All of the complaints about testing become utterly irrelevant when weighed against the simple fact that the tests are so trivial than no literate person should have problems with them. The math required is nothing more than simple algebra and grade-school geometry, and the factual knowledge required is nil. Students are not expected to know the name of a single historical figure, state or country, star, planet, plant, or animal. The sociological reasoning of the study is interesting. Consider the following three quotes from The Reign of ETS .
Test scores themselves bear little significant relationship to lifetime earnings success.
It makes about as much sense as criticizing the test because it fails to predict height or hair color. People with high incomes, who come from affluent families, should tend to have higher test scores even if the scores do reflect nothing more than social class. Something is seriously wrong with the statistical methodology. It has a value of 1 for perfect correlation, zero for no correlation at all, and -1 for perfect negative correlation. The correlation coefficient between SAT scores and first-year college grades is 0.35.