SAT Scores & Evaluating WOKs

Title: SAT Scores & Evaluating WOKs

Date: 28 May 2011
Category: Outside of Class

http://www.sattesting.org/

                 SAT scores were posted today by the Collegeboard organization. As I saw my grade, I was disappointed as I had not received the score I had hoped and prayed for. I felt discouraged and angry. I had worked so hard to do as many practice questions as I could in the time I had, and had dedicated myself to learning 20 vocabularies each night. I thought to myself, “maybe I didn’t pray hard enough” and “maybe I didn’t study hard enough”. My friends seemed to get high scores. I tried to comfort myself by telling myself that it was my first time. My mom couldn’t help but show her disappointment in me. I could tell she had wanted more from me by the tone of her voice, and her facial expressions [Language as a WOK]. She was quieter, and she looked sad with her eyes drooping down a little. [Knowledge Issue] Is this analysis accepted universally? I began to be grow more disappointed at myself for not having been able to measure up to her standards. I began to think, “How am I going to go to a university with a score like this?” etc.  My disappointment began to develop into anger. With anger, I began to question the accuracy of the SAT. These questions may have aroused from anger, however I believe these questions are valid knowledge issues.

Why is it that most universities are heavily influenced by our SAT scores when making admission decisions? [Knowledge Issues]  Are SAT scores reliable in determining our future opportunities? How valid are the conversions from the number of questions we get correct to the scores themselves? Who determines how the number is converted? Is it fair that we must depend on this idea, proposed by this person of authority, for the stability of our future? Evaluating my emotion at the time, if I had faced a different emotion, would I have thought of different knowledge issues? For example, if I was happy with the SAT score that I received, I may be inclined to think that the SAT scores are really accurate in determining our success. Because of this, I may be restricted from asking the accuracy of this test, or evaluating how reliable it is. Instead I may ask, “How do the Collegeboard derive questions to accurately measure our intelligence in our reasoning?” etc. However, if I received a low score, I would want to believe that SAT scores are unreliable. In this way, our emotion allows us to have a different point of view [Emotion as a WOK].