History of the SAT

To better understand the SAT, let's start with a small history lesson. During the First World War, the U.S. Army administered an IQ test named "Army Alpha" to test incoming recruits. In 1934, Harvard adapted this IQ test (later officially renamed the SAT) to select students for scholarships. James Bryant Conant, president of Harvard during the 1930s, argued that the test measured pure intelligence, regardless of taker's high school education. History of SAT Time-line.

News flash: Conant was wrong--the SAT does not measure your level of intelligence. It does not test your level of education. It does not even predict how well you will perform in college. Rather, the SAT tests how well you have prepared for--well, you guessed it--the SAT.

As a professional SAT tutor, I have worked with hundreds of students of all ability levels. Top scorers ace the SAT because they actively and aggressively prepare for the test. If you have taken more than 20 practice SAT tests – as I have – you will quickly realize that the test writers are extremely unoriginal. If you are willing to learn some useful strategies, change the way you take tests, and practice efficiently, you will improve your score.

Unfortunately, many students who prepare for the SAT go about it in the wrong way. The key - as we now know - is to practice. However, students who just complete practice problems often achieve only minimal point gains. Why? ETS, the company that writes the test questions, is adept at disguising simple concepts and overpowering passive test-takers. If a student can learn from each mistake and, more importantly, learn to avoid ETS' trickery, he/she will improve his score.