VOL. I · NO. 8605TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2026
The Daily Buffoon
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CULTURE ✒ EDITORIAL ABSURDITY:

The SAT has changed since it debuted 100 years ago – but questions remain about its relevance

Filed 47m ago · Via The Conversation · The Buffoon Desk
THIS STORY IS SCORED
Fox Tale Waltz Part 1 Instrumental
Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0
Photo: Mostafameraji · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The SAT turns 100 this year, having grown from 315 questions in 97 minutes to today's format, and having shed oddities like a section on artificial invented languages. Roughly 86% of colleges are now test-optional, a shift accelerated by the pandemic, though scholarship money can still hinge on scores.

Research remains split: some studies find the SAT a solid predictor of college success, others note wealthier students score far higher, are 13 times more likely to break 1300, and can afford the tutors and prep classes that help get them there.

High school GPA, some research suggests, predicts college success better than the exam that colleges have spent a century treating as gospel.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
A test that costs money to take and rewards the kids whose families can afford tutors isn't exactly a mystery why it correlates with income. Calling that a measure of merit is like judging a foot race by who got the better shoes. A hundred years is a long time to keep debating whether your yardstick actually measures anything.
Source: Read the original at The Conversation → Scored: Fox Tale Waltz Part 1 Instrumental · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0
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