University faces a test

Re “SAT subject tests may be dropped by UC,” March 16

Leave it to a panel from the University of California to make exactly the wrong recommendation by suggesting the university no longer require SAT II tests for applicants. The differences between the SAT I test (generally considered an aptitude test that measures potential) and the SAT II tests (achievement tests that measure what students have learned in particular subjects) are ones of fairness and perception. The advantage to maintaining the SAT II tests, rather than the SAT I, is that the SAT II tests allow students to demonstrate competencies in particular subjects without a sense that judgments are being passed on students’ native intelligence. For minority students particularly, evaluations based upon perceived intelligence have negative consequences.

Patrick Mattimore

Gex, France

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UC Academic Senate Chairman Michael Brown states that most faculty believe that subject-specific tests, which include history, should no longer be required for admitting freshman because they disqualify people for “no reasons that have to do with achievement.” Will it now become too much to hope that by the time these incoming freshman become UC graduates, they will have gained more than the thin and meager sense of history the majority of Americans demonstrate today? With this new drop in standards, UC faculty members have their work cut out for them.

June Maguire

Mission Viejo

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Re “The SAT? It tests our credulity,” column, March 18

Sandy Banks’ column about the SAT subject test contains some misrepresentations. The SAT tests a student’s knowledge of a core high school curriculum and critical thinking skills, which are reliable predictors of college success. The only trick to the SAT is studying that curriculum and having an understanding of the exam.

The SAT subject test that Banks completed is offered to students to demonstrate their knowledge of literature recently studied in school. It’s no surprise that someone 30 years removed from high school would not perform as well as hoped.

A Princeton Review representative stated that the SAT “tests how well you take the SAT,” which is ludicrous. Research shows that the best preparation for the SAT is not a test prep firm offering promises of “gaming” the SAT but completing a rigorous high school course load and being familiar with the test.

Laurence Bunin

General Manager, SAT

The College Board

New York