SAT's matter

GREAT ARTICLE! Check this out...from the Orlando Sentennial
"Changes to the SAT college entrance exam -- chiefly the addition of a writing test in 2005 -- 'did not substantially change how predictive the test is of first-year college performance,' according to a report from the College Board released today. But the SAT is still the best test available, College Board officials said. The report 'reiterates the usefulness of the SAT as a national, fair benchmark at a time when grade inflation at high schools is a problem,' Laurence Bunin, the College Board senior vice president who serves as general manager of the SAT program. The report should be of interest to college admissions officers who were waiting for this sort of study to decide whether to use the writing section score in admissions decisions, College Board officials said. Some schools still only use the math and critical reading, formerly verbal, sections of the test to decide who to let in.
High school GPA is a slightly better predictor than the SAT score, but both numbers together are the best predictor, the report concludes. The College Board owns and operates the SAT and conducts periodic surveys to determine how well SAT scores predict college freshmen GPAs. This latest report is the first to include students who took the new writing test."