Education

SAT Scores and GPA Predictability

June 17, 2008 1 min read
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A major restructuring of the SAT expanded the test to four hours, in part because of the new writing section, which was intended to paint a truer picture of students’ readiness for college work.

A new study released by the College Board today has found that the revised SAT is a little more effective at predicting how well students will do in their college courses than the previous version, and that the writing-section results are the best predictor of later college performance. But the best alternative to a crystal ball—no test-prep needed to figure this one out—is a combination of SAT scores and high school grades.

So, just to make sure you were paying attention: A high SAT score and good high school grades are to a respectable college GPA as ??? (Oh, right. I was never very good at analogies. How about you?)

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.

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