My thoughts after taking the SAT

I didn't post last Saturday, because that day at noon, I sat, (pun intended) at a minuscule desk designed for right handed midgets. And I still haven't figured out the schedule option on Blogger.

So instead of posting the blog post I had already finished writing this week, I'm writing down my thoughts after taking the SAT, in the form of a blog post rant.

Overall, I am unimpressed with the SAT.

Not with the content within it, per se. If you're going to try and rank a student's college readiness/intelligence in the most formulaic manner possible to increase time/money efficiency, then a standardized test is a way to go. I have issues with the testing concept at it's conceptual roots, of course, but that's a subject for another blog post.

If you don't want to read some kid complaining about the inefficiencies of the SAT, this blog post is not for you. Otherwise, read on.

First of all, something I mentioned at the beginning of this post; The desk.
I am home schooled, which means I was able to (thanks to the generosity of my parents) help select the desk that I use for schoolwork. What I've used for the past year is a standing drafting table with a glass light desk top and a backless stool with an adjustable height.

Basically, it is a desk with a height that I can stand at comfortably, but I have a tall stool so I can sit down if I want to. I am constantly switching between sitting and standing while doing school, depending on how I feel and what I'm doing. (Also, it's supposedly healthier to stand than to sit, but that's still in relative debate by people in that area of study.)

Not that I could not get used to a different desk if I had to say, take the SAT, but from a designer's perspective, I must say that the desk I had to use was, to put it lightly, a monstrosity.
Maybe not everyone who takes the SAT has this problem, as it is given in varying locations around the country, but the high school I took it at had extremely tiny desks.

I am fairly sure they were designed by a government statistician.

I imagine the day it was designed went something like this:
"Well, the average American is 5.58 feet tall, so we will optimize the chair measurements and desk size for that exact height, And %75 percent of people are right handed, so obviously it will be made for right handed people. Then we'll make it as small as possible within those constraints, to be efficient."

Perfect for the average American. If you're a 6 foot tall left handed American, you aren't really that statistically unlikely, you're simply out of luck.

Not that the averagely sized right handed American could enjoy taking a test at this desk. The test required you have 2 books open on your desk at a time. It does not take much geometry to see that there was no way to do this on desks this size without books overlapping and therefore constantly having to readjust booklets around as you progress through the pages.

Moving on from the desk, we have the testing officiator. He was the man who stood at the front of the classroom and made sure the rules were being followed while he ran down the checklist of everything that must be said and done when the SAT is being given.

Let me just mention real quick: I have no problem with checklists. I like checklists. I use one everyday, to make sure I don't forget to do all the normal daily chores and remember to complete my weekly tasks such as filming videos for my YouTube channel and posting on this blog. Checklists are great.

But something I've noticed in my dealings with those using organization mandated checklists is that they don't actually follow the intent that was meant by the person who made the checklist, due to the fact that it must be completed by the letter.

I have on my daily checklist to draw at least one picture. If I get the end of the day, and the time I spent drawing a picture was instead spent on designing a logo, I mark it complete, because the intent behind me having it on my list was fulfilled.
I carved out time in my day to pursue a visually artistic endeavor.

But with a mandated checklist, it doesn't matter the intent of what is on the list, only that it is completed exactly the way it says on the paper. Back when I was in driver's ed, I noticed very quickly that my teacher's were simply checking things off the government mandated checklist.

This many driving hours, this many classroom hours, this many tests. It didn't matter the actual content that was within, only that the quota was filled, even they had to sacrifice actual teaching to do so.

So back to the SAT, the man at the front of the room read from the paper, spelling out exactly what the students were supposed to do in excruciating detail; Reading everything that he was required to, per his job description. He paused to take breath whenever the paper had him stop for questions.

That wasn't a huge deal to me, but the blatant inefficiency made me cringe. But then came the most annoying part: The actual test.

I took a CLEP test about a month ago, so I'm using that as a comparison. The CLEP was done on a computer, so not only was I able to input my chosen answers almost instantly, as soon as I was done, the testing center was able to print up my scores and hand them to me within two minutes of me taking the test.
Do you know what the SAT is taken on?

Paper.

I knew beforehand that this was likely to be the case, but actually being there and experiencing the outdated and inefficient way of taking a test of this magnitude was something else entirely.

I know computers are more expensive than paper. But that is literally the only disadvantage I could think of. In fact, computer testing installed in a high school might even pay for itself in a couple years through printing and labor costs.

Computers have less environmental impact. They require less labor. It's harder to cheat when using them. They are more likely to get accurate test results, due to not having any scan-tron errors from incorrect bubble fill.



Anyway, that's my main thoughts on the SAT. I'm hoping I got all of them down so that I don't feel a need to rant to my friends anymore. But I doubt it.

Also, I'm switching my blog posts from Saturday to Monday, in case you didn't figure that out. I think that works better for everyone.

~T