Home Page Advertising About Us Articles Subscribe Survey Links

Cover Story
Spotlight On Schools
Featured Columnists
Letters
Books
Business of Education
Careers
Children's Corner
Colleges & Grad Schools
Commentary
Continuing Education
Editorials
Languages
Law & Education
MEDICAL UPDATE
MetroBEAT
Movies & Theater
Museums
Music, Art & Dance
Politics In Education
Special Education
Sports & Camps
Technology in Education
Travel
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
1997-2000
 
New York City
August 2001

Creating the SAT Questions

Developed in 1926, the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) has become an important part of the college application process. Since its inception, about 60 million students have taken the test, which is owned and sponsored by the College Board. The Board is responsible for the content, and it contracts the development and administration of the test to the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

The process of creating questions for the SAT takes over a year. Staff members start the process of creating the SAT by defining the content specifications, and then writing questions accordingly. Questions then undergo a series of at least four content reviews to make sure they are clear and appropriately challenging.

Each test question is tested in a non-scored section on a real SAT. Students taking the test are told that there is one 30-minute section that looks like any other section, but will actually only be used to evaluate new questions.

The questions also undergo a separate sensitivity review to make sure they are fair in content and tone for students. Test developers carefully avoid stereotyping and the use of sexist, racist or otherwise potentially offensive, language. The SAT is designed so that a student who answers about half of the questions correctly will receive an average score. Thus, during the review process, the results are put through statistical analyses in order to see how students will do on them.#

For more information, visit www.collegeboard.org.

 

 

Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2001.




COLLEGES & GRAD SCHOOLS

DIRECTORIES