 PM PST by yoe
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To: edcoil

The essay section was only in place for about seven or eight years. So, eliminating the essay puts the test back where it was for many years, until about 2005.

The problem with the essay section, according to one of my kids who took it, was that the essay grading was highly subjective, and many graders gave points for volume rather than quality.

Eliminating the penalty and dumbing down the math questions is another matter.


36 posted on 03/05/2014 1:30:21 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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