Without the SAT, incomparable grades gain greater determinative power. Critics propose to supplant the SAT with essays or portfolios of high-school work. These may be valuable, but they are hardly less susceptible to bias and subjectivity than the objective instrument they replace. This is a misleading term, as I shall discuss below. Critics do not have a good track record.
Males receive more awards than females, based on their testing performance during high school.
To gain the social goal of more female winners, a formula was introduced into the scoring. The Merit Scholars would be selected not by the scores on PSAT Verbal and Math components, but rather on a new measure, the Index score. The Index score results from doubling the Verbal raw score and adding to it the Math score. The reasoning was as follows. Males, in general, outscore females on the Math portion, and hence do better overall.