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From: cook@rpi.edu (Cathi A Cook)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: SAT scores - sexist?
Message-ID: <75sgw2b@rpi.edu>
Date: 24 Apr 91 05:05:06 GMT
References: <9104182056.AA12191@cwns9.INS.CWRU.Edu> <1991Apr23.182253.6579@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
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esc@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (elizabeth) writes:

>al885@cwns9.ins.cwru.EDU ("Gerard Pinzone a.k.a. Ataru Moroboshi") writes:
>>How many times do I have to say this? There has been absolutley NO
>>proof that I can find to prove the SAT's are sexist. I am pleading for
>>ANYONE to give me ANY examples that would show this. I am willing to
>>listen to anyone who has some proof.

>*************************************************

>Something I've always heard as one example is what the testmakers use
>for material in reading comprehension questions. I've read that in
>some RC questions, the material is skewed for sex, for example one
>article will be about car maintenance or rocket science. The saying
>goes that the boys have a better chance of answering the questions
>just on a matter of information they already have rather than actually
>understanding what the article is about.

                          [deleted]
>sex had an extra advantage the other sex didn't have just by virtue of
>the fact that one sex had extra knowledge or prior experience to draw
>upon.  Hope this helps. :)

Someone else brought this up a while back.

Actually, from the tests I've seen, the questions are often written
to _penalize_ just such assumptions. Often they will have a "common
sense" answer based on knowledge of the subject, but which is directly
contradicted by the given article. I can't imagine all the writers
of the SAT being stupid or bigoted. These people understand, I'm 
sure, that they are testing _reading_comprehension_, not physics.
I'm sure that they deliberately plant just such "Oh, I know this
stuff, I don't have to read the article." tidbits, to catch those
who simply skim.

As a highschool dropout, I never did take an SAT. However, I later
took the ACT and recieved a 32 overall, along with a 30 (100%) in
Natural Science. I believe a 32 was approximately 98 percentile.
I've always done well on standardized tests, and I never did see
any bias.

                          -rocker