Well, maybe out of ambition or whatever they took some SAT prep work.
I didn't for three simple reasons: (1) I was so uninformed I didn't have a clue about just what the SAT was! (2) Teachers in grade school had been so critical of me, essentially because I wasn't a student like the girls in the classes!, that I'd largely given up on academics and wasn't trying very hard. (3) I'd never heard about any SAT test prep!
I did try hard in high school math, because I very much liked the subject, but I still thought that pleasing the teachers was hopeless and, thus, didn't try. Maybe that math I studied was responsible for my SAT scores, but I doubt it. Besides the CEEB or whatever wanted to claim that the test measured just 'aptitude'.
Uh, just because someone took some SAT prep material doesn't mean that the prep material was really responsible for their good scores! I'd side with the students who got good scores, however they did it: If they did so well on the SATs, however they did it, then they should be able to "make it" in ugrad school.
Uh, unless they were competing with my wife! She wanted to take a course in history but didn't need the credit so just audited. The lecture hall had 300 students. The prof insisted that even auditing students also take the tests. At the end, the prof told her that she should have taken the course for credit since she had the highest grade in the class! Before I met her socially, I taught her frosh trig. On my tests, some of the questions were difficult for a lot of points. At the end, she had twice as many points as the next best student; she could have walked out after the midterm and still made an A! I tried to compete with her in Scrabble. She was ahead, but as we played I got better. Alas she got better even faster so that her margin grew so much she refused to play with me again!
I didn't for three simple reasons: (1) I was so uninformed I didn't have a clue about just what the SAT was! (2) Teachers in grade school had been so critical of me, essentially because I wasn't a student like the girls in the classes!, that I'd largely given up on academics and wasn't trying very hard. (3) I'd never heard about any SAT test prep!
I did try hard in high school math, because I very much liked the subject, but I still thought that pleasing the teachers was hopeless and, thus, didn't try. Maybe that math I studied was responsible for my SAT scores, but I doubt it. Besides the CEEB or whatever wanted to claim that the test measured just 'aptitude'.
Uh, just because someone took some SAT prep material doesn't mean that the prep material was really responsible for their good scores! I'd side with the students who got good scores, however they did it: If they did so well on the SATs, however they did it, then they should be able to "make it" in ugrad school.
Uh, unless they were competing with my wife! She wanted to take a course in history but didn't need the credit so just audited. The lecture hall had 300 students. The prof insisted that even auditing students also take the tests. At the end, the prof told her that she should have taken the course for credit since she had the highest grade in the class! Before I met her socially, I taught her frosh trig. On my tests, some of the questions were difficult for a lot of points. At the end, she had twice as many points as the next best student; she could have walked out after the midterm and still made an A! I tried to compete with her in Scrabble. She was ahead, but as we played I got better. Alas she got better even faster so that her margin grew so much she refused to play with me again!