Kim Smith-Stout
I would like to comment on the (sub)cultural aspect of the PSATs. The test segment was ‘analogies’. The question read something along the lines of ‘Crimson is to Harvard as [some colour that I cannot remember]is to…?’ The correct answer was ‘Yale’.(I may not have the colour correct — I still have no idea which colours go with which university.) In any case, I was absolutely shocked — exactly how did that question test anything other than cultural knowledge? There were other examples that I noted as I took the SAT, the ACT, and the GRE — but this is the example that stands out most clearly in my mind. I must point out that this example is a result of a test I took about 17 years ago, so it is possible that the framework of the testing has changed. However, if the framework has not changed, then I must agree that in some sections, the tests are definitely testing *cultural/subcultural* differences rather than basic abilities (and were clearly doing so at least 17 years ago).