New SAT 2005

Miwaukee Public Radio this morning alerted me to the fact that the SAT is changing, starting next month. (I haven't started prepping my 5 year-old for the SAT quite yet, so I'm out of the college boards loop.) The Verbal portion is being replaced by two sections: Writing, which will include an objective grammar test and an essay, and Critical Reading. The new "perfect score" will be 2400. I applaud the inclusion of grammar. In this era of testing and teaching to the test, the best way to make sure that schools include something in the curriculum is to put that topic on a standardized test. I have heard many law students bemoan the fact that they were not taught grammar but were now expected to know grammar.

I was shocked to learn, however, that analogies are no longer going to be on the SAT.

I bemoan this change for two reasons. First, I spent a great amount of my high school career studying analogies. They were on both the SAT and on the English Achievement Test, all of which now seem to be called "SAT II" tests. I would hate for many months of my life to be down the drain. Second, I actually think analogical reasoning is very useful, especially if one is continuing on to law school. Much of first-year law school is teaching students how to reason analogically. "Critical Reading" is obviously also important, but I remain mournful of the loss of analogies.

OK -- just to prove what a nerd I am (and what a long memory I have), here is the analogy that I argued with my English teacher about for half an hour in 1987:

Frosting : Cake

(a) Bedspread : Bed
(b) Lacquer : Table
(c) Don't remember
(d) Definitely don't remember

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