SAT Question

[mom31257]

Ds took one of the paper practice tests available on the website, and he feels certain that one of the passages in the reading section was used on the actual test he took in December. 

Is that possible? I would think if it is then the questions would have to be different, but why would they do that? Doesn't that give students who look at those a distict advantage? 

Edited March 1, 2021 by mom31257

[Lucy the Valiant]

All of the current "practice tests" (except those numbered 1-4) are actual SAT's that have been released to the public. They will not be re-used as official SAT's and are excellent practice material.

[mom31257]

49 minutes ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

All of the current "practice tests" (except those numbered 1-4) are actual SAT's that have been released to the public. They will not be re-used as official SAT's and are excellent practice material.

This was from practice test #5. So I looked at the section a bit more. The passage is adapted from an essay written in 1837. He specifically remembers a section of the test referring to women as "woman" in the singular. Is it possible they used another section of the same essay? 

 

[freesia]

59 minutes ago, mom31257 said:

This was from practice test #5. So I looked at the section a bit more. The passage is adapted from an essay written in 1837. He specifically remembers a section of the test referring to women as "woman" in the singular. Is it possible they used another section of the same essay? 

 

I think that is very possible.

[Lucy the Valiant]

4 hours ago, freesia said:

I think that is very possible.

Agree. Test 5 is the first "real" SAT administered after the spring 2016 changes to the format of the test. (And their content has shifted a bit since those early tests, particularly in the math.) 

[Roadrunner]

1 minute ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

Agree. Test 5 is the first "real" SAT administered after the spring 2016 changes to the format of the test. (And their content has shifted a bit since those early tests, particularly in the math.) 

Could you tell me more about it? What has changed? 

[Lucy the Valiant]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

Could you tell me more about it? What has changed? 

Disclaimer; I'm not an expert, and I may very well be wrong / imagining the shift. I work with kids to prepare them for the SAT by having them take practice tests (authentic College Board tests), and then we go over the mistakes together, identifying how the student missed each problem. All notes and observations here are my own, and I think the shift from the "early" practice tests to the more recent ones is indeed slight, and probably wouldn't even be noticed by a strong math student (but may be a hiccup for a weaker / less confident student).

Tests 1-4 were "model" tests, never actually administered, but distributed by CB in advance of the 2016 changes. CB threw out tests 2 and 4 from that set, which is why their most recent "official" books have only 8 tests, not 10. 

I actually just flipped through Test 5-7 for this post and don't hate them as much as I thought I did. Each test does have its own scoring "conversion" so you can tell which tests are harder than others.

My list of possibly-imagined math changes since 2016: Less geometrical shapes / forms, more slope-intercept and system of equations (parabolas intersecting lines, etc., vs area of faces on a prism). Adding and subtracting of imaginary numbers, but no multiplication (complex conjugates). Occasional probability problems are actually just reading comprehension vs. any mathematical calculations. Actually, the math section as a whole became a LOT more language-dependent (IMO); this is harder for some and easier for others. 

Like I said, none of this is official, and I may very well be reading too much into certain question types.