Khan SAT Practice Test

[goldberry]

What has been your kid's experience with this in the new format?

 

DD took her first practice test today, the one on the Khan website.  She thought she didn't do well, and still got a 1310. I'm wondering if the new test seems easier than the old.. which would change the percentages of what a "good" score is.  1310 sounds like a good score (for us).  But there's no way to know what the percentiles are until the first round of people taking it.  What if after everyone takes it, the percentiles change dramatically?

 

Ugh.  I hate being part of the guinea pig group.   :(

Edited February 17, 2016 by goldberry

[...................]

Well they have dumbed down the test. They admitted that it is no longer an IQ test but more of an exit test on what "most actual high schoolers" would be expected to be exposed to.  So the general consensus is that the overall scores are going to be somewhat higher for most students, however most predictions say that average is still expected to be in the 500 range.

 

For most colleges, and students, the change will not pose a super significant problem.

 

THe change will affect those who would normally score in the upper 1500-1600 range.....taking out the IQ aspect of the most challenging types of problems both in math and LA, this will pose a problem for colleges trying to select among the brightest of the brightest, because far far more kids will score in that top bracket now.... It will also penalize kids in the top 2% who before were able to logically outperform those with the same background but lower IQ.  

 

So, yes, we are all waiting to see what the first round of "average" is but I think your dd's score will still be about 200-300 points above the national average.  

[goldberry]

Well they have dumbed down the test. They admitted that it is no longer an IQ test but more of an exit test on what "most actual high schoolers" would be expected to be exposed to.  So the general consensus is that the overall scores are going to be somewhat higher for most students, however most predictions say that average is still expected to be in the 500 range.

 

For most colleges, and students, the change will not pose a super significant problem.

 

THe change will affect those who would normally score in the upper 1500-1600 range.....taking out the IQ aspect of the most challenging types of problems both in math and LA, this will pose a problem for colleges trying to select among the brightest of the brightest, because far far more kids will score in that top bracket now.... It will also penalize kids in the top 2% who before were able to logically outperform those with the same background but lower IQ.  

 

So, yes, we are all waiting to see what the first round of "average" is but I think your dd's score will still be about 200-300 points above the national average.  

 

I had no idea it was even supposed to be an IQ type of test previously.  That seems really odd. I always thought it was supposed to demonstrate college readiness.

[...................]

colege readiness is demonstrated by grades and involvement in extra curriculars.

[goldberry]

colege readiness is demonstrated by grades and involvement in extra curriculars.

 

But an A at an outstanding school may not mean the same as an A at a poor school.  Similarly, homeschool A's could mean anything at all.  Having a standardized test takes some of that out of the equation.

[lmrich]

My dd did the practice test and scored 1180. She felt good about it and finished faster but did not know how or if she could go back and check stuff. I was thrilled she did so well for her first time. She tends to have anxiety over tests and being able to take a complete test and do well really made her feel like she could do well later. I am grateful for Khan Academy providing a free practice test.

[Reefgazer]

I agree with this; the standardization helps makes this test a tool that can compare schools evenly.  I am actually one of those people who can see the value in the SAT(even though I hate standardized tests in general because they are abused) because it does give you a certain level of confidence that if the student scores above a certain amount, it at least lets you know they have college reading/math ability.  Not sure if the new SAT will do that, though.  It seems higher-performing students will not be able to shine, however.  But that does seem in keeping with current trends in public education, unfortunately.

But an A at an outstanding school may not mean the same as an A at a poor school.  Similarly, homeschool A's could mean anything at all.  Having a standardized test takes some of that out of the equation.

 

[...................]

It was always meant to be both :  colleges can see what body of knowledge a student is capable of from the average to above average questions.  But there were many types of questions which were also designed to test how well students can extrapolate and also solve logical problems. So it also helped colleges figure out who was the top of the top of the top.

[goldberry]

My dd did the practice test and scored 1180. She felt good about it and finished faster but did not know how or if she could go back and check stuff. I was thrilled she did so well for her first time. She tends to have anxiety over tests and being able to take a complete test and do well really made her feel like she could do well later. I am grateful for Khan Academy providing a free practice test.

 

I'm grateful too.  DD has very low self-confidence on tests.

 

During the practice test (that she scored 1310 on) on one of the breaks she went to her room crying about how she was tanking and was never going to get into college.  :glare:  Mind you, she is looking at state schools and nothing uber-competitive, obviously she will be fine.  But this is how she is.  She needs the practice tests to boost her confidence.

[Reefgazer]

Slightly off topic, but what is the grading scale of the new SAT?  s it still 800 math and 800 verbal?  I thought there was also a writing component, but maybe not?

I'm grateful too.  DD has very low self-confidence on tests.

 

During the practice test (that she scored 1310 on) on one of the breaks she went to her room crying about how she was tanking and was never going to get into college.  :glare:  Mind you, she is looking at state schools and nothing uber-competitive, obviously she will be fine.  But this is how she is.  She needs the practice tests to boost her confidence.

 

[goldberry]

Slightly off topic, but what is the grading scale of the new SAT?  s it still 800 math and 800 verbal?  I thought there was also a writing component, but maybe not?

 

The maximum score is 1600, 800 for math and 800 for "evidence based reading and writing".  Supposedly, the old version was a maximum score of 2400, 800 math, 800 reading, 800 writing.  Under the new system, writing is a separate and optional and not included in the "composite" score.

 

Was writing always optional before?  Either way, I think the difference now is that writing is not included in the maximum score regardless.

[wapiti]

FWIW, I found this CC discussion interesting: Who is Writing the Questions for the Khan Academy Redesigned SAT Prep?

[...................]

They lost me in that discussion ...

 

 

[amsunshine]

Now that the scores from the new SAT in March have been released, how do you test-takers feel about the Khan practice test(s)? Were the scores on the Khan practice tests accurate in predicting your dc's performance on the actual SAT?  

[...................]

bumping...this is a great question

[BlessedMom]

Bumping

[amsunshine]

Well, just to let everyone know, my dd13 took her first practice with Khan last weekend, and will take the June 4th SAT.  I will post when we get her scores this summer and compare them to the Khan practice scores.  Hope it will help someone!

[freesia]

I will, too, for ds15. He did really well on the practice. We would be beyond thrilled if test day goes as well.(we need scholarship money for sure!)

[Arcadia]

He did really well on the practice. We would be beyond thrilled if test day goes as well.(we need scholarship money for sure!)

Good luck on test day for your son and all other takers :)

 

My kid's score was higher than I expected for finishing in 2hrs this morning all four sections of the Khan practice test. When I review the questions, he had 7 wrong for reading and 7 wrong for writing so I felt the the english score was too high given 14 questions wrong.

 

The math score is closer to what I would expect with 5 questions wrong for calculator section.

 

ETA:

I'm still waiting for the admission ticket by mail since he is under 13. I'll try to remember to update when this "saga" is over.

 

ETA:

Collegeboard said they will mail out yesterday for kids under 13 when hubby called last week. Hubby just nicknamed them "high and mighty snobs" :lol:

Edited June 1, 2016 by Arcadia

[freesia]

Good luck on test day for your son and all other takers :)

 

My kid's score was higher than I expected for finishing in 2hrs this morning all four sections of the Khan practice test. When I review the questions, he had 7 wrong for reading and 7 wrong for writing so I felt the the english score was too high given 14 questions wrong.

 

The math score is closer to what I would expect with 5 questions wrong for calculator section.

 

ETA:

I'm still waiting for the admission ticket by mail since he is under 13. I'll try to remember to update when this "saga" is over.

Good luck to your son, too. And I hope the ticket comes tomorrow. How stressful.

[amsunshine]

Good luck on test day for your son and all other takers :)

 

My kid's score was higher than I expected for finishing in 2hrs this morning all four sections of the Khan practice test. When I review the questions, he had 7 wrong for reading and 7 wrong for writing so I felt the the english score was too high given 14 questions wrong.

 

The math score is closer to what I would expect with 5 questions wrong for calculator section.

 

ETA:

I'm still waiting for the admission ticket by mail since he is under 13. I'll try to remember to update when this "saga" is over.

 

That's interesting that your ds finished so quickly.  My dd finished it quickly, too, which surprised me.  It made me a little skeptical about whether the Khan practice is truly representative of the actual test.  Also, her score was rather high, I thought, for a 13 year old -- so it makes me wonder.  Oh well, we are just doing this for exposure before high school, so we shall see....  Good luck to all!

[goldberry]

DD did really well and used the Khan practice tests to prepare.  She said it felt very familiar to her by the time she took the real test, and decreased her testing anxiety significantly.  

[Arcadia]

That's interesting that your ds finished so quickly. My dd finished it quickly, too, which surprised me. It made me a little skeptical about whether the Khan practice is truly representative of the actual test.

My slow speed reader finished the english sections with time to spare which is really weird. He had 10 wrong for reading and 5 wrong for writing. Now he is doing the math. I'm going to see how my oldest does first before deciding on when to let youngest take.

 

Finally got my oldest admission ticket via email and two phone calls this morning to CollegeBoard. Hubby is great at navigating ACT and CollegeBoard customer service now :lol: We had 7 phone calls to ACT and 3 so far to CollegeBoard.

[Arcadia]

Well, just to let everyone know, my dd13 took her first practice with Khan last weekend, and will take the June 4th SAT. I will post when we get her scores this summer and compare them to the Khan practice scores.

DS11's English was 30 points lower, math was the same. He only did the first practice test set in Khan. His total score is above 1400. Hope that helps those using Khan for test prep.

 

If I use the CB concordance table, the ACT equivalent of his SAT composite is a point below his actual ACT composite :lol:

 

Table 7 of PDF

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/higher-ed-brief-sat-concordance.pdf

[amsunshine]

Excellent score for your ds, Arcadia!

 

My Dd13 only took the first khan practice test, too. On the June SAT, her actual score was 20 points higher on math, but 50 points lower on reading/writing (so her total score was only 30 points less than the practice test score). Very happy with her score, though, overall.

 

When she took the khan practice test, I thought it was odd that her R/W score was higher than math as math is her thing. The actual scores verified that. Not sure why the practice test was off, but it wasn't too far off the mark.

 

Eta: I compared dd's scores more closely. She got 2 more math questions correct on the actual test than the practice and she missed 3 more on the R/W. So the khan scoring is fairly accurate. I would assume the more practice tests one does, the more accurate the correlation with actual scores. I believe a 5th practice test will be released this summer.

Edited July 21, 2016 by amsunshinetemp

[freesia]

Ds scored 20 points less in each math and reading than he had on the first Kahn practice test. So, given it was 8 in the morning and his first big test in a new venue, I would say the practice test is fairly accurate .

[Haiku]

That seems really odd. I always thought it was supposed to demonstrate college readiness.

 

You can't predict that with a test. The SAT and ACT have historically had low reliability and validity for their purported aims.

[Lanny]

My DD is just starting 10th grade, so we have no experience with the new SAT exams. However, what I read (I think it was on the CollegeBoard web site) is that there is official collaboration,  between College Board and KHAN Academy for the information that KHAN Academy has on their web site, about the new SAT exams.  If my DD were going to take the PSAT or SAT next week, I would strongly recommend that she limit herself to KHAN Academy, for preparation/practice.  In the future, other sites will have information available, but at the moment, KHAN Academy seems to be "the place" to go...  GL to your DD with her SAT!

[Arcadia]

Eta: I compared dd's scores more closely. She got 2 more math questions correct on the actual test than the practice and she missed 3 more on the R/W. So the khan scoring is fairly accurate.

My oldest didn't have as much time to spare for actual R/W compared to the practice test. He is my fast speed reader so my younger would really need to ramp up reading speed before trying SAT for baseline.

 

His math score was higher than R/W for both practice and actual. His score gap is wider between English and Mathematics in SAT than ACT.

[amsunshine]

It seems, based on our very limited sample of people here, that the Khan practice tests might overestimate one's actual composite score by 20-40 points. 

Edited July 21, 2016 by amsunshinetemp

[freesia]

It seems, based on our very limited sample of people here, that the Khan practice tests might overestimate one's actual composite score by 20-40 points.

Maybe. But the curve was particularly harsh for June, I've heard. You got a lower score for fewer wrong. Ds's best friend got a 790 in math and he only missed one. He'd been doing the practice tests and was scoring 650 on most of them, until the final--and I'm not sure what he scored on that, but I know he broke 700 finally. They curve it and that can't be completely worked into a practice test. My take away is that is about the same (so not wildly inaccurate either way). That gives me more confidence in Kahn and the provided tests.

[amsunshine]

I'm not sure the curve was harsher on the actual test.  My older dd missed 2 on the Khan Academy math practice test and Khan scored it as a 780, so that seems consistent with missing 1 for a 790.  What I meant was that the overall composite score might be off by 20-40 points (based on my not so scientific observation of what was reported here).  That still seems to be fairly close to the mark, in any case, so it speaks well for Khan.  On the other hand, I told my girls they definitely shouldn't get too over-confident based on the score of a single practice test.  When they take the test "for real" in high school, they will have to put in more time to prep.

[freesia]

Yes, and on the other hand, it's not so much harder that they get discouraged. Ds looked at the Barron's prep for AP Comp Sci and said he couldn't do any of it and didn't have any idea how to do it. Then he went on to get a 4 on the AP test the next week. Clearly, he did know his stuff. The difficulty of the prep material (which I've heard about w/ regard to Barron's) was off putting and anxiety increasing. And ds's friend's experience shows that repeat practice with analysis really does pay off.

[amsunshine]

Yes, and on the other hand, it's not so much harder that they get discouraged. Ds looked at the Barron's prep for AP Comp Sci and said he couldn't do any of it and didn't have any idea how to do it. Then he went on to get a 4 on the AP test the next week. Clearly, he did know his stuff. The difficulty of the prep material (which I've heard about w/ regard to Barron's) was off putting and anxiety increasing. And ds's friend's experience shows that repeat practice with analysis really does pay off.

 

Couldn't agree more!  Barrons does have a reputation for being harder than the actual tests.  Congrats to your DS on the AP Comp Sci!!

[Arcadia]

On the other hand, I told my girls they definitely shouldn't get too over-confident based on the score of a single practice test. When they take the test "for real" in high school, they will have to put in more time to prep.

I think that to OP's question of whether the Khan practice test can be use to estimate potential SAT scores is that the deviation isn't high.

 

However my older has always done better on the actual exam than on practice tests, which means for my kids we would use something else for prep when the score matters. Especially when the time needed for the R/W was so much lower on Khan. I need a test prep book that oldest would need almost the entire time allocated for R/W for him to finish to use as test prep.

[Cathrynlyn]

Is the new SAT taken on a computer or paper?

[amsunshine]

Paper.

[butterfly113]

Has anyone started using the Daily Practice SAT app?

Any feedback you can share?

Are the questions official questions, or is this more of the same as in what's offered on Khan Academy and their questions?

 

 

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice/daily-practice-app

[Arcadia]

Practice Test 6 Reading section has a question numbering bug when my kids try it. It said question 45 of 44 for example. They didn't do the rest of practice test 6 so won't know if there are other bugs.