Polysyllabic | Ruminations on grammar, linguistics, standardized tests, and anything else that strikes my fancy

28 Apr 2020

My Apologies

Submitted by Karl Hagen

Apparently, the site was down for a while without my noticing, for which I apologize. My hosting company recently upgraded the Perl version on its servers, which made some of the code in version of Drupal I use obsolete. As a result, the whole site crashed in the most ugly way possible. On top of that, I've been extremely busy recently and hadn't been checked on things in some time (much longer than I should). I normally rely on notifications to let me know when things need attention, but of course since the whole site was down, that wasn't happening either.

1 Jan 2020

Ambiguous questions and the limitations of statistics

Submitted by Karl Hagen

A question from a student drew my attention to the following SAT Writing question that appeared on the April 2017 SAT.

Here's the relevant paragraph. I've replaced the text of other questions with the correct answers so as not to introduce confusing irrelevancies:

Topic:

SAT

Syntax

1 Dec 2018

Yet another SAT Security Breach

Submitted by Karl Hagen

The College Board is having a really bad year.

Topic:

SAT

28 Aug 2018

Who is really affected by the SAT security breach?

Submitted by Karl Hagen

College Board's response to the compromised August SAT is unfolding the way I predicted:

For those asking, most August SAT scores will be available beginning September 7, as planned. pic.twitter.com/3jNYSsHdTv

— The College Board (@CollegeBoard) August 27, 2018

Topic:

SAT

26 Aug 2018

Another SAT, Another Debacle

Submitted by Karl Hagen

As students came out of the SAT on the East Coast yesterday, many hit the online forums devoted to discussing the test to discuss questions. And even before the West-Coast students had left their exam rooms, it became evident that the form most of them were given was actually one that had been leaked online months earlier. Multiple students reported that they had practiced on this very test. How serious is this situation? Very.

Topic:

SAT

2 Aug 2018

Jack-and-the-Beanstalk Test Prep

Submitted by Karl Hagen

I can't tell you how many students I've heard utter some variation of the following: "I took a practice test and my parents flipped out at how low the score was. I'm taking the test in [exceedingly close month], and I have to raise my score by at least [absurdly large amount]. I really need to raise my score fast."

Topic:

Test Prep

16 Jul 2018

Thoughts on College Board's Response to #rescoreJuneSAT

Submitted by Karl Hagen

College Board responded yesterday to the #rescoreJuneSAT complaints with a FAQ page. It is a document which has been very carefully worded, presumably by PR professionals. It makes technically accurate statements while dodging the serious substance of the complaints.

Topic:

Psychometrics

SAT

15 Jul 2018

How you can tell if the June 2018 test is excessively flawed?

Submitted by Karl Hagen

TLDR: The evidence to tell isn't public at this point. It would be much easier to tell if College Board released specific technical data on the test.

Topic:

Psychometrics

SAT

13 Jul 2018

How do the SAT Scales Really Work?

Submitted by Karl Hagen

Reddit and Twitter have been in an uproar about the results from the June 2018 SAT. Many students are upset that missing only a handful of questions has dropped their scores precipitously, and have been expressing their outrage with the hastag #rescorejunesat.

Topic:

Psychometrics

SAT

30 May 2018

Can SAT Essay Graders Agree on What Good Writing Is?

Submitted by Karl Hagen

In my last post, I argued that the SAT essay might be inappropriately difficult for its intended purposes and that floor effects make it essentially worthless for distinguishing among lower-ability students. In this post, I'm going to argue that the SAT essay score appears similarly unhelpful for distinguishing among high-ability students.

Topic:

SAT

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