{"id":681564,"access":"public","admin_noindex":false,"asset_url":"https://s3.documentcloud.org/","canonical_url":"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/681564-1926-sat/","created_at":"2013-04-08T20:52:03.733475Z","data":{},"description":"An analysis of pages from the very first SAT, administered to more than 8,000 students in 1926, based on a conversation with Brian O'Reilly, executive director of SAT program outreach at the College Board.","edit_access":false,"file_hash":"61c735024c600341cf5d83f0b85c3baa5c76b5c7","noindex":false,"language":"eng","organization":{"id":548,"avatar_url":"","individual":false,"name":"Smithsonian.com","slug":"smithsonian","uuid":"fa5ef36b-d698-4335-94c6-032898c526bc"},"original_extension":"pdf","page_count":5,"page_spec":"612.0x792.0:0;792.0x612.0:1-4","projects":[],"publish_at":null,"published_url":"","related_article":"","revision_control":false,"slug":"1926-sat","source":"College Board","status":"success","title":"The Original SAT","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.119209Z","user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"sections":[],"notes":[{"id":98693,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Test Centers","content":"In 1926, test takers reported to one of 318 centers to take the SAT. A week prior to test day, they would have received a packet with practice questions.","x1":0.4742857142857143,"x2":0.8942857142857142,"y1":0.4614285714285714,"y2":0.47909090909090907,"created_at":"2013-04-09T14:46:15.629730Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.581832Z"},{"id":98694,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Timetable for Taking the SAT","content":"In the early years of the SAT, students took the exam towards the end of their senior year. Scores were then sent to colleges, and admissions offices made their decisions over the summer.","x1":0.06857142857142857,"x2":0.4657142857142857,"y1":0.45701298701298704,"y2":0.48902597402597403,"created_at":"2013-04-09T14:47:32.986799Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582373Z"},{"id":98613,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"History of the College Entrance Examination Board","content":"The College Entrance Examination Board, now just called the College Board, formed in 1900. Made up of representatives from leading colleges and universities (mostly the Ivy League institutions), the board convened to streamline the admissions process. \n\n

\"Up until that time, if you wanted to apply to Harvard, you did that totally differently than how you applied to Yale versus how you applied to Princeton,\" says Brian O'Reilly, executive director of SAT program outreach at the College Board. \n\n

To simplify things, the board, at a meeting near Columbia University in New York City, decided to come up with a single test that all applicants to those colleges would have to take. A group of independent school headmasters, who met annually, would determine the content of the College Entrance Examination, as it was called. \"They would go through what it is that a well-educated prep school student should know,\" says O'Reilly. \"There were sub-tests in rhetoric. There were sub-tests in Greek and Latin. It was all essays, or short answers, which were then scored by readers.\"","x1":0.21142857142857144,"x2":0.7585714285714286,"y1":0.09051948051948051,"y2":0.1125974025974026,"created_at":"2013-04-08T21:26:48.596229Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.585089Z"},{"id":98696,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Structure of the Original SAT","content":"As the directions indicate here, there was a definite time crunch. Students had 97 minutes to answer a total of 315 questions on nine sub-tests—Definitions, Arithmetic, Classification, Artificial Language, Antonyms, Number Series, Analogies, Logical Inference and Paragraph Reading. \"You had to answer about three questions per minute,\" says O'Reilly. \"The expectation was that nobody would finish the whole test.\"","x1":0.08857142857142856,"x2":0.41,"y1":0.5894805194805195,"y2":0.6435714285714286,"created_at":"2013-04-09T15:15:24.578907Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.596548Z"},{"id":98938,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Scoring","content":"The directions, here, remind test takers that \"accuracy counts as well as speed.\" Each student would receive a raw score, equivalent to the number of correct answers provided. \"It was scored, in some respects, the same as it currently is. Easy questions got the same credit as a difficult question,\" explains O'Reilly. \n\n

Students were encouraged to guess, because no points were take off for wrong answers. This scoring policy changed, however, in the 1950s. \"As an attempt to not reward wild guessing and do a better job of rewarding the knowledge that students actually had, we introduced what is called correction for guessing, or penalty for guessing, where a quarter of a point is taken off for a wrong answer,\" says O'Reilly. \"A student has to strategize. Should I answer this question or not?\"\n\n

In 2019, the College Board announced that it plans to assign an \"adversity score\" to SAT test takers and share that score with any of 150 institutions participating in the program this fall. The score, calculated based on 15 factors, is an attempt to capture the student's social and economic background for college admissions.","x1":0.08571428571428572,"x2":0.40714285714285714,"y1":0.7550649350649351,"y2":0.787077922077922,"created_at":"2013-04-10T16:30:56.029269Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.596638Z"},{"id":98687,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Creating the SAT","content":"The very first Scholastic Aptitude Test was given in 1926, a quarter of a century after the first College Entrance Examination was penned. \"It was really an attempt by this same group of colleges, which had then expanded somewhat, to get together and say, look, the current test we've got, the essay test with the Latin and the Greek, works fine for prep school students. But, we'd like to have more than just prep school students show up on our campus,\" says O'Reilly. \n\n

The question became this: What kind of a test could be given to both private and public school kids to determine their readiness for college? \"That's when the SAT was born,\" says O'Reilly.\n\n

The Scholastic Aptitude Test started to level the playing field. Princeton psychologist Carl Brigham and other designers of the multiple-choice test modeled it, at least in part, after the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. \"But instead of figuring out which of your new recruits would be a good officer, the SAT figured out which of your high school students would be a good college student,\" says O'Reilly.\n\n

Multiple choice was a brand new mode of testing. \"In many ways, this 1926 SAT was a way to try out some of the concepts about multiple-choice testing—see what worked, see what didn't. Some of those test items stuck around for years and years and years. Some of them were gone after a year or two,\" adds O'Reilly, who has worked at the College Board for 31 years.\n\n

The test is no longer referred to as the Scholastic Aptitude Test—it is just the SAT. \"Aptitude is a perfectly good English word, as is scholastic, as is test. But it had picked up connotations over time of something that was immutable. If you got a 550 on your verbal section of your SAT, that was stamped on your forehead for life,\" says O'Reilly. For many years, the College Board tried to explain to schools, colleges, parents and students that aptitude is just an indication of where you are at this moment and what you are likely to be able to do when you enter college, O'Reilly explains. The SAT is not an intelligence test. But the board's efforts proved to be unsuccessful. The College Board instead replaced the word \"aptitude\" with \"assessment.\" \n\n

\"Really assessment is a synonym for test, so in effect it was the Scholastic Test Test,\" says O'Reilly. So, in 1994, the Scholastic Assessment Test became, quite simply, the SAT. \"We said, look, everybody calls it the SAT, let's just use that terminology from now on,\" he adds.","x1":0.29714285714285715,"x2":0.6728571428571428,"y1":0.12032467532467532,"y2":0.13577922077922078,"created_at":"2013-04-09T14:13:30.119918Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.583605Z"},{"id":98689,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"First Test Takers","content":"More than 8,000 students took the very first Scholastic Aptitude Test on June 23, 1926. \"I remember people assuming it must have been practically all boys,\" says O'Reilly. \"It wasn't a 90 percent male cohort. The majority was male, but the girls were somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 to 40 percent.\"","x1":0.07142857142857142,"x2":0.2742857142857143,"y1":0.23402597402597403,"y2":0.2527922077922078,"created_at":"2013-04-09T14:19:25.380095Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582103Z"},{"id":98690,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Skewed to the Northeast","content":"\"The SAT was administered in various places, but I don't know how widespread it was,\" says O'Reilly. \"It was probably mostly in the northeast, because that is where most of the colleges that were part of the College Board at that time were located.\"","x1":0.39,"x2":0.9057142857142857,"y1":0.29363636363636364,"y2":0.3355844155844156,"created_at":"2013-04-09T14:23:45.725355Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.581554Z"},{"id":98692,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":0,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"What Colleges and Universities Did the Students Aim to Attend?","content":"Students who took the 1926 SAT \"purposed entering\" a relatively small number of colleges. Reportedly, about 26 percent of the males applied to Yale and 27 percent of females submitted applications to Smith College.","x1":0.06857142857142857,"x2":0.5685714285714286,"y1":0.3675974025974026,"y2":0.392987012987013,"created_at":"2013-04-09T14:37:00.351459Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582283Z"},{"id":98961,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":1,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Word Bank","content":"The sub-test consisted of 33 definitions. However, the word bank—a long list of words on the righthand side (a portion shown here)—contained 66 words.\n\n

\"As a reader, I would find this somewhat interesting and somewhat perplexing,\" says O'Reilly. \"Even if you understood the concept that was being asked in the question, you might not have been able to quickly come up with the word. If you didn't know it, well, you've got 66 multiple choices to look through.\"","x1":0.7285714285714285,"x2":0.8671428571428571,"y1":0.035126050420168066,"y2":0.11462184873949581,"created_at":"2013-04-10T19:55:04.939401Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582464Z"},{"id":98935,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":1,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Vocabulary Tested is Different From Today","content":"O'Reilly calls my attention to word bank and, more specifically, the fifth word from the top, allopathy. \"I don't even know what that means,\" O'Reilly admits. \"You would not see that on the SAT today.\"\n\n

The vocabulary on the current SAT is meant to be at the same level as that of the New York Times.","x1":0.7371428571428571,"x2":0.8571428571428571,"y1":0.13865546218487396,"y2":0.1719327731092437,"created_at":"2013-04-10T16:03:50.595241Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.585179Z"},{"id":98697,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":1,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Sub-Test One: Definitions","content":"The first sub-test of the 1926 SAT was commonly referred to as \"definitions.\" The student was given a definition and then asked to identify, from a word bank, the word being defined.","x1":0.3757142857142857,"x2":0.5385714285714286,"y1":0.03142857142857143,"y2":0.07210084033613445,"created_at":"2013-04-09T15:16:25.302005Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582916Z"},{"id":98931,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":1,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Figuring Out the Answer","content":"\"An 'blank' is a word used to limit or qualify the application of a noun or a nominal phrase,\" reads O'Reilly. \"Is that an adjective? I guess. 'Adjective' is up there [in the word bank]. But, because it starts with an 'a' I found it quickly. If it had started with a 'u'—and I knew it had to be a vowel because it said 'an'—it could have taken me a lot longer to verify that the word I came up with was the word they were looking for. Remember, 19 seconds per question was the amount of time you had. Moving through at that pace, I think, would be very difficult.\"","x1":0.17285714285714285,"x2":0.67,"y1":0.40302521008403364,"y2":0.4363025210084034,"created_at":"2013-04-10T15:45:08.286609Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.584727Z"},{"id":98970,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":2,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Student-Produced Response","content":"\"This is not a multiple-choice section. This is a section where you write in your answer,\" says O'Reilly. After each question, there is a blank, where students provided a number. \"We have actually gotten back to that. For many years, the math section was all multiple choice, but in 1994, we made a series of changes. Ten out of the 54 math questions require that the student come up with the answer,\" he adds. \"They don't write it in, as they do here. They grid in the answer; that way, the scanner can determine whether they got the correct answer or not.\"\n\n

At the bequest of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the College Board also made a new ruling on calculators. Since 1994, students have been allowed to use calculators on the math sections of the SAT.\n\n","x1":0.4085714285714286,"x2":0.5157142857142857,"y1":0.4492436974789916,"y2":0.4825210084033614,"created_at":"2013-04-10T21:08:39.266706Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.584262Z"},{"id":98837,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":2,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Sub-Test Two: Arithmetic","content":"Only two of the nine sub-tests on the original SAT were devoted to mathematics. (The distinct verbal and math split that we have come to know with the SAT did not take effect until 1929.) \n\n

Sub-Test Two, shown here, consisted of word problems. O'Reilly points out just how simple the math was in these questions: \"There was basically nothing on here that required a particularly sophisticated understanding of mathematics beyond arithmetic.\"","x1":0.4657142857142857,"x2":0.62,"y1":0.04252100840336135,"y2":0.07210084033613445,"created_at":"2013-04-09T21:16:35.080413Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.583796Z"},{"id":98838,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":2,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"The Test Shows its Age","content":"\"'If a man's salary is $20 a week' is obviously something that catches your attention,\" says O'Reilly. ","x1":0.19142857142857142,"x2":0.56,"y1":0.15714285714285714,"y2":0.19596638655462187,"created_at":"2013-04-09T21:21:46.272775Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.583010Z"},{"id":98922,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":2,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Jarring Scenario","content":"The third question, shown here, is a word problem that postulates that \"a package containing twenty cigarettes costs fifteen cents.\" \n\n

\"There are just things that look so strange. The off-hand reference to cigarettes for high school students was kind of striking,\" says O'Reilly.","x1":0.18857142857142858,"x2":0.5542857142857143,"y1":0.27915966386554625,"y2":0.3401680672268908,"created_at":"2013-04-10T15:25:33.797357Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.583473Z"},{"id":98702,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":3,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"The Task at Hand","content":"This particular question lists \"orange, pear, lemon, grapefruit, prune, chocolate.\" \n\n

\"The task that it required you to do was to not just figure out what three fruits are citrus fruits. We weren't [neccessarily] asking you that. In effect, you could have said that they were closely related because these are fruits that people eat without any kind of preparation,\" says O'Reilly.","x1":0.1757142857142857,"x2":0.5114285714285715,"y1":0.3549579831932773,"y2":0.3789915966386555,"created_at":"2013-04-09T15:46:59.733724Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.585270Z"},{"id":98746,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":3,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Geography","content":"Within this sub-test, the College Board tested students on various knowledge sets. The group of words, shown here, for example, assesses the test taker's familiarity with geography. I presume they are looking for the student to recognize that Oakland, Pasadena and Los Angeles are all cities in California.","x1":0.17142857142857143,"x2":0.5428571428571428,"y1":0.5065546218487396,"y2":0.5361344537815126,"created_at":"2013-04-09T16:56:59.648153Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582735Z"},{"id":98776,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":3,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Languages","content":"It is also interesting to note that the College Board expected a certain level of comprehension of foreign languages. Here, a student needed to recognize that three of these words—mutter, madre and mère—mean \"mother,\" in German, Spanish and French, respectively.","x1":0.16714285714285715,"x2":0.49142857142857144,"y1":0.9410084033613446,"y2":0.9742857142857143,"created_at":"2013-04-09T18:00:28.634170Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.583252Z"},{"id":98701,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":3,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Is This Type of Question Fair?","content":"The other issue with this type of question is what O'Reilly calls pre-knowledge. \"A student who is familiar with 'Bon Ton, Gossard, Djer Kiss, Del Monte, Mavis and Jonteel' would have a definite advantage over a student who didn't work in a store, or wherever these brand names appear from,\" he says. \"I'm not even sure what these are.\"\n","x1":0.17857142857142858,"x2":0.5457142857142857,"y1":0.3198319327731093,"y2":0.34756302521008403,"created_at":"2013-04-09T15:46:30.777573Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582193Z"},{"id":98698,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":3,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Sub-Test Three: Classification","content":"Sub-Test Three was commonly referred to as the \"classification\" section. Test takers were instructed to identify the three words, in the six provided, that are most closely related.\n\n

O'Reilly believes that this type of question was removed from the SAT very early in its history. \"You would never these kinds of questions on a current test—for a number of reasons,\" he says. \"Not because they are bad questions; it might be a very good skill to have. But, there are too many possible false right answers. There are just too many ways to group things, that many students might come up with a second possible right answer to these questions.\"","x1":0.4342857142857143,"x2":0.6214285714285714,"y1":0.15899159663865547,"y2":0.1996638655462185,"created_at":"2013-04-09T15:22:40.024846Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.583698Z"},{"id":98781,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":4,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Sub-Test Four: Artificial Language","content":"In Sub-Test Four, the College Board provided a set of vocabulary and grammar rules for an artificial language and then tested a student's ability to apply that language.\n\n

The test reminds O'Reilly of a similar one he had to take when entering the Peace Corps in 1967. \"For the Peace Corps, it made a great deal of sense, because you were going to have to go to another country and learn a language, and therefore seeing how facile you were with translating as you went was probably important,\" he says. \"On the SAT, it is hard to know what the purpose of this was.\"\n\n

In O'Reilly's 31 years with the College Board, two types of questions—antonyms and analogies—have been cut from the exam. Both were removed on the grounds that they did not look like something students would actually be asked to do in the classroom. \"It is something called 'face validity,'\" says O'Reily. \"It may be a great measure of whether that student will do well in college or not. But, it just looks weird. It just doesn't look like what students do in school. It doesn't look like what students will be asked to do once they get to college. Therefore, on the face of it, it doesn't look fair.\"\n\n

\"There was a time, and this 1926 version of the SAT is certainly reflective of this, where it didn't really matter what the question looked like, as long as it was predictive of how a student would do once they got to college. Nowadays, that matters. We want students to be as comfortable as they can be, to know that what they have been studying in school is reflected in all of the questions they are going to see in the SAT,\" says O'Reilly. For one, it reduces students' anxiety about the test. And, secondly, the College Board does not want students to think that they have to hire a tutor or take a course to succeed on the SAT. \"There are no tricks to learn,\" says O'Reilly. \"That might not have been the case with some of the questions that are on this test.\"\n","x1":0.43714285714285717,"x2":0.6014285714285714,"y1":0.027731092436974792,"y2":0.05915966386554622,"created_at":"2013-04-09T18:20:38.974104Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.583887Z"},{"id":98825,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":4,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Rules","content":"Following the vocabulary section, there is a set of six rules, outlining the grammar of the artificial language. As demonstrated here, to express the past tense of \"thanto,\" meaning \"please\"—or any other verb, for that matter—one would add \"erp\" to the beginning of the verb, resulting in \"erpthanto.\"","x1":0.19,"x2":0.5842857142857143,"y1":0.4178151260504202,"y2":0.4880672268907563,"created_at":"2013-04-09T20:11:11.855001Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582826Z"},{"id":98826,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":4,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Sample Translation","content":"The College Board could not provide actual questions from this sub-test, but this page includes samples, such as this one shown here. \"I think you would be given the very short sentence 'He pleases me,' and you would have to then translate,\" says O'Reilly. The pronoun \"he\" becomes \"ol.\" Since the rules stipulate that only nouns and pronouns have plurals, \"pleases\" is \"thanto,\" the same as \"please.\" Then, \"me\" is \"oteb.\"\n\n

\"It was probably the slowest part of the test,\" says O'Reilly. While the sub-test had the fewest number of questions, just 17 out of the exam's total 315, the task itself was quite taxing.\n\n","x1":0.29,"x2":0.43142857142857144,"y1":0.8522689075630253,"y2":0.9040336134453782,"created_at":"2013-04-09T20:21:16.212709Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582645Z"},{"id":98783,"user":{"id":3907,"avatar_url":"","name":"Megan Gambino","organization":548,"organizations":[13145,548],"admin_organizations":[13145,548],"username":"MeganGambino","uuid":"53addd0d-e049-43de-b758-7a20bd91901c","verified_journalist":true},"organization":548,"page_number":4,"access":"public","edit_access":false,"title":"Vocabulary","content":"After the instructions, there is a vocabulary key consisting of ten words. As you can see here, the word \"thanto\" means \"please\" in this artificial language.","x1":0.6271428571428571,"x2":0.7314285714285714,"y1":0.18487394957983194,"y2":0.2089075630252101,"created_at":"2013-04-09T18:24:27.275382Z","updated_at":"2020-09-22T16:27:15.582554Z"}]}