Do Aspies Have Trouble with the SAT Test?

Post Reply New Topic

I don't know, this might be only a personal thing, but I'm trying to find out why I had this experience. I got very good grades in Junior High and High School, was in the top courses, and yet I was a disaster on the verbal PSAT test, or any related test. (The SAT test is used as a College Entrance Exam). Luckily, I became a ballet dancer so I didn't go to University; if I had wanted to, though, between the SAT test and the dreaded college interview, I imagine I wouldn't have had too many good choices.

The reason I am asking about Asperger's and the SAT is because I learned recently in a book I read that the SAT isn't really a good method of measuring verbal skills after all, but rather abstract thinking:

"One fourth of the questions asked in the 'verbal analogies' section have little or nothing to do with linguistic abilities per se. The questions are laid out in a gridlike matrix and require a kind of algebraic analysis of similarities between the meanings of fairly common words in word pairs.......What is being tested here is right brain spatial ability and not left brain language skills"

There was a recent thread where quite a few female Aspies wrote that they had trouble with higher mathematics (like algebra) due to the fact that this way of thinking is abstract rather than literal. I also had this problem with higher mathematics, and was curious if this may have been a reason for the SAT as not really reflecting my actual abilities- (normally, language and verbal skills was my forte in school; at least I thought it was).

I scored fairly high on the SAT test (1320), but not as high as would be expected based on my grades in high school and testing abilities elsewhere. I did much better on the ACT (36).

I think if you have a diagnosed disability, you can get extra time.

I averaged mostly A's throughout high school, but I only scored an 1130 on the SAT. I wasn't diagnosed with AS when I took it a year ago, and I did much better on the math (610) than the English (520). People who weren't very smart (C- grades I'm talking about) did over 100 points better on the test than I did, so I know the test is flawed.

i took the SAT reading and math a few years back. i got a 380 on the math and a 520 on the reading. I didnt even bother applying to college. Where i went to school, the accomodation request process was long and difficult and very few requests were granted, i didnt need extra time, i finished with plenty of time to spare. on the math portion i was at a disadvantage as my only calulator was on my cell phone, which gets confiscated at the beginning of the exam, wish i had known ahead of time, as borrowing a calculator was also prohibited.

from their site:

"Reasonable testing accommodations are provided for candidates with documented disabilities (recognized under the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]). The ADA mandates that test accommodations be individualized, meaning that no single type of test accommodation may be adequate or appropriate for all individuals with any given type of disability. . . "
http://www.ets.org/disabilities/accommodations/

but is aspergers a recognized disability?

Back in the days when I took the test, people weren't even diagnosed with AS. And what concerns me nowadays is that, with the difficulty in diagnosing girls, there could be a possibility that undiagnosed girls (or boys) on the spectrum might be discriminated against when applying for college. I assume that this test is just as important for getting into the college of your choice as it was when I took it?

I had a bad SAT score, despite being a good student (1st score: 1150, 2nd: 1050. Yeah. I did WORSE the 2nd time). Actually, I am typically bad at tests in general, unless they are essay form. I'm a "word geek", so those tests are the ones I where I do best. When it comes to math, I fail almost every time. I am one of those "female Aspies" the OP referred to. I HATE most math- except stat. I LOVE stat, but that's it. I was always the one in Algebra class asking, "Why?" to all the stupid, seemingly random, illogical rules. "Oh, you do this when this is the case, oh....except for this exception. And that exception." "Why?" "You just DO." "OH, OK." And all those stupid, random letters...ugh! It's a nightmare for me

My atrocious math score on the SAT almost entirely negated my extremely impressive verbal score So I ended up with an average score overall. I actually wouldn't have minded an average score, if I had done OK overall- but there is nothing worse than seeing an awesome score on one part....only to see an embarrassing score on the other. I think judging someone's intelligence on ONE test is silly.

I did fairly well, 1290, but not as well as my grades would've predicted. I'm another one of those word-geek female aspies, didn't like math much till I hit calculus my first year of college then I loved it...what the hell? And I took the SAT a long time ago, before AS was even recognized and few ppl were even diagnosed with ADHD (was referred to as minimal brain dysfunction back then, yeah, I'm kinda old, 40s).

~Kate

Me too! I always got A's on essay tests, while the other students dreaded them. I am generally terrible at multiple choice tests; I guess I just don't think "in the box". But if someone were to ask me why I chose a particular answer, I can always rationalize it.



Again, me too. I took the PSAT a long time ago; I had forgotten there was even math on it, I think I blanked it out (due to "math trauma" ).



Agreed.
Of course, back when I took the test, I was told: "If you do badly on the test, you can always make up for it by doing a great interview!". *sigh*

It's definitely not testing right brain spatial ability because I have a nonverbal learning disability (read: my spatial skills are terrible), but I found the analogies to be fairly easy. The math section I definitely had to study for, but I got a 780 on the SAT verbal when I was 14 with no preparation. If the analogy section was really measuring spatial ability, I would probably have gotten all of those questions wrong (I actually found the reading comprehension ones to be the most difficult). The analogies are likely measuring abstract rather than concrete verbal reasoning however, so if you are a concrete thinker, you would have trouble with them.

I see that you are in Germany. Do they have a German translation version of the SAT, or did you have to take it in English? Because if English is not your native language, that would put you at a big disadvantage.

I am an American currently living in Germany; I did go to High School in America, so yes, I did do the test in my native language. I took French and Latin in school, got straight A's in those subjects without studying, and then learned German while living abroad. In school, English was another one of my best subjects- (straight A's without studying). As I seem to be pretty decent in Language, I was just wondering if I had some other cognitive disability that put me at a disadvantage for that particular test.

In the US it sure as hell is, you betcha.

I did average on the ACT, but my counselor always thought I would do better on the SAT (I never got around to taking it) based on the way I thought.

And yes you can get accommodations. I have medical issues too, but I got extra time and got to test later in the day + over two days.

Only if that disability is of a nature that forces you to take more time than most people do to solve problems at which you are equally capable. Ex., dyslexia means you take longer to read the problems; dysgraphia means you take longer to write down your answers; etc.

If you do have such a disability, then yes--you can and should get accommodations for the SAT. They're quite strictly monitored; they won't let you have them if you would get an unfair advantage. The SAT is a very important test and they're rather paranoid about messing it up.