Author: FairTest

What Is the SAT? The SAT Reasoning Test is this nation’s oldest, most widely used — and misused — college entrance exam. The SAT is composed of three sections, “Critical Reading,” “Mathematics,” and “Writing,” each scored on a 200-800 point scale. The 171 questions are nearly all multiple-choice; the exam now includes one brief essay, […]

What is the ACT? More than a million high school students take the ACT (formerly known as the American College Testing Program Assessment) each year. Like the SAT, the ACT is a standardized multiple-choice test meant to predict first-year college grades. While the SAT predominates on the East and West Coasts, the ACT is more […]

What is the ACT? More than a million high school students take the ACT (formerly known as the American College Testing Program Assessment) each year. Like the SAT, the ACT is a standardized multiple-choice test meant to predict first-year college grades. While the SAT predominates on the East and West Coasts, the ACT is more […]

What is the GRE? The Graduate Record Exam (GRE), a three part multiple-choice computerized exam created by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), is administered to more than 350,000 students per year and used by approximately 60% of American graduate programs. Designed to predict success in graduate school, the exam is composed of a Quantitative, Verbal, […]

What is the GRE? The Graduate Record Exam (GRE), a three part multiple-choice computerized exam created by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), is administered to more than 350,000 students per year and used by approximately 60% of American graduate programs. Designed to predict success in graduate school, the exam is composed of a Quantitative, Verbal, […]

Note: A printable PDF of this page is located here. GMAT Basics: The Graduate Management Admissions Test is the standardized exam used by graduate business schools for admissions decisions. It is designed and produced by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and administered throughthe Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). The three-hour, computer-adaptive test is almost exclusively […]

Note: A printable PDF of this page is located here. GMAT Basics: The Graduate Management Admissions Test is the standardized exam used by graduate business schools for admissions decisions. It is designed and produced by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and administered throughthe Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). The three-hour, computer-adaptive test is almost exclusively […]

During the 1970s and ’80s, the pressure for students to attain high test scores on standardized, multiple-choice achievement tests spread to the primary grades. Tests such as the California Achievement Test (made by CTB/McGraw-Hill) or Metropolitan Achievement Test (Psychological Corporation), which are supposed to measure students’ skills in specific areas like math or reading, are […]

The main reason for testing and evaluating students must be to improve student learning. Each year, however, public school students in the U.S. must take millions of standardized tests which are more harmful than helpful and which do nothing to improve the equality of instruction or learning for students. Among the tests which are especially […]

America’s public schools administer more than 100 million standardized exams each year, including IQ, achievement, screening, and readiness tests. Much of the time and money devoted to testing is misspent. Too many tests are poorly constructed, unreliable, and unevenly administered. Multiple-choice questions cannot measure thinking skills, creativity, the ability to solve real problems, or the […]