SAT: Some Don’t Like the Cut of Its Jib

Whatever the debate on the merits of the SAT may be, it is hardly served by the inane Jan. 18 commentary by Pitzer College President Laura Trombley. Nothing could be more ludicrous than the SAT question example she offered and her twisted rationale for considering it biased.

A failure to understand that the correct answer to the question is “(B) cafeteria” has nothing whatever to do with where you live and everything to do with a knowledge of what the word “baleful” means. If you are educated enough to know that “baleful” means “gloomy, menacing, harmful,” then it is an easy question. If you don’t, then you don’t belong in college. In truth, the only bias in the SAT is that it militates against those who lack the level of education necessary to cope with it. If statistics indicate that white students score 206 points on average higher than nonwhites, that would seem to indicate that there are some serious problems with respect to the education we are providing to minority and, for the most part, low-income students rather than any intrinsic problem with the SAT.

Harold J. Sweet

La Habra

*

Bravo to Trombley for adding her voice to questioning the value of the SAT in college admissions. As a Bowdoin alumnus, I am particularly impressed that the college that started the movement away from the SAT has one more adherent.

I suppose everyone who has worked with youngsters preparing for the exam has a particularly egregious example of its lack of relevance and bias. Mine came when I was reading a test item to an inner-city special education student that required knowing the difference between a topsail and a jib. At that time I was also struck by how badly written the reading comprehension examples were. They seemed more to test one’s ability to stay awake than to get some meaning out of the passage.

Ettore Piraino

Claremont