What are the “hard” sections of new digital SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT before 2005 had analogies (the this word is to this other word questions) that were often called “hardest” but that section “replaced” with sentence completion 2005-2015, which then changed to determine vocabulary in context questions. Think digital version keep the context questions and didn’t bring back analogies…. So my question is, what is now the hardest section for English side? Which type of questions now considered the hardest? Same question on math side, what are hardest sections? Just curious what students saying [img]that have now taken digital version? Thanks,

The new SAT checks how good the student is fundamentally. Time management can be a problem for many since Math problems are long and hard towards the end of Module 2. English checks your vocabulary strength and grammar.

If you can't finish in time, but can finish in overtime, you should tell your school you need a time accommodation. That's what's it's for.

The "time limit" on the SAT is intended for practical administrative purposes only, not part of the test difficulty.

DP. I thought it was for diagnosed LDs?

Absolutely not. There is zero requirement for any kind of .mmedical "diagnosis". All that is required is an evaluation by the school, and the conditions of the evaluation are "is performance inpaired by the time constraint".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Different people find different things hard. Duh.

Of course, some will find all sections hard and some will find all easy, but OP question is if there are any sections now that standout like the analogies did. If there aren’t any now with digital test, explains why more students able to get higher scores now. That and testers continue to attempt to take out questions that could favor higher socioeconomic families.

Any evidence for your claim?

DP. This article - which is also over 20 yrs old - explains a bit about the "recentering" process: The Recentering of
SAT® Scales and Its Effects on Score Distributions and Score Interpretations https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED563023.pdf

Moreover, the test has substantively changed three more times since this article was published in 2002.

I love how this thread brought out people saying "scores went down" as your proof that scores went up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be aware that the digital test is adaptive. If you don't do so well on the first section, your second section will be easier and your score will be capped. If you do well on the first section, you get a harder second section and an opportunity for a higher score.

So maybe that’s the harder part- that if panic at beginning and mess up some questions you’re screwed to get a high score?

Yes, if you can’t answer many questions you will get a low score. That’s how tests work.

What PPs are referring to is the questions start easy and if you get them all right, the test starts giving you much harder questions, allowing you to enter the "high-scoring" track.

But if you "panic" and mess up the beginning, the tests steers you into a "lower-scoring" track and it won't even give you the harder questions. So you are capped at a lower max score.

It's not just about "not answering many questions correctly and getting a low score". It's about a new type of testing where if you goof up the beginning questions out of nerves, when you really knew the answers, you don't get to show your stuff later. You don't even get a chance to answer them, so it's impossible to get them right.

So 2 test takers sitting side-by-side may be taking the SAT with entirely different sets of questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the analogies were considered the "easy" part. Very straightforward.

Not as involved as some of the reading and math problems.

The analogies were taken out as found socioeconomic disparities in what words and associations being used and understood. Can’t remember all the examples but google old articles on this and some of them would be funny if weren’t so sad.

Yes, I recall that one of the words used by the College Board in the analogies section was a "regatta." Clearly differences in socioeconomic classes that are exposed to that word...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT before 2005 had analogies (the this word is to this other word questions) that were often called “hardest” but that section “replaced” with sentence completion 2005-2015, which then changed to determine vocabulary in context questions. Think digital version keep the context questions and didn’t bring back analogies…. So my question is, what is now the hardest section for English side? Which type of questions now considered the hardest? Same question on math side, what are hardest sections? Just curious what students saying [img]that have now taken digital version? Thanks,

The new SAT checks how good the student is fundamentally. Time management can be a problem for many since Math problems are long and hard towards the end of Module 2. English checks your vocabulary strength and grammar.

If you can't finish in time, but can finish in overtime, you should tell your school you need a time accommodation. That's what's it's for.

The "time limit" on the SAT is intended for practical administrative purposes only, not part of the test difficulty.

DP. I thought it was for diagnosed LDs?

Absolutely not. There is zero requirement for any kind of .mmedical "diagnosis". All that is required is an evaluation by the school, and the conditions of the evaluation are "is performance inpaired by the time constraint".

Lol no. Maybe to get school accommodations, but the College Board has been cracking down on approving accommodations for its tests. And all of the private schools my DC has attended required psychoeducational test results within 4 years. No one is waltzing into extra time granted for the SAT because they tried it once and could complete it in time. And the College Board is particularly skeptical of late diagnoses - a discovery of adhd or dyslexia just in time to apply for testing accommodations is suspect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are all SATs digital now? And you can choose between digital and paper ACT?

No. Don't even use past paper tests for practice. They are useless now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Different people find different things hard. Duh.

Of course, some will find all sections hard and some will find all easy, but OP question is if there are any sections now that standout like the analogies did. If there aren’t any now with digital test, explains why more students able to get higher scores now. That and testers continue to attempt to take out questions that could favor higher socioeconomic families.

Any evidence for your claim?

DP. This article - which is also over 20 yrs old - explains a bit about the "recentering" process: The Recentering of
SAT® Scales and Its Effects on Score Distributions and Score Interpretations https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED563023.pdf

Moreover, the test has substantively changed three more times since this article was published in 2002.

Need an AI tool to summarize this https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED563023.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the analogies were considered the "easy" part. Very straightforward.

Not as involved as some of the reading and math problems.

The analogies were taken out as found socioeconomic disparities in what words and associations being used and understood. Can’t remember all the examples but google old articles on this and some of them would be funny if weren’t so sad.

Yes, I recall that one of the words used by the College Board in the analogies section was a "regatta." Clearly differences in socioeconomic classes that are exposed to that word...

I remember an old report, probably NPR, about testing younger kids. Rich kids knew a ruby was red, poor kids didn't even know what a ruby was.

Even sadder, when asked what color is a banana, the rich kids said yellow and the poor kids said brown. Because their families could only afford the cheaper over-ripened bananas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be aware that the digital test is adaptive. If you don't do so well on the first section, your second section will be easier and your score will be capped. If you do well on the first section, you get a harder second section and an opportunity for a higher score.

So maybe that’s the harder part- that if panic at beginning and mess up some questions you’re screwed to get a high score?

Yes, if you can’t answer many questions you will get a low score. That’s how tests work.

What PPs are referring to is the questions start easy and if you get them all right, the test starts giving you much harder questions, allowing you to enter the "high-scoring" track.

But if you "panic" and mess up the beginning, the tests steers you into a "lower-scoring" track and it won't even give you the harder questions. So you are capped at a lower max score.

It's not just about "not answering many questions correctly and getting a low score". It's about a new type of testing where if you goof up the beginning questions out of nerves, when you really knew the answers, you don't get to show your stuff later. You don't even get a chance to answer them, so it's impossible to get them right.

So 2 test takers sitting side-by-side may be taking the SAT with entirely different sets of questions.

This is ridiculous. How absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be aware that the digital test is adaptive. If you don't do so well on the first section, your second section will be easier and your score will be capped. If you do well on the first section, you get a harder second section and an opportunity for a higher score.

So maybe that’s the harder part- that if panic at beginning and mess up some questions you’re screwed to get a high score?

Yes, if you can’t answer many questions you will get a low score. That’s how tests work.

What PPs are referring to is the questions start easy and if you get them all right, the test starts giving you much harder questions, allowing you to enter the "high-scoring" track.

But if you "panic" and mess up the beginning, the tests steers you into a "lower-scoring" track and it won't even give you the harder questions. So you are capped at a lower max score.

It's not just about "not answering many questions correctly and getting a low score". It's about a new type of testing where if you goof up the beginning questions out of nerves, when you really knew the answers, you don't get to show your stuff later. You don't even get a chance to answer them, so it's impossible to get them right.

So 2 test takers sitting side-by-side may be taking the SAT with entirely different sets of questions.

This is ridiculous. How absurd.

This has been the case for many years. It was like this when I took the GRE 20 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be aware that the digital test is adaptive. If you don't do so well on the first section, your second section will be easier and your score will be capped. If you do well on the first section, you get a harder second section and an opportunity for a higher score.

So maybe that’s the harder part- that if panic at beginning and mess up some questions you’re screwed to get a high score?

Yes, if you can’t answer many questions you will get a low score. That’s how tests work.

What PPs are referring to is the questions start easy and if you get them all right, the test starts giving you much harder questions, allowing you to enter the "high-scoring" track.

But if you "panic" and mess up the beginning, the tests steers you into a "lower-scoring" track and it won't even give you the harder questions. So you are capped at a lower max score.

It's not just about "not answering many questions correctly and getting a low score". It's about a new type of testing where if you goof up the beginning questions out of nerves, when you really knew the answers, you don't get to show your stuff later. You don't even get a chance to answer them, so it's impossible to get them right.

So 2 test takers sitting side-by-side may be taking the SAT with entirely different sets of questions.

This is ridiculous. How absurd.

This has been the case for many years. It was like this when I took the GRE 20 years ago.

Wow, were they really doing digital GRE exams in the early 2000s?

I took the GRE 40 years ago (on paper) and got 800 on Quantitative and 790 on Analytical (that darn final canoe color question when my brain was spent!).

With paper, I raced through answering the "easy" questions (well, easy on first glance to me), marked the ones I needed to think about, then went back with the remaining time and worked my way through the potentially tricky questions.

Back then, if I had to test digital only, and not be able to easily skip questions and come back, I probably would have scored closer to 700. So I have to assume the 800 students today are a few levels more skilled than I have always assumed I was/am (LOL).

[Anonymous]

Many students struggle with the Information and Ideas section in the hard module of the English section.

With Desmos, the hardest sections will either be algebra for students who haven't learned to use it or geometry for those who have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be aware that the digital test is adaptive. If you don't do so well on the first section, your second section will be easier and your score will be capped. If you do well on the first section, you get a harder second section and an opportunity for a higher score.

So maybe that’s the harder part- that if panic at beginning and mess up some questions you’re screwed to get a high score?

Yes, if you can’t answer many questions you will get a low score. That’s how tests work.

What PPs are referring to is the questions start easy and if you get them all right, the test starts giving you much harder questions, allowing you to enter the "high-scoring" track.

But if you "panic" and mess up the beginning, the tests steers you into a "lower-scoring" track and it won't even give you the harder questions. So you are capped at a lower max score.

It's not just about "not answering many questions correctly and getting a low score". It's about a new type of testing where if you goof up the beginning questions out of nerves, when you really knew the answers, you don't get to show your stuff later. You don't even get a chance to answer them, so it's impossible to get them right.

So 2 test takers sitting side-by-side may be taking the SAT with entirely different sets of questions.

You would need to goof up pretty majorly - think, at the below average (500 per section) level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the analogies were considered the "easy" part. Very straightforward.

Not as involved as some of the reading and math problems.

The analogies were taken out as found socioeconomic disparities in what words and associations being used and understood. Can’t remember all the examples but google old articles on this and some of them would be funny if weren’t so sad.

Oof. I can picture that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be aware that the digital test is adaptive. If you don't do so well on the first section, your second section will be easier and your score will be capped. If you do well on the first section, you get a harder second section and an opportunity for a higher score.

So maybe that’s the harder part- that if panic at beginning and mess up some questions you’re screwed to get a high score?

Yes, if you can’t answer many questions you will get a low score. That’s how tests work.

What PPs are referring to is the questions start easy and if you get them all right, the test starts giving you much harder questions, allowing you to enter the "high-scoring" track.

But if you "panic" and mess up the beginning, the tests steers you into a "lower-scoring" track and it won't even give you the harder questions. So you are capped at a lower max score.

It's not just about "not answering many questions correctly and getting a low score". It's about a new type of testing where if you goof up the beginning questions out of nerves, when you really knew the answers, you don't get to show your stuff later. You don't even get a chance to answer them, so it's impossible to get them right.

So 2 test takers sitting side-by-side may be taking the SAT with entirely different sets of questions.

This is ridiculous. How absurd.

This has been the case for many years. It was like this when I took the GRE 20 years ago.

Wow, were they really doing digital GRE exams in the early 2000s?

I took the GRE 40 years ago (on paper) and got 800 on Quantitative and 790 on Analytical (that darn final canoe color question when my brain was spent!).

With paper, I raced through answering the "easy" questions (well, easy on first glance to me), marked the ones I needed to think about, then went back with the remaining time and worked my way through the potentially tricky questions.

Back then, if I had to test digital only, and not be able to easily skip questions and come back, I probably would have scored closer to 700. So I have to assume the 800 students today are a few levels more skilled than I have always assumed I was/am (LOL).

My DC definitely went back to look at hard questions on the DSAT. Why don’t you think this strategy works now? They did all of the practice tests and ended up with a 1580, so I’m inclined to say it still works.