The+Scholastic+Aptitude+Test-+1926

The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT's)
During World War I, an inovator of IQ testing by the name of Robert Yerkes convinced the army to let him administer his new IQ test to all incoming recruits. An assistant to Yerkes by the name of Carl Brigham used the test, formerly known as the Army Alpha test as an admissions test at Princeton, where he taught. In 1926 Brigham first expiremented with the test. Then, in 1933 the president of Harvard decided to give Henry Chauncey, an assistant dean at Harvard, the job of finding some form of evaluation for the new, middle class form of Harvard students. Chauncey met with Carl Brigham, and decided the SAT would be perfect. The president of Harvard believed that the test was a judge of pure intelligence, so he started it's use at Harvard. In 1938 the college board was convinced by Chauncey to use the SAT as a standard admissions test, but only for students applying for scholarships. In 942, the SAT was given to all students seeking admission.

What we believed before...
Before the SAT's were used commonly throughout the educational and academic world, there was not much standardized testing. Colleges and Universities used their own seperate forms of entrance tests, but in the long run, how you did in secondary school and affordibility were the main keypoints in getting into college. You either could go or you couldn't.

What we believe now...
At first, the SATs were used to give non-wealthy students a chance to prove their intelligence and to get into a college, but recently, many schools are looking past the SAT scores and are focusing on the academic and extra-curicular value of the students.

How do schools still act as if we have the "old" belief?
Schools give students more options of tests than just the SATs. Also, some schools have gotten rid of the nessecity to have good SAT scores all together.