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Shame on ETS for putting students through unnecessary stress by making them sit through another SAT test administration. If only the auditor had spoken up before the test (photo from "The Wall Street Journal")!

Shame on ETS! The Educational Testing Service (ETS), which administers the SAT for the College Board, is unnecessarily putting a whole lot of students through a painful process. According to “The Choice” blog of “The New York Times,” they’re making nearly 200 students retake the SAT. And why? Because at the Packer Collegiate Institute, a private school in Brooklyn Heights, 199 test-takers were not seated the required four feet apart during their SAT test administration. How far apart were they seated? We’re not sure of that. We only know that it was “less than the required four feet.”

This is all likely a response to the Long Island SAT cheating scandal. ETS is on high alert and the organization is taking action to prevent any future ethical missteps with regard to the all-important exam. And we understand that. The SAT is a measure by which college admissions counselors can compare applicants. It is extremely important in the highly selective college admissions process. But, according to the article in “The Choice” by Tanya Caldwell, there was an auditor from ETS present at the exam site. Why didn’t the auditor speak up before the SAT test administration?  Did he / she just feel the need to say something after? Why did the auditor waste all of these students’ time? It’s not their fault!

The fact is, from our understanding, the auditor could have prevented this entire SAT fiasco. These 199 students wouldn’t all have to study again and sit for another four hours. Their testing plans for the coming month wouldn’t all be in utter chaos. They could have avoided all of this unnecessary stress for so many students. The process is hard enough. This ETS auditor didn’t have to make it this much more stressful. Shame on ETS for putting students through this!

An article in “The New York Times” points out some interesting things about SAT Writing scoring. Did you know that computers can score essays on standardized tests such as the SAT as well as people can? Does that sound ridiculous to you? While it may sound ridiculous, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. In fact, according to “The New York Times” article on standardized test scoring, “Computer scoring produced ‘virtually identical levels of accuracy, with the software in some cases proving to be more reliable,’ according to a University of Akron news release.” Yes, you read that right: more reliable.

On the SAT Writing, don't start sentences with "and" or "but." The e-rater doesn't like that!

The e-Rater, the robo-reader developed by ETS, can in fact grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds. How incredible is that? Quite a bit faster than the average speed of a human being, wouldn’t you say? What’s funny is that what the e-Rater can’t do is measure whether or not the test-taker is writing the truth or not. For instance, if you write that the Civil War preceded the American Revolution, you’re not going to lose credit on the e-Rater’s scan. It seems the e-Rater is no Watson (in reference to IBM’s super computer that can answer questions like a human and even appeared on “Jeopardy”).

And what else? Well, the preceding sentence in this very paragraph would lose marks by the e-rater because the computer doesn’t like when you start a sentence with “and.” Or “or.” The e-rater also doesn’t like short sentences or fragments. What it does like are sentences that start with words like “however” or “moreover.” So, basically, the e-rater isn’t very creative (as you could guess). While English teachers may teach students to never start a sentence with the word “and,” doing so can often be quite powerful and effective. But don’t do it on the SAT Writing section. And don’t start a sentence with “but.” Or “and.” Ahh.

While you’re here, check out this post on SAT Score Choice.

In light of the Claremont McKenna admission stats scandal, “US News & World Report,” the publisher of the most important college rankings, has released a statement, as reported by Bob Morse. Writes Morse in his column on Claremont McKenna, “Regarding Claremont McKenna’s current rank, No. 9, as published in the 2012 Best Colleges rankings, U.S. News & World Report Editor and Chief Content Officer Brian Kelly said, ‘Our calculation shows that based on the data now being reported by Claremont McKenna as correct, Claremont McKenna College’s ranking will not change.’”

"US News & World Report" will not be changing Claremont McKenna's #9 rank in this year's "National Liberal Arts Colleges" ranking. What about the rankings for past years of misreported data? That answer is still unclear (photo from "Forbes").

So after all of that — after the vice president of admissions and financial aid violated the ethics of his post and discredited the school’s reputation, their ranking, as we understand it, would be no different than had he reported the true admission stats. “US News & World Report” has made a decision not to change Claremont McKenna’s rank of #9 in the category of “National Liberal Arts Colleges.”

It is our understanding that the rank wouldn’t change because the difference between the true and false data wasn’t significant enough to warrant a drop in rank, but it could be that “US News & World Report” has just decided “on an individual basis” not to change the school’s rank. From Mr. Morse’s article, we’re just not sure without doing the calculations ourselves.

Do you think Claremont McKenna should have been disqualified from the rankings? When it was discovered that the University of Michigan made recruiting violations with the Fab Five, they had to vacate Final Four appearances. Does that change your opinion on Claremont McKenna and the “US News & World Report” rankings?

There is new information to report on the Claremont McKenna admission scandal that we first reported on at the end of January of this year. An internal probe has determined that Richard Vos, the former vice president for admission and financial aid, acted alone in, as “The LA Times” puts it, “exaggerating freshmen SAT scores and other admissions statistics which boosted the school’s national rankings.” The internal investigation was conducted by the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers.

Richard Vos, former VP of admission and financial aid at Claremont McKenna, manipulated admissions data (photo from "USA Today").

Interestingly, the probe determined that not a single student record was adjusted by Vos over the years in which he was reporting incorrect admissions statistics. Rather, Vos did his data manipulation with a pencil and paper by fudging the numbers to achieve desired admissions statistics. And what was his motive? Vos contends that his actions were in response to quite a bit of pressure placed on him by Claremont McKenna’s president, Pamela Gann. The firm determined that the president, however, had no direct knowledge of the false reporting and did not instruct Vos to commit this violation of ethics.

According to “The LA Times” article on the Claremont McKenna admissions scandal, “In a statement released Tuesday, Harry McMahon, Claremont McKenna’s board of trustees chairman, said he deeply regretted the episode and that the school is taking steps to prevent any repetition. ‘Throughout its history, the College has been defined by its core values of honesty and responsible leadership. While these events do not reflect our values, our response does. Our President and her staff have addressed this matter promptly, thoroughly and with complete integrity,’ he said.”

What do you think about Vos’ actions? How do you think “US News & World Report” should penalize Claremont McKenna? Should CMC be left out of the rankings altogether? Let us know your thoughts on the Claremont McKenna admission scandal by posting below!

The Ivy Coach was quoted in “The Daily Pennsylvanian” yesterday in an article by Lois Lee about AP and IB programs. The article discusses the new AP pilot program, which is designed — at least in part — to close the divide between the AP and IB programs. As we’ve previously reported, between 15 to 18 high schools will pilot this AP program in the fall. The program includes an interdisciplinary seminar over the course of students’ junior year in addition to a research project and paper to be completed during students’ senior year.

The College Board is hoping to close the writing and research gap between high school and college with their new AP pilot program.

One of the central reasons that the College Board is piloting this new AP program to begin with is because of the disconnect between the current AP course curriculum in high school and students’ writing and research abilities when they enter college. Quite simply, students often struggle writing and researching dozens of 10-20 page papers during their first couple years of college. Few high schools require students to write and research 20 page papers. There often just isn’t time for this kind of assignment within the curriculum. But that could indeed change. And let’s not forget — it’s been a hallmark of the IB program for years!

We at The Ivy Coach believe that this AP pilot program is a step in the right direction. One thing we’ve come to learn over the many years we’ve been in business is that high school students often struggle to express themselves through writing. Let’s just say we’ve seen some awful first drafts of college essays! While high school students might be mastering tests, this is a good step towards preparing high school students more appropriately for what a college education is really like. In college, students have to write a whole lot of lengthy research papers. And the papers don’t write themselves. They require research so this is a skill that must be developed in high school, too!

Beginning in 2015, there will be a sociology as well as a psychology section on the new MCAT exam.

There will be a new MCAT exam that will feature sections on psychology and sociology. These changes will be implemented in 2015…so if you’re applying to medical school now, don’t think twice about them. In order to make room for these sections, a writing section will be removed from the test. This is all in an effort by the Association of American Medical Colleges to help make the medical school admissions process more holistic.

Remember when we wrote about how med schools were incorporating essentially speed-dating into the admissions process to gauge the social skills of applicants? This new MCAT exam seems to be to the same aim. But this means that med school applicants are now going to have to take psychology and sociology courses or at least learn the basic tenets of these disciplines. So it seems applying to medical school is getting tougher. It’s not like you have to learn the basic tenets of writing in order to complete a writing section. There are tricks you can pick up, yes. But, at the end of the day, writing is a practice that many applicants hone (or continue to do poorly) throughout their education.

Do you think these additional sections will deter aspiring doctors from applying to medical school? Do you think including these sections will help our country make better doctors more in touch with their patients? Let us know your thoughts on the new MCAT exam by posting below!

There was an article yesterday on “US News & World Report” in which we’re quoted that discusses the ruminations of some high schools to implement AP course limits. With AP course limits, these high schools believe, parents and students could “breath a sigh of relief” that they’re doing all they can to get into the best college possible. But these parents and students are missing the point and we’d like to explain why!

Just because your high school only offers a few AP courses, that doesn't mean you can't sit for additional AP exams!

Is it stressful to have to take a plethora of AP courses? Yes. Would it be easier for a junior to fill in her schedule with a public speaking or creative writing class (classes that aren’t part of the AP program)? Often times, yes. But since when is easier better for students? Just because it’s less stressful? Are high schoolers at high risk of heart attacks? What are we missing here? Don’t get us wrong, it’s not healthy to overwhelm students in their teenage years but we hardly see how taking a few extra AP courses is going to do serious damage.

The fact is that highly selective universities want students who want to learn. They want students who exhibit this intellectual curiosity. They want students who seek out the most challenging and rigorous academic curriculum…and excel in that curriculum. So if a student’s high school only offers a few AP courses, should that student just take those classes and say to themselves, “I did all I could with what my high school offered me?” No. Students can take AP exams in coursework not offered at their high schools! We’re not saying to take additional AP courses. (But that’s fine too!) We’re saying to sit for additional AP exams…ones that may require some study. Colleges just love that and it’s a good way to stand out on your college application!

There will likely be changes to the MCAT beginning in 2015 and these changes are relatively major. Gone will be the writing sample. A social science section will be added to the exam. And the verbal reasoning section will be overhauled. These changes, made in November, will soon be up for a vote of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges and, if approved, the changes will take effect in 2015.

There will likely be changes to the MCAT beginning in 2015.

According to “The State News” article on changes to the MCAT, “The current recommendations will add 115 minutes to the exam time, which typically takes about five and a half hours. ‘Medical science has changed quite dramatically (since 1991),’ he said. ‘We’ve seen significant developments in biochemistry and molecular biology…and the way in which those upper-level sciences are impacting medical practice.’ A concern with these new changes is whether or not schools will be able to adjust their curriculum in time to prepare students for the new version of the exam.”

Do you think the changes to the MCAT will help make the exam a better predictor of medical school success? Do you think the exam is a bad predictor of what makes a good doctor? Let us know your thoughts on the MCAT by posting below!

State legislators are beefing up security at SAT tests. It's about time!

SAT tests will have amped up security in the future, following the SAT cheating scandal in Great Neck, New York that led to the arrests of seven current and former Great Neck North High School students. Great Neck North, of note, is typically ranked near the top of the public high school rankings in the nation and regularly achieves multiple Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalists – a most prestigious accomplishment.

Bernie Kaplan, a nationally respected educator and the principal of Great Neck North High School, said ETS’ security measures during SAT testing just don’t suffice. According to Kaplan as reported by “Newsday,” “‘Make up a school, put any name you like and your picture on the card, sign that name and pick a mascot for good luck,’ said Kaplan, who noted the scheme did not involve SAT tests given at Great Neck district schools. ‘In fact, if you want to cover yourself, you don’t even have to go to the site you requested…You can go as a walk-in to any site that you desire using that made-up ID.’” He’s absolutely right.

State legislators are currently working on crafting new regulations that will make students considering cheating seriously reconsider. Do they really think they’ll get away with it? Is it really worth compromising your integrity? Not to mention your chances for college admission! Simply put, don’t cheat. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life.

You may know that there are some universities such as Bowdoin Colleges, Bates College, Smith College, and Pitzer College that are test optional universities. These universities do not require SAT or ACT scores to be submitted for admission. But these test optional colleges are saying one thing and doing another. Why’s that? Well, these very colleges buy names each admissions cycle from the College Board’s Student Search Service of students who score certain numbers on the SAT or ACT. When you start receiving mailings from colleges, it’s likely because they got your name through SAT or ACT testing.

Many test optional universities - in fact most - recruit students based on their SAT and ACT scores. Is this hypocrisy or what?

So colleges that allegedly find enough flaws with the SAT or ACT that they took public stances to distance themselves from the tests actually still very much rely on the exams. Privately of course. In fact, according to “Bloomberg News,” “Almost all schools that used the College Board’s Student Search Service — with a database of some 6.5 million student names — before going test optional continue to use it to recruit applicants.” An exception is the College of the Holy Cross.

So do you think this is a double standard? Do you think it doesn’t make sense that universities that dropped the SAT because they claimed the exam favored the wealthy and did not serve minorities use the scores to recruit students? Do you think they should end this process? Is this a PR nightmare for these schools? Let us know your thoughts on the subject by commenting below!

^{Lorin, Janet. “Bowdoin Says No Need for SAT While Buying College Board Scores.” Bloomberg News. 18 July 2011. Web. 19 July 2011.}