Getting Serious about SAT Software

Abstract

The College Entrance Examination Board's (CEEB) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is widely taken by high school juniors and seniors for college admission and to apply for college scholarships. (The CEEB is also known as the College Board.) In addition, SAT scores have been used to describe the health of precollege education, particularly in reading, language arts, and mathematics. Parents, teachers, and school systems have tried to improve the SAT scores of their students by instituting SAT test-preparation programs. These programs use a variety of SAT-oriented materials and have recently begun to include computer software packages. Indeed, in a recent cartoon (Weaver 1984), a child asks, “What does the SAT measure?” Another child responds, “Whether your parents can afford a computer.”