Yale Researchers’ New SAT Test Could Better Predict College Success
NEW HAVEN, Conn.
A revised college admissions test that measures creative and practical skills as well as memory and analytical ability has succeeded in its first round of testing with college students, according to the lead investigator at Yale University.
“We did better at predicting college success than the current SAT and high school grade point average, and we did better at reducing group differences,” says Dr. Robert Sternberg, professor of psychology at Yale and lead investigator of the study. “In times when affirmative action’s legal status is up in the air, the useful thing about our test is it can help accomplish the same goal as affirmative action without using affirmative action.”
Sternberg’s Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise (PACE) at Yale, a think tank within the Department of Psychology, is developing the test in a study known as the Rainbow Project. The study is funded by the College Board, the nonprofit group that sponsors the SAT.
