One complaint you often hear about standardized tests is that they’re racist or sexist. The complaint is usually framed this way:

The average score of group X is higher than the average score of group Y, so the test must be biased against group Y in favor of group X.

This argument is used to show that standardized tests are skewed in favor of men over women, or in favor of whites over blacks and latinos, or in favor of asians over whites, or in favor of northerners over southerners, or who knows what. (Here’s an example of the argument being applied to the “gender gap” on the SAT, from FairTest.org: http://www.fairtest.org/facts/genderbias.htm)

It’s certainly true that a standardized test can be racist or sexist by design. It’s also true that previous versions of the SAT, in particular, included racist and sexist test items.

But the major standardized tests have been changed many times in the past few decades, and no credible argument can be made that the tests are still racist or sexist in themselves . . .

full text: Discrimination in Standardized Tests

A student recently sent me an email that included the following:

Thanks again for your help. I took the LSAT twice (with a two-year stint in the Peace Corps somewhere in between). The first time I prepared with a Kaplan course. The second time I took a Testmasters course and used some Powerscore materials to prepare for the test. In the end, I thought Kaplan was a complete waste of time

 . . .

full text: Making a Thousand-Dollar Mistake

Today I had originally planned to do a post on guessing strategies for the LSAT to complement my earlier article on guessing strategies for the SAT. But an article that appeared on American.com on Friday has forced me to pre-empt that post . . .

full text: Keep The SAT

If you’re getting ready to take a standardized test and you’d like to blow off a little steam, you might want to take a look at fairtest.org.  This is a web site maintained by the National Center For Fair & Open Testing, which is a small group of activists on a mission to reform the standardized testing industry.

FairTest has one major thing in common with Grammatix: Both organizations would like to see sweeping changes made to the testing industry.  I commend them for that.  But I have to take issue with their methods . . .

full text: fairtest.org: I guess nostandards.org was taken?

Summer is here again, and for many students that means camp, jobs, off-season sports practices, volunteer projects—anything but a spare minute of idle time to be young and carefree.

In a lot of cases, it also mean it’s time to get ready for the SAT, LSAT, GMAT, or GRE.

When I first got into this field . . .

full text: Test Prep In The Summer

Sometimes people ask me if I have any plans to release a Strategy Guide for the MCAT.  The answer is always a resounding no.

Here’s my thinking on this . . .

full text: MCAT Prep? Not here.

If you’ve been looking at my web site for a while, you may be surprised to see that I’ve added a blog now.

I did this for two major reasons. First, it allows you to learn a little bit more about me, Grammatix, and my test-taking approach. This way, you can get some free testing advice in the white paper, look at the manifesto, and check out the . . .

full text: Why I have a blog now