The SAT is not a perfect test. There are all sorts of controversies surrounding it. Some critics argue that the test doesn’t actually test any true knowledge. Others argue about whether the test is predictive of future success or simply a gauge of past achievement. Still others believe the test contains gender, racial, or socioeconomic biases.

ETS, the company that writes the SAT, claims that the test gauges verbal, math, and critical-thinking skills, all of which are vital for success in college. Critics respond that the SAT emphasizes speed more than anything else, and actually penalizes students who try to understand the questions. Critics also claim that the verbal section places too much importance on simple vocabulary and does not significantly test a person’s ability to read, write, or formulate arguments. Other critics argue that the SAT tests only your ability to take the SAT—and nothing more.

None of these perspectives is entirely correct. We agree that the SAT’s emphasis on speed can hurt people who understand the material but who like to work problems out methodically. However, the emphasis on speed isn’t entirely unfair: the people who best understand math will be able to take advantage of the shortcuts that can be used to solve many of the SAT math questions. We also agree with the critics who argue that the SAT places too much emphasis on vocabulary in the verbal sections. For the most part, the SAT verbal section doesn’t test “verbal skills” much at all. The sentence completion and analogy sections, in particular, test vocabulary and critical-thinking skills. Still, there is some correlation between doing a lot of good reading and writing and receiving high scores on the verbal section.

As a final assessment, we would say that the SAT definitely has flaws. It’s emphasis on speed rather than understanding is both troubling and unnecessary. But there is some real relationship between students’ abilities in math and English and their scores in the math and verbal sections. The SAT is not just a sham.

ETS states that the SAT can predict how a student will perform in his or her first year of college. In fact, ETS’s claim is true: outside experts agree that SAT scores show an 18 percent correlation with freshman-year grades. Sadly for ETS, however, those same experts are quick to point out that many things (such as high-school grades, whether your family eats dinner together, your height) also have an 18 percent correlation to freshman-year grades. Further, these experts also remind us that college lasts for four years. Who cares about freshman-year grades? Nobody claims that the SAT predicts grades beyond freshman year. For these reasons, don’t think of the SAT as a predictive test: it isn’t an excellent predictor of the things it claims to predict, and what it claims to predict isn’t all that important.

Many people believe that the SAT measures your intelligence. This is absolutely untrue. The SAT doesn’t test intelligence any more than it can predict grades through all of college. In fact, the most predictive thing about the SAT is that anyone who mentions his or her scores after freshman year can safely be predicted to be a loser.

The SAT’s gender bias is well documented. Girls consistently score 40 points lower than guys on the SAT, even though girls’ high school and college grades are usually better in both math and English classes. Most experts, including the College Board, the institution that employs ETS to write the SAT, agree that the gender bias results from the SAT’s emphasis on speed and guessing rather than sustained reasoning. Girls just don’t seem to use the strategies that work best on this test. Of course, 40 points on the SAT will not keep someone out of college, especially since universities across the nation recognize that the gender bias exists.

The SAT’s socioeconomic bias, also well documented, is more prevalent and damaging than the gender bias. But the common understanding of the socioeconomic bias is incorrect. According to this misconception, the SAT favors the affluent because it asks questions using words or situations with which people of a certain background are more likely to be familiar. Though this might once have been the case, it is no longer true: ETS is extremely sensitive to such bias, in part because of the anger and antagonism that would arise if the tests were found to be unfair.

The actual socioeconomic bias of the SAT results from the simple fact that doing well on the SAT is largely affected by scholastic background. Students from better schools will generally score higher than students who attend schools that are overcrowded, understaffed, or otherwise under-equipped. And there is no question that students of higher socioeconomic status usually have access to better schools. Similarly, those students are more likely to have the time and money to spend on some sort of test preparation course, further skewing the results in their favor. Sadly, the socioeconomic bias seems to be more a fault of our society than of the test.

The racial bias of the SAT, though widely touted, actually seems to be the product of other biases rather than a factor unto itself. Minority SAT averages are generally lower because of the high correlation between socioeconomic status and race. Those scores are further lowered because the speed element of the SAT is unfavorable to non-native English speakers, most of whom belong to minority groups.

There are some signs that the SAT might be losing favor among universities across the nation. University admissions officers and other administrators have voiced a desire to lessen the importance of the SAT, or even to do without it altogether. However, while some university officials dislike the test, many more still see it as a helpful tool for comparing students across the nation. No matter what the long-term outcome of this debate, it is certain that at least for the next five years, the SAT will remain a fact of high school life. Unless you’re reading this book as a sixth grader, you’d better get prepared.

ETS and the major SAT test preparation companies are engaged in an endless debate. The test prep companies claim that the SAT can be coached: they say that they can teach you, or anyone, how to “psych out” the test and choose correct answers without even knowing the subject matter. ETS responds that the SAT is absolutely resistant to coaching; that the only way to improve your chances on the SAT is to take good math and English courses and read lots of books.

Neither side is being entirely honest, but the reasons underlying each group’s arguments are quite clear.

It is very important to ETS that people perceive the SAT as a completely objective test. If the test were not seen as objective, colleges would cease to use it, and ETS would lose the millions of dollars the SAT makes for them every year.

Test prep companies claim that the SAT is completely coachable, and that the SAT tests your ability to take the SAT rather than your math or verbal skills. However, this statement is untrue and self-serving. The test prep companies want you to think that the only way for you to do well on the SAT is to learn the “secret” test-taking techniques. The companies argue that the SAT doesn’t actually test any sort of real knowledge or skill because they want to be the only source for you to learn the “tricks” the companies profess to teach. As part of their efforts to attract students to their courses, test prep companies portray ETS as an evil entity and themselves as saviors who simply want to help you out. Keep in mind, however, that the test prep companies love the SAT (and every other standardized test). The SAT gets these companies their slice of the billion-dollar test prep industry. The test prep companies are as much a part of the SAT system as the SAT itself.

So if neither ETS nor the test prep companies are being entirely honest, what does that say about the SAT’s coachability? The test prep companies claim that you can become better at taking the SAT, and you can. There are strategic ways to think about every multiple-choice test that will help you work more quickly and get more answers right. In particular, there are ways to think about the SAT that can help you earn a higher score. At the same time, the SAT absolutely does test your knowledge of math, some reading and writing skills, and your general critical-thinking skills.

What you probably don’t realize is that it’s a good thing for you that the SAT tests real knowledge. A test that covers knowledge is a test for which you can study and prepare (without the costly aid of a test prep company). And because the SAT tests the knowledge it covers in standard, similar ways from test date to test date, you can prepare not only by acquiring the knowledge, but also by learning how the SAT normally tests that knowledge.