document_title: Lucifer (DC Comics)

question_text: in the show lucifer who is his father

question_tokens: in the show lucifer who is his father

text: Lucifer (DC Comics)

text: Fictional character biography[edit]

text: The Sandman continuity[edit]

text: In the earlier related series The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman, Lucifer abandoned his lordship over Hell. While Lucifer had previously appeared in various stereotypical guises in earlier DC books, Gaiman's version was premised on English poet and prose writer John Milton's Paradise Lost.[citation needed] At Gaiman's request of the artist, Lucifer looks like David Bowie at the time.[4] In the Sandman series, Lucifer had ruled as Lord of Hell for 10 billion years after rebelling three seconds after Creation. Over that time, he had manipulated the various demons of Hell against each other, provided a place for dead mortals to be tormented, and led the war against Heaven.

text: However, at some point during his rule, he had become bored with his existence. He became tired of the various stereotypes and prejudices that mortals held of the devil, such as the idea that he purchased and traded for souls, which was largely untrue, and that he forced mortals to commit evil acts. He had become tired of his reign over Hell, and felt it an unfair punishment that he should have to rule there forever simply because he once rebelled. In the Sandman story "Season of Mists", Lucifer expels all demons and damned souls from Hell before closing Hell's gates and handing over the key to Hell to Dream of the Endless, the title character of the Sandman series. Eventually, control of Hell was handed over to two angels, Duma (the angel of silence) and Remiel ("set over those who rise"), while Lucifer simply retired to Earth, initially to Perth, Western Australia[5] and later to Los Angeles, California.[6]

text: By the end of the series, however, it is revealed that Hell was not a punishment, but a gift: being the furthest possible place from the throne of light, Lucifer could be separated from God as far as possible. Lucifer never created the physical features of Hell—Hell created itself around him.

text: Solo series[edit]

text: Lucifer was the main character in an eponymous series that ran for 75 issues and the Lucifer: Nirvana one-shot, from June 2000 to August 2006, the entire run of which was written by Mike Carey (this series was preceded by Carey's work in 1999, The Sandman Presents: Lucifer mini-series). To Carey, the essence of the character was:

text: We play safe. Most of us do, most of the time...but Lucifer doesn't know the meaning of safe, and he never bothers to look down at the tramlines. He goes wherever the hell he likes, picks his fights where he finds them and generally wins...following [his] own will and [his] own instincts to the very end of the line, no matter what the obstacles are star.[7]

text: In the series, Lucifer runs a piano bar (an element introduced in the Sandman story "The Kindly Ones") called "Lux" in Los Angeles, with the assistance of his mistress, Mazikeen who is a Lilim, one of the race descended from Lilith. Lucifer is portrayed as a sophisticated and charming man, in accordance with the stereotypical gentleman-devil.[1]

text: The theme of the Lucifer series revolves around the free will problem. Carey's Lucifer is a figure representing will and individual willpower, who challenges the "tyranny of predestination". While in Heaven's eyes this is blasphemy, Lucifer points out that the rebellion (and indeed all sin) and damnation as consequence were pre-planned by his Creator, God. Lucifer rejects God's rule and moral philosophy as tyrannical and unjust. The violent, aggressive, totalitarian, vengeful, and dictatorial aspects of Heaven's rule are represented mostly by the Angel, Amenadiel, who has a particular hatred of Lucifer and leads attacks of various kinds against him. The attacks include verbal criticism, marshaling the host of Heaven, as well as challenging him to individual combat—almost all of it without the slightest care for the countless innocent, unwilling and unwitting victims he is more than willing to sacrifice for his own pride. For his part, Lucifer disdains Amenadiel, treating the latter's emotional outbursts with contempt, and repeatedly defeats Amenadiel's assaults with well-orchestrated, hidden plans. Ironically, however, it is often difficult to discern when Lucifer acts as a slave to predestination and when he effectively acts according to his own free will.

text: Elaborate codes of conduct and schemes of entrapment based on these codes are vital elements of the DC/Vertigo magical universe. Lucifer appears as a master of these arts. In an encounter during the first Sandman story arc (around issue #5) a weakened Dream outsmarts Lucifer. Lucifer first swears revenge on Dream, but later comes to accept Dream's critique of his role and project as Lord of Hell. This inspires Lucifer's abdication, a vital element of the Sandman saga, and the point of departure for the Lucifer series.[1]

text: For Lucifer, his word is his bond. As David Easterman, a character who sees himself as a victim of Lucifer, puts it:

text: When the Devil wants you to do something, he doesn't lie at all. He tells you the exact, literal truth. And he lets you find your own way to Hell.[8]

text: Despite his theological title as the "Lord of Lies", the refusal to lie is central to the moral position of the character -he sees himself as a neutral or amoral facilitator of forces within individuals, and Lucifer actively and effectively combats what he regards as corrupting moral codes. While he avoids lying, his morality seldom extends to compassion, and Lucifer regards the sacrifice of millions of souls as unimportant collateral damage; there are few, if any, beings he respects and even fewer for whom he cares.

text: As the series opened in 2000, Lucifer's "restful" retirement was disturbed by a series of associates from his past. After various catalytic events, he endeavored to create a universe in competition with (and presumably against the wishes of) his father, Yahweh. This puts him on a collision course with several powerful mystical entities that have a vested interest in the new creation and draws the angelic host into the fray -including his brother, the archangel Michael Demiurgos, and his niece, Elaine Belloc.

text: The series paralleled The Sandman in several ways, with epic fantasy stories being told in arcs separated by one-shot episodes depicting a smaller, more personal tale. Unlike The Sandman, the series has had a consistent art team in Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly, with most of the odd issues illustrated by Dean Ormston. The title's 50th issue was penciled by P. Craig Russell, a homage to The Sandman #50. Structurally, the series mostly follows its own path. Numerous gods appear, with greater focus on Judeo-Christian religion (as viewed by Milton in Paradise Lost), Japanese, and Nordic mythology than in Sandman. As for the Endless themselves, Dream, Death, Delirium, and Destiny appear, but their appearances are small and rare. Destiny, perhaps, plays the biggest role in so far as he represents predestination, which Lucifer of course finds "offensive as a concept," stating that Lucifer knows Destiny is "really just a SIDE effect of [Lucifer's] FATHER, or rather, his deterministic APPROACH to the act of creation."

text: Cover artists included Duncan Fegredo, Christopher Moeller, and Mike Kaluta. The letters are inconsistent, with the first half of the series carrying particularly established fonts of Gaudium, Michael, and God, only to drop almost all of them, save Lucifer's, towards the end with numerous changes in the letterers.

text: The series ended in June 2006 with issue #75 and has thus far been collected in eleven books, with a stand-alone story (Lucifer: Nirvana) published as a smaller graphic novel. The series' parent title, The Sandman, also ran for 75 issues.

text: When Lucifer ventures outside Creation, he sees something resembling the comics pages themselves. In the end of the Lucifer story arc, God and the devil are no longer part of the universe, and a former human (Elaine Belloc) is instead presiding over it. New concepts for Heaven and Hell are created, inspired and influenced by other human or superhuman characters in the story. The new situation is described on several occasions by the fallen cherubs Gaudium and Spera. In essence, it is "growing up", i.e., the need to find one's own truth and values without being directed by parents, elders, teachers, authority figures, etc.

text: Lucifer himself, his whole identity having been forged by that same motive, scoffs at his Father's final offer: to merge their beings (described by God as a potlatch) so that they can finally understand one another's perspective. As this would be the final expression of God's will (even when delivered from "outside the plan", as he puts it), Lucifer finds the ultimate expression of his own defiant will by refusing the bargain and travelling beyond his Father's influence, into the undefined void.

text: The New 52[edit]

text: The New 52 reinterpretation of Lucifer is much more influenced by traditional Christian theology. He is depicted as a malevolent, sadistic, and cunning fallen angel who is the ruler of Hell and seeks to possess human souls. He is held with great respect and fear by the denizens of Hell, who serve and obey him like a king. Lucifer himself however is mostly bored with his existence when the group known as the Demon Knights are captured by him during the early Middle Ages, and passes the time by finding small amusements, such as watching the struggles and falls of Etrigan the Demon.

text: Lucifer made a more physical appearance in I...Vampire #19 after being tipped by John Constantine in destroying Cain. Lucifer immediately sentences Cain and drags him to Hell. Though a being claiming to be him has appeared in the Modern Age of DC to the superhero Deadman, the current whereabouts and status of Lucifer remain unknown.

text: Volume 2 (2015–)[edit]

text: As this series begins, God is dead, and Gabriel has accused Lucifer of His murder. Lucifer had motive and opportunity but claims he can prove his innocence. If Gabriel finds the killer and takes the culprit into custody, his sins will be forgotten, and he will be welcomed back into Silver City. Despite the fact that Lucifer has just opened a nightclub on Earth and is hiding a mysterious wound, the two brothers set off to solve their Father’s murder.

text: Powers and abilities[edit]

text: Lucifer is continuously described as a celestial being of incalculable power due to his dominion over the very substance and knowledge of the formation of Creation. He has been cited as one of the most powerful characters not only in the DC Multiverse, but also in fiction. He is one of a few characters (the others being infinite-dimensional beings like Cosmic Armor Superman, Pralaya, Swamp Thing, the Monitors, Mandrakk the Dark Monitor, his brother Michael Demiurgos, the Presence, the Great Evil Beast and the Source) to be capable of fully comprehending the Primal Monitor/Monitor-Mind the Overvoid, better known as the canvas paper of the DC franchise, which views the entirety of the franchise as meaningless fiction. Through this understanding, Lucifer can shape the matter and foundation of Creation into anything he can imagine, including matter, energy, and more abstract concepts such as time.[9] However, he does have certain limitations as he is still a creation of God; chiefly, he cannot create something out of nothing, unlike his Creator or brother. In some ways, this makes him the most disadvantaged, though not the weakest, of the higher angelic host. He needs existing matter (and where that is unavailable, the Demiurgic power of the Archangel Michael or that of God Himself) to provide the foundation for him to shape. Only his brother, the Archangel Michael Demiurgos, is his equal in power, and only God, his Creator and Father, is his superior. However, in certain dimensions for reasons unknown, he is powerless and his mobility is limited without his wings. He may choose to temporarily abandon his powers, including his immortality. In the story titled "Lilith", it is logically implied that God could destroy him at His own whim, which makes Lucifer sometimes wonder why He has not dealt with him already. He is so dangerous and unpredictable that even Death does not apply to him.

text: He is never without the formidable resources of his brilliant, nigh-omniscient intellect and his unbending will or inner strength, which allowed him to defy and confront his Father as well as many other formidable opponents without fear or doubt. Although Lucifer's overt exercise of power is limited in the books, if he is provoked to violence, his preference seems to be to use fire and light as a weapon. His original role was as "God's lamplighter", in which he used his will to condense clouds of hydrogen into star-masses and set them alight. As terrifying as they are brief, battles with Lucifer usually begin and end with him drawing down the flames of a super-heated main sequence star and incinerating to ash anything in the immediate area. However, the true reasons why he favors light and fire are partially explained in the story "Lilith" (from The Wolf Beneath the Tree).

text: Beyond his demigodly powers as an archangel, Lucifer possesses the common powers appropriate to an archangel of his position; incalculable physical strength, invulnerability, flight, acidic blood (or, rather, he bleeds willpower, as depicted in when he reaches Yggdrasil in The Wolf Beneath the Tree), a devastating sonic cry, telepathy, and the power to speak to and understand animals. As an archangel, his powers are significantly superior to other angels and puts him well above such superpowered beings as Superman or the Spectre. This puts him even over the mighty Cosmic Armor Superman, an infinite-dimensional literal plot device designed to stop Mandrakk/Monitor Dax Novu, who was capable of destroying the DC Multiverse with his ever-increasing power that was so potent it was extending into the realms of other fictional multiverses.

text: In the New 52 reboot, Lucifer is shown to possess power over the human soul itself. However, he has no power over animal souls. He can open and close magical portals to Earth from Hell and back again. He can use this power to either summon or banish demons, as he does with Etrigan. He is clairvoyant, possessing a heightened perception or knowledge of time, even to the extent of being able to know the future.

text: Other versions[edit]

text:
The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe lists Lucifer as first having appeared in a dream in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #65 (1962).[10] He appears when Jimmy Olsen attempts to memorize a devil's food cake recipe with his alleged photographic memory and dreams that he is in France 300 years in the past. Putting on the clothing of a bandit who has ditched them, Jimmy is arrested and sent to rot in the Devil's Island penal colony. A bald man known as Lord L offers five years of freedom for people to escape in exchange for their souls. Convinced that the magic the man uses is technological in nature, assuming him to be an ancestor of Lex Luthor, he asks to be returned to from where he came, believing Lord L will be long dead by then and unable to claim him. Lord L shows up at his front door, still bald but now with a goatee, and insists that he is Lucifer and has given him over 300 years extra, but will dine with him before taking him, but disappears when Jimmy serves him cake. Superman wakes Jimmy soon after and reveals that the card he memorized was really for angel food cake, and this is why Lucifer disappeared.
In Weird Mystery Tales #4 (Jan–Feb 1973), a story by Jack Oleck and Ruben Yandoc depicts Lucifer, looking much like his present incarnation, save for a few panels in which he appeared as a more traditional devil, held prisoner by an order of monks. It also presents a prisoner switch trick not unlike the one performed in The Sandman: Season of Mists, in addition to being hosted by Destiny, another character later used by Gaiman. In the story, Lucifer gave Philip Burton his form in order to trade places with him and fulfill his wish for immortality. Lucifer walked away in the body of the elderly Burton.
A character called Lucifer, the Fallen Angel appears in Blue Devil #31 (the final issue). He has angelic wings and a halo, and his face includes dark facial hair. He does not have horns. Madame Xanadu recognizes that even with a magic book, he is not the real Lucifer. He is simply a washed-up actor who decides to be a costumed criminal for a living. He is dragged into Hell on a train at the end of the issue.
The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe lists Lucifer's first genuine pre-Crisis appearance as DC Special Series #8.[10] This character has hair and wings like Lucifer as he appears in Sandman #4, but he is red-skinned and has a face like a traditional devil, complete with goatee, though his horns may be part of a headband. His appearance in the comic is brief, but he is specifically referred to as "Lucifer," rather than by other epithets. He has an advisory board consisting of Guy Fawkes, Benedict Arnold, Adolf Hitler, Jack the Ripper, Nero and Bluebeard. He has an operative, Edward Dirkes, set bombs, while using a bronze Batman statue transported by the Easy Company like a voodoo doll.
Writer Garth Ennis introduced a character intended to be the devil as an antagonist in his run on the Hellblazer comic, however, as the character appeared at the same time as Gaiman's reuse of the Lucifer character, Ennis had to introduce a new back story for his character to distinguish the two. The Hellblazer character was named the First of the Fallen and was ruler of Hell prior to and after Lucifer's reign. How this fits in with the reigns of the angels and Christopher Rudd has not been clarified, although the First of the Fallen mentions Duma and Remiel ruling Hell during Ennis' run. In the Hellblazer film adaption, Constantine, however, Lucifer, portrayed by Peter Stormare, is an antagonist.
Satan has appeared as a distinct figure in numerous DC Comics.[11]
In one of Vertigo's Fables spinoffs, Jack of Fables, the title character made various (unwise) pacts with several devils. One of them is heavily inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost.

text: In other media[edit]

text: Film[edit]

text: Lucifer appeared in the 2005 film Constantine portrayed by Peter Stormare. This version of Lucifer wears a pure white suit and has tattoos visible at the sleeves and neckline, implying a full body design, while constantly dripping a black oil from his feet that leaves footprints. John Constantine summons him by slitting his wrists, suicide being a sin, in order to convince Lucifer to stop the Archangel Gabriel and Lucifer's own son Mammon from bringing humanity to its knees with the Spear of Destiny. Lucifer appears, stopping time in the process. Lucifer admonishes Constantine's amateurish suicide attempt by noting how the exorcist can no longer move his fingers properly from cutting too deep. Constantine asserts that Mammon is trying to usurp Lucifer's revenge against God for Mammon's own glory, which finally brings Lucifer's attention to the angel Gabriel. Lucifer reestablishes time, quickly grabbing the woman Mammon possessed, Angela Dodson, and confronting Gabriel. Though Gabriel tries to smite Lucifer with God's power, the demon remains unaffected as God has abandoned Gabriel, allowing Lucifer to both banish Mammon back to Hell and destroy Gabriel's wings. After this, Lucifer returns to Constantine, who had offered his own soul in exchange for Isabel's (Angela's sister who had committed suicide) so that she could be released to Heaven. Seeing it as fair, Lucifer grabs Constantine, but God declares it a selfless sacrifice. Constantine, dying from the slit wrists and suffering from lung cancer, is slowly drawn into a heavenly column of golden light. Furious at his revenge being denied yet again, Lucifer resurrects Constantine by reaching into his chest and pulling the cancer out, thereby giving Constantine the chance to prove his soul belongs in Hell after all.

text: Television[edit]

text:
DC and Fox have developed a TV series based on the Sandman character Lucifer.[12] In February 2015, Fox ordered the pilot.[13] According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will focus on Lucifer, "who is bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell and resigns his throne and abandons his kingdom for the beauty of Los Angeles, where he gets his kicks helping the LAPD punish criminals."[14] Californication creator Tom Kapinos penned the script, and served as executive producer for the pilot; Len Wiseman directed. Jerry Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman also served as executive producers. Jerry Bruckheimer Television's KristAnne Reed was on board as a co-executive producer. It was announced that Tom Ellis would portray the main character in the series.[15][16] In March 2015, Lauren German was cast as the female lead on the series, described as an LAPD homicide detective who is "repulsed and fascinated" by Lucifer as they work together to solve a murder.[17] Fox officially picked up the series on May 8[18] and premiered the series on Monday January 25, 2016.
In Smallville, Lucifer was one of the aliases used by Darkseid through history.[19] Darkseid is also shown to corrupt people using the Seven Deadly Sins (associated with Lucifer/Satan and the demons of Hell)[20] Darkseid's minions offered the faithful worshipers Rapture from the oncoming apocalypse as opposed to salvation (as the Book of Revelation promises to the worshipers of God). However, a savior from the heavens, referred to as the light, defeated the demonic being and drove back the darkness, stopping the rapture and preventing the end of the world.[19]

text: Collected editions[edit]

text: Paperback[edit]

text: Lucifer, including the Sandman Presents mini-series and the Lucifer: Nirvana one-shot, has been collected together into eleven trade paperbacks:

text:
#
Title
Publisher
Year
ISBN
Reprints

1
Devil in the Gateway
Vertigo
2001
ISBN 1840232994

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

The Sandman Presents: Lucifer #1–3
Lucifer #1–4

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Scott Hampton
Chris Weston
James Hodgkins
Warren Pleece
Dean Ormston

2
Children and Monsters
Vertigo
2001
ISBN 1840233915

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #5–13

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
Dean Ormston

3
A Dalliance with the Damned
Vertigo
2002
ISBN 1840234709

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #14–20

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
Dean Ormston

4
The Divine Comedy
Vertigo
2003
ISBN 1840236930

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #21–28

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
Dean Ormston

5
Inferno
Vertigo
2004
ISBN 1401202101

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #29–35

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
Dean Ormston
Craig Hamilton

6
Mansions of the Silence
Vertigo
2004
ISBN 1401202497

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #36–41

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
Dean Ormston
David Hahn

7
Exodus
Vertigo
2005
ISBN 1401204910

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #42–44 & #46–49

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly

8
The Wolf Beneath the Tree
Vertigo
2005
ISBN 140120502X

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #45 & #50–54

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
P. Craig Russell
Ted Naifeh

#50 "Lilith" is an extended 40-page story

9
Crux
Vertigo
2006
ISBN 1401210058

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #55–61

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
Marc Hempel
Ronald Wimberly

10
Morningstar
Vertigo
2006
ISBN 1401210066

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #62–69

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
Colleen Doran
Michael Wm. Kaluta

11
Evensong
Vertigo
2007
ISBN 140121200X

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #70–75
the Lucifer: Nirvana 48-page one-shot

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Mike Carey

Penciller(s)

Peter Gross
Ryan Kelly
John J. Muth
Zander Cannon
Dean Ormston
Aaron Alexovich

Series ends here.

text: Note: The full title of all volumes listed here start with "Lucifer: ".

text: Reprint editions[edit]

text:
#
Title
ISBN
Release date
Collected material

1
Lucifer: Book One
9781401240264
29 May 2013
The Sandman Presents: Lucifer #1-3 and Lucifer #1-13[21]

2
Lucifer: Book Two
9781401242602
15 October 2013
Lucifer #14-28 and Lucifer: Nirvana one-shot[22]

3
Lucifer: Book Three
9781401246044
18 March 2014
Lucifer #29-45[23]

4
Lucifer: Book Four
9781401246051
20 August 2014
Lucifer #46-61[24]

5
Lucifer: Book Five
9781401249458
24 December 2014
Lucifer #62-75[25]

text: Volume 2[edit]

text:
#
Title
Publisher
Year
ISBN
Reprints

1
Cold Heaven
Vertigo
August 23, 2016
ISBN 978-1-4012-6193-1

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #1–6

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Holly Black

Penciller(s)

Lee Garbett
Stephanie Hans

Inker(s)

Lee Garbett
Stephanie Hans

Colorist(s)

Antonio Fabela
Stephanie Hans

2
Father Lucifer
Vertigo
March 7, 2017
ISBN 978-1-4012-6541-0

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #7–12

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)
Holly Black

Penciller(s)

Lee Garbett

Inker(s)

Lee Garbett

Colorist(s)

Antonio Fabela
Veronica Gandini

3
Blood in the Streets
Vertigo
October 31, 2017
ISBN 978-1-4012-7139-8

Collects [show]

The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:

Lucifer #13–19

 Credits and full notes [show]

Writer(s)

Richard Kadrey


document_title: Police Academy (film)

question_text: what does mahoney teach hightower to do in the movie 'policy academy'

question_tokens: what does mahoney teach hightower to do in the movie ' policy academy '

root

text: Police Academy (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Due to a shortage of police officers, the newly elected mayor of an unnamed American city has announced a policy requiring the police department to accept all willing recruits, effectively abolishing fitness requirements, educational levels, and medical standards. Not everyone in the police force is happy about the new changes.

tag: p

text: Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg) is an easy-going man who has repeatedly gotten himself in trouble with the law when standing up to arrogant people. Mahoney is forced to join the police force as an alternative to jail, a proposal by Captain Reed who has been lenient on Mahoney because of knowing his father, who was also a policeman. Mahoney reluctantly agrees to this, deciding that he will get himself thrown out as a loophole. However, the chief of police, Henry Hurst (George R. Robertson), outraged by the Mayor's lowered requirements, decides that the new cadets should be forced to quit rather than being thrown out.

text: Lieutenant Thaddeus Harris (G.W. Bailey), who trains the cadets, agrees with the plan and employs tactics to make their lives as miserable as possible so that they do in fact quit. However, Commandant Eric Lassard (George Gaynes) is the only one who does not agree with both Harris and Hurst's schemes. He wants to give the new cadets a chance. Harris is also implied to be seeking Lassard's place as the leader of the academy. Harris asks for the help of two cadets he takes a liking to, Copeland (Scott Thomson) and Blankes (Brant von Hoffman), to inform him of any improper conduct done by the other cadets. Harris appoints them as squad leaders to help him force these cadets to quit.

text: Mahoney tries several schemes to get thrown out but eventually he has a change of heart and decides to stay for good, having fallen in love with another cadet, Karen Thompson (Kim Cattrall). While in the academy, Mahoney becomes friends with fellow cadets Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow) a human beatbox and sound effects man who was arrested with Mahoney before they came to the academy (Mahoney pulled some strings with Reed to let Jones go with Mahoney to attend the academy); George Martin (Andrew Rubin), a ladies man; Eugene Tackleberry (David Graf), a gun-obsessed adrenaline junkie who was an ex-security guard and was a military veteran; Leslie Barbara (Donovan Scott), an overweight cowardly man; and Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith), a giant of a man with incredible strength.

text: At Lt. Harris' request, Blankes and Copeland try to learn where a weekend party, organized by Mahoney, is going to be held, to investigate it for any cadet unlawful behavior. Wary that they're using an intimidated Barbara to force him to reveal where the party is, Mahoney tricks Blankes and Copeland into attending a party at the Blue Oyster gay bar where the horrified men are intimidated into dancing the whole night. Mahoney's party turns out to be relatively sedate.

text: At night, Martin tries to sneak into the women's bunk for some fun, as he always does, but is caught by Sgt. Callahan. He is pulled into a room by Callahan and she throws him on the bed, pounces on him and they have sex. The next day, after a voice training exercise, Martin confides to Mahoney that he had fallen in love with Sgt. Callahan and that he speaks with a fake Spanish accent in order to get girls.

text: Mahoney helps Hightower prepare for a critical driving test. They go for a practice drive the night before the exam by stealing cadet Copeland's car. They are chased by the police for crashing into another car and speeding, but Hightower manages to escape and in the process greatly sharpens his driving skills. After he passes the driving test, Hightower is very thankful to Mahoney. Unfortunately, immediately afterwards, when Copeland racially insults fellow cadet Laverne Hooks (Marion Ramsey) for accidentally running over his feet during her driving test, Hightower is offended and lifts and overturns the police car in which Copeland is seated, despite Harris' demands and Hooks' pleas for him to stop. This leads Harris to promptly eject Hightower from the academy, much to Mahoney and many of the other cadets' dismay.

text: Shortly after this, Mahoney and Barbara are having lunch in the cafeteria and talking about Hightower's expulsion. Mahoney is finally fed up with the academy, but refuses to quit. Blankes and Copeland attempt to get Mahoney to fight them so they can give Harris a reason to expel him, but Mahoney resists. Having enough of their misconduct towards Mahoney, Barbara stands up for him and shocks everyone by throwing the first punch, hitting Copeland with a lunch tray. After watching Copeland faint, an offended Blankes punches Barbara back for foiling them, which promptly gets Mahoney involved in a brawl with him. After the fight, when Lt. Harris asks them who started the fight, Blankes originally told him that Barbara started it by hitting Copeland with a lunch tray. While cleaning his baton, Lt. Harris nonchalantly decides to expel the latter along with his dog. Soon Mahoney convinces Blankes to let him take the blame for throwing the first punch to protect Barbara, which finally gives Harris the green light to expel his most despised cadet.

text: Before Mahoney actually leaves the premises, however, a major riot breaks out downtown, inadvertently caused by cadet Fackler who always attracts accidents to others around him. Mahoney decides to join the academy students in the mission to pacify it. The resulting police emergency forces the cadets into real action for the first time, and they are accidentally transported to the very epicenter of the rioting instead of the planned peripheral area (due to Lassard giving the wrong location). During the riot, one criminal manages to steal two police revolvers from Blankes and Copeland. The two run to hide from the criminals but, to their horror, end up at the Blue Oyster bar again. Barbara manages to avoid the rioters, but finds himself confronted by the same men who bullied him when he was working at a picture developing booth, who are now apparently stealing some furniture. Despite their attempts to bully him again, Barbara gives them a beating after having learned self-defense. Soon he orders the men to return the furniture and leave, only to learn that the men were actually moving their own things out due to the riots.

text: The outlaw with the stolen police handguns then proceeds to capture Harris in the confusion, taking the officer to the roof of a nearby building as a hostage. Mahoney attempts a rescue but is taken as a second hostage. Just as both are about to be killed, Hightower suddenly appears on the rooftop. The former cadet manages to fool the madman into thinking he is a fellow crook and demands that he kill Harris. When the criminal tries to pull the trigger, Hightower knocks him unconscious and he falls onto the stairs. When he wakes up to kill Hightower, Hooks quickly apprehends him by entering the back door to the building (which she attempted to tell Sgt. Callahan about earlier, but she couldn't hear her).

text: Mahoney and Hightower are both reinstated as cadets and graduate from the academy a few days later. For their rescue of Lt. Harris and capture of his kidnapper, they also receive the academy's highest commendation and medals. All of the cadets graduate with flying colors (minus Blankes and Copeland), finally winning a respectful salute from the reluctant Harris.

text: Cast[edit]

text: Academy Cadets[edit]

text:
Steve Guttenberg as Cadet Carey Mahoney
Kim Cattrall as Cadet Karen Thompson
Bubba Smith as Cadet Moses Hightower
Donovan Scott as Cadet Leslie Barbara
Michael Winslow as Cadet Larvell Jones
Andrew Rubin as Cadet George Martin
David Graf as Cadet Eugene Tackleberry
Bruce Mahler as Cadet Douglas Fackler
Marion Ramsey as Cadet Laverne Hooks
Brant Von Hoffman as Cadet Kyle Blankes
Scott Thomson as Cadet Chad Copeland

tag: ul

text: Academy staff[edit]

text:
G. W. Bailey as Lt. Thaddeus Harris
George Gaynes as Cmndt. Eric Lassard
Leslie Easterbrook as Sgt. Debbie Callahan
George R. Robertson as Chief Henry J. Hurst

text: Others[edit]

text:
Debralee Scott as Mrs. Fackler
Ted Ross as Captain Reed
Doug Lennox as Main Bad Guy
Georgina Spelvin as Hooker
Don Lake as Mr. Wig

text: Filming locations[edit]

text: Opening scenes were shot in Toronto, Ontario. The camera booth scene was shot on the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge, southwest of Toronto. The Academy itself was previously the site of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in Etobicoke, and has since become the Lakeshore campus of Humber College. The studio scenes were shot at Lakeshore Film Studios; the city scenes were filmed in various parts of Toronto.[2]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Police Academy opened in the number 1 spot in 1,587 U.S. theaters on March 23, 1984 to a first weekend total gross of $8.6 million. It faced strong competition at the time of its release from such high-profile comedies as Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Romancing the Stone, Splash, Bachelor Party (which also featured a screenplay by Police Academy co-writers Neal Israel and Pat Proft), The Gods Must Be Crazy, Cannonball Run II, Moscow on the Hudson, Sixteen Candles and Rhinestone. Despite all of this, the film would go on to take in a final total of $81.2 million, becoming 6th highest grossing film of 1984. The film was also a success worldwide, grossing approximately $146 million.

text: Although it was a commercial success, it received a mixed reception.[3] The film currently has a 39% "Rotten" rating at the film review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 reviews.[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film zero stars out of four, commenting that "It's really something. It's so bad, maybe you should pool your money and draw straws and send one of the guys off to rent it so that in the future, whenever you think you're sitting through a bad comedy, he could shake his head, and chuckle tolerantly, and explain that you don't know what bad is".[5] Critic Vincent Canby of The New York Times, however, gave the film a favorable review. The film's critical reception, however, is still better than its six sequels, which have received universally negative reviews by critics.[6]

text: Home video release[edit]

text:
Police Academy VHS (1984) The original theatrical version of the film released in 1984. In Europe it was released on VHS as Police Academy: What An Institution!
Police Academy: 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD (1984) DVD was released around the world in 2004. Special features include a "Making of" documentary, Audio Commentary by the cast and the original theatrical trailer.
Police Academy: The Complete Collection DVD [1984-1994]: This DVD collection is a seven disc boxset which included all seven Police Academy films released between 1984 and 1994. Police Academy 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 are in 1.85:1 widescreen, Police Academy 4 and 5 are in 1.33:1 fullscreen. All of the films have multi-language subtitles and their own retrospective featurettes.
4 Film Favorites: Police Academy 1-4 Collection DVD set was released September 15, 2009. This set contains the first four films in the series on three discs: the first two films separately, and the third and fourth films on one double-sided disc. Police Academy 5-7 would be released in a DVD set entitled "4 Film Favorites: Cop Comedy Collection", packaged with Loaded Weapon 1.
Police Academy: What an Institution! Blu-ray was released 1 July 2013 as a Region Free Blu-ray. This Blu-ray contains one disc and special features.[7]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: In 2013 La-La Land Records issued a limited edition album of Robert Folk's score.[8]

text:
Main Title/Night Rounds (1:52)
Rounds Resume/Tackleberry (1:10)
Barbara (:51)
Join Up (1:10)
The Academy (1:16)
Recruits (1:54)
Pussycat/Uniforms (1:56)
Assignment (1:20)
Formation/Move Out (3:26)
Obstacles (2:15)
Martin and Company (:46)
Ball Games (:27)
More Martin (:28)
Regrets (1:05)
Guns/In Drag (4:01)
Warpath (:28)
Improvement (1:15)
Jam Up (:42)
Hightower Drive (1:37)
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie (:40)
Need to Talk/Hightower Leaves (1:16)
Riot Starts (1:25)
Riot Gear (2:42)
SOB (:32)
Match (1:44)
Where’s Harris? (2:40)
Straighten Up (1:26)
Police Academy March (1:06)
El Bimbo - Claude Morgan, performed by Jean-Marc Dompierre and His Orchestra (1:49)

tag: ol


document_title: 40-yard dash

question_text: who has the fastest 40 yard dash ever

question_tokens: who has the fastest 40 yard dash ever

text: 40-yard dash

text: Timing method and track comparisons[edit]

text: In terms of judging a person's speed, the best method of timing is through lasers which start and stop the times when passed through. A laser start (from a stationary position) is more accurate for measuring pure speed as it does not register a runner's reaction time. However, the method of timing a 40-yard dash can affect the accuracy by as much 0.5 seconds (with the manual stopwatch method). The National Football League (NFL) did not begin using partial electronic timing (started by hand, stopped electronically) at the NFL Scouting Combine until 1999.[2] [3] For purposes of measurement at the Combine, the run is made along the lower sideline from the 40 yard-line to the end zone, which has built-in rundown space.

text: In track and field races, the runner must react to the starting gun, which takes approximately 0.24 seconds, based on FAT timing. A runner with a reaction time less than .100 is subject to disqualification as that is deemed too fast of a reaction time. For electronically timed 40-yard dashes, the runner is allowed to start when he wishes, and a timer hand-starts the clock. This aspect means that comparisons with track times are impossible given that a reaction time is not factored in. Furthermore, the use of hand-timing in the 40-yard dash can considerably alter a runner's time; the methods are not comparable to the rigorous electronic timing used in track and field.

text: Jacoby Ford, who ran a 4.28 s in the 2010 NFL Combine, had a collegiate best of 6.51 s in the 60-meter dash (outside the top-40 of the all-time lists).[4] This highlights the difficulties in comparing track running times to football 40-yard times due to the different timing methods.[5]

text: Records[edit]

text: Auburn's Bo Jackson claims to have run a 40-yard dash with a time of 4.12 s.[6][7] A time of 4.18 run by Jackson within the same week added some support to the legitimacy of the times.[8][9] Texas Tech's Jakeem Grant was hand-timed by a New Orleans Saints scout as running a 4.10 in 2016, potentially beating Jackson's record.[10] Deion Sanders ran a 4.27-second 40-yard dash in 1989.[11]

text: In 2013, Carlin Isles recorded a time of 4.22 at a Detroit Lions facility during a workout.[12]

text: In 2017 Olympic sprinter Christian Coleman ran a time of 4.12 seconds on turf in response to claims that NFL players are as fast as Usain Bolt.[13]

text: Records at the NFL Scouting Combine[edit]

text: This is a list of the official 40-yard dash results of 4.30 seconds or better recorded at the NFL Scouting combine since 1999, the first year electronic timing was implemented at the NFL Scouting Combine.[14][15]

text:
Time
Name
Height
Weight
Position
College
Year
Draft

4.22[16]
John Ross
5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
190 lb (86 kg)
Wide receiver
Washington
2017
No. 9 overall by Cincinnati Bengals

4.24
Rondel Menendez
5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
192 lb (87 kg)
Wide receiver
Eastern Kentucky
1999
No. 247 overall by Atlanta Falcons

4.24
Chris Johnson
5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
192 lb (87 kg)
Running back
East Carolina
2008
No. 24 overall by Tennessee Titans

4.26
Jerome Mathis
5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
184 lb (83 kg)
Wide receiver
Hampton
2005
No. 114 overall by Houston Texans

4.26
Dri Archer
5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
173 lb (78 kg)
Running back
Kent State
2014
No. 97 overall by Pittsburgh Steelers

4.27
Stanford Routt
6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
193 lb (88 kg)
Cornerback
Houston
2005
No. 38 overall by Oakland Raiders

4.27
Marquise Goodwin
5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
181 lb (82 kg)
Wide receiver
Texas
2013
No. 78 overall by Buffalo Bills

4.28
Champ Bailey
6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
192 lb (87 kg)
Cornerback
Georgia
1999
No. 7 overall by Washington Redskins

4.28
Jacoby Ford
5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
190 lb (86 kg)
Wide receiver
Clemson
2010
No. 108 overall by Oakland Raiders

4.28[17]
Jalen Myrick
5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
200 lb (91 kg)
Cornerback
Minnesota
2017
No. 222 overall by Jacksonville Jaguars

4.28[18]
J. J. Nelson
5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
156 lb (71 kg)
Wide receiver
UAB
2015
No. 159 overall by Arizona Cardinals

4.28
DeMarcus Van Dyke
6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
187 lb (85 kg)
Cornerback
Miami
2011
No. 81 overall by Oakland Raiders

4.29
Fabian Washington
5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
188 lb (85 kg)
Cornerback
Nebraska
2005
No. 23 overall by Oakland Raiders

4.29
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie
6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
184 lb (83 kg)
Cornerback
Tennessee State
2008
No. 16 overall by the Arizona Cardinals

4.29
Josh Robinson
5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
199 lb (90 kg)
Cornerback
UCF
2012
No. 66 overall by Minnesota Vikings

4.30
Darrent Williams
5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
176 lb (80 kg)
Cornerback
Oklahoma State
2005
No. 56 overall by Denver Broncos

4.30
Tye Hill
5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
185 lb (84 kg)
Cornerback
Clemson
2006
No. 15 overall by St. Louis Rams

4.30
Yamon Figurs
5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
174 lb (79 kg)
Wide receiver
Kansas State
2007
No. 74 overall by Baltimore Ravens

4.30
Darrius Heyward-Bey[19]
6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
210 lb (95 kg)
Wide receiver
Maryland
2009
No. 7 overall by Oakland Raiders

tag: table

text: Average time by position[edit]

text: According to a five-year NFL combine report, wide receivers and cornerbacks had the fastest average times at 4.55, followed by running backs at 4.59. The following average times were measured between 2008 and 2012 at the NFL combine.[20]

text:
Position
Time

Wide receiver
4.55

Cornerback
4.55

Running back
4.59

Safety
4.62

Outside linebacker
4.74

Tight end
4.77

Fullback
4.80

Inside linebacker
4.80

Quarterback
4.87

Defensive end
4.88

Defensive tackle
5.13

Center
5.30

Offensive tackle
5.32

Offensive guard
5.36


document_title: SAT

question_text: what is the purpose of the act and sat

question_tokens: what is the purpose of the act and sat

text: SAT

text: Function[edit]

text:
Education in the United States

By state and in insular areas
By subject area
History of
Issues: Finance – Law – Literacy – Reform
Levels: Primary – Secondary – Higher
Organizations

 Education portal
 United States portal

v
t
e

text: The SAT is typically taken by high school juniors and seniors.[11] The College Board states that the SAT measures literacy and writing skills that are needed for academic success in college. They state that the SAT assesses how well the test takers analyze and solve problems—skills they learned in school that they will need in college. However, the test is administered under a tight time limit (speeded) to help produce a range of scores.[12]

text: The College Board also states that use of the SAT in combination with high school grade point average (GPA) provides a better indicator of success in college than high school grades alone, as measured by college freshman GPA. Various studies conducted over the lifetime of the SAT show a statistically significant increase in correlation of high school grades and college freshman grades when the SAT is factored in.[13] A large independent validity study on the SAT's ability to predict college freshman GPA was performed by the University of California. The results of this study found how well various predictor variables could explain the variance in college freshman GPA. It found that independently high school GPA could explain 15.4% of the variance in college freshman GPA, SAT I (the SAT Math and Verbal sections) could explain 13.3% of the variance in college freshman GPA, and SAT II (also known as the SAT subject tests; in the UC's case specifically Writing, Mathematics IC or IIC, plus a third subject test of the student's choice) could explain 16% of the variance in college freshman GPA. When high school GPA and the SAT I were combined, they explained 20.8% of the variance in college freshman GPA. When high school GPA and the SAT II were combined, they explained 22.2% of the variance in college freshman GPA. When SAT I was added to the combination of high school GPA and SAT II, it added a .1 percentage point increase in explaining the variance in college freshman GPA for a total of 22.3%.[14]

text: There are substantial differences in funding, curricula, grading, and difficulty among U.S. secondary schools due to U.S. federalism, local control, and the prevalence of private, distance, and home schooled students. SAT (and ACT) scores are intended to supplement the secondary school record and help admission officers put local data—such as course work, grades, and class rank—in a national perspective.[15] However, independent research has shown that high school GPA is better than the SAT at predicting college grades regardless of high school type or quality.[16]

text: Historically, the SAT was more widely used by students living in coastal states and the ACT was more widely used by students in the Midwest and South; in recent years, however, an increasing number of students on the East and West coasts have been taking the ACT.[17][18] Since 2007, all four-year colleges and universities in the United States that require a test as part of an application for admission will accept either the SAT or ACT, and over 950 colleges and universities do not require any standardized test scores at all for admission.[19][20]

text: Structure[edit]

text: The SAT has four sections: Reading, Writing and Language, Math (no calculator), and Math (calculator allowed). The test taker may optionally write an essay which, in that case, is the fifth test section. The total time for the scored portion of the SAT is three hours (or three hours and fifty minutes if the optional essay section is taken). Some test takers who are not taking the essay may also have a fifth section which is used, at least in part, for the pretesting of questions that may appear on future administrations of the SAT. (These questions are not included in the computation of the SAT score.) Two section scores result from taking the SAT: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, and Math. Section scores are reported on a scale of 200 to 800, and each section score is a multiple of ten. A total score for the SAT is calculated by adding the two section scores, resulting in total scores that range from 400 to 1600. There is no penalty for guessing on the SAT: scores are based on the number of questions answered correctly. In addition to the two section scores, three "test" scores on a scale of 10 to 40 are reported, one for each of Reading, Writing and Language, and Math. The essay, if taken, is scored separately from the two section scores.[21]

text: Reading Test[edit]

text: The Reading Test of the SAT is made up of one section with 52 questions and a time limit of 65 minutes.[21] All questions are multiple-choice and based on reading passages. Tables, graphs, and charts may accompany some passages, but no math is required to correctly answer the corresponding questions. There are five passages (up to two of which may be a pair of smaller passages) on the Reading Test and 10-11 questions per passage or passage pair. SAT Reading passages draw from three main fields: history, social studies, and science. Each SAT Reading Test always includes: one passage from U.S. or world literature; one passage from either a U.S. founding document or a related text; one passage about economics, psychology, sociology, or another social science; and, two science passages. Answers to all of the questions are based only on the content stated in or implied by the passage or passage pair.[22]

text: Writing and Language Test[edit]

text: The Writing and Language Test of the SAT is made up of one section with 44 multiple-choice questions and a time limit of 35 minutes.[21] As with the Reading Test, all questions are based on reading passages which may be accompanied by tables, graphs, and charts. The test taker will be asked to read the passages, find mistakes or weaknesses in writing, and to provide corrections or improvements. Reading passages on this test range in content from topic arguments to nonfiction narratives in a variety of subjects. The skills being evaluated include: increasing the clarity of argument; improving word choice; improving analysis of topics in social studies and science; changing sentence or word structure to increase organizational quality and impact of writing; and, fixing or improving sentence structure, word usage, and punctuation.[23]

text: Mathematics[edit]

text: The mathematics portion of the SAT is divided into two sections: Math Test – Calculator and Math Test – No Calculator. In total, the SAT math test is 80 minutes long and includes 58 questions: 45 multiple choice questions and 13 grid-in questions.[24] The multiple choice questions have four possible answers; the grid-in questions are free response and require the test taker to provide an answer.

text:
The Math Test – No Calculator section has 20 questions (15 multiple choice and 5 grid-in) and lasts 25 minutes.
The Math Test – Calculator section has 38 questions (30 multiple choice and 8 grid-in) and lasts 55 minutes.

text: Several scores are provided to the test taker for the math test. A subscore (on a scale of 1 to 15) is reported for each of three categories of math content: "Heart of Algebra" (linear equations, systems of linear equations, and linear functions), "Problem Solving and Data Analysis" (statistics, modeling, and problem-solving skills), and "Passport to Advanced Math" (non-linear expressions, radicals, exponentials and other topics that form the basis of more advanced math). A test score for the math test is reported on a scale of 10 to 40, and a section score (equal to the test score multiplied by 20) is reported on a scale of 200 to 800. [25][26][27]

text: Calculator use[edit]

text: All scientific and most graphing calculators, including Computer Algebra System (CAS) calculators, are permitted on the SAT Math – Calculator section only. All four-function calculators are allowed as well; however, these devices are not recommended. All mobile phone and smartphone calculators, calculators with typewriter-like (QWERTY) keyboards, laptops and other portable computers, and calculators capable of accessing the Internet are not permitted.[28]

text: Research was conducted by the College Board to study the effect of calculator use on SAT I: Reasoning Test math scores. The study found that performance on the math section was associated with the extent of calculator use: those using calculators on about one third to one half of the items averaged higher scores than those using calculators more or less frequently. However, the effect was "more likely to have been the result of able students using calculators differently than less able students rather than calculator use per se."[29] There is some evidence to suggest that the frequent use of a calculator in school outside of the testing situation has a positive effect on test performance compared to those who do not use calculators in school.[30]

text: Style of questions[edit]

text: Most of the questions on the SAT, except for the optional essay and the grid-in math responses, are multiple choice; all multiple-choice questions have four answer choices, one of which is correct. Thirteen of the questions on the math portion of the SAT (about 22% of all the math questions) are not multiple choice.[31] They instead require the test taker to bubble in a number in a four-column grid.

text: All questions on each section of the SAT are weighted equally. For each correct answer, one raw point is added.[32] No points are deducted for incorrect answers. The final score is derived from the raw score; the precise conversion chart varies between test administrations.

text:
Section
Average Score[1]
Time (Minutes)
Content

Mathematics
527
80
Number and operations; algebra and functions; geometry; statistics, probability, and data analysis

Evidence-Based Reading and Writing
533
100
Vocabulary, Critical reading, sentence-level reading, Grammar, usage, and diction.

text: Logistics[edit]

text: The SAT is offered seven times a year in the United States: in August, October, November, December, March, May, and June. The test is typically offered on the first Saturday of the month for the October, November, December, May, and June administrations.[33] In other countries, the SAT is offered four times a year: in October, December, March, and May.[34] The test was taken by 1,715,481 high school graduates in the class of 2017.[1]

text: Candidates wishing to take the test may register online at the College Board's website, by mail, or by telephone, at least three weeks before the test date.

text: The SAT costs $45 ($57 with the optional essay), plus additional fees if testing outside the United States) as of 2017[update].[8] The College Board makes fee waivers available for low income students. Additional fees apply for late registration, standby testing, registration changes, scores by telephone, and extra score reports (beyond the four provided for free).

text: Candidates whose religious beliefs prevent them from taking the test on a Saturday may request to take the test on the following day, except for the October test date in which the Sunday test date is eight days after the main test offering. Such requests must be made at the time of registration and are subject to denial.

text: Students with verifiable disabilities, including physical and learning disabilities, are eligible to take the SAT with accommodations. The standard time increase for students requiring additional time due to learning disabilities or physical handicaps is time + 50%; time + 100% is also offered.

text: Raw scores, scaled scores, and percentiles[edit]

text: Students receive their online score reports approximately three weeks after test administration (six weeks for mailed, paper scores), with each section graded on a scale of 200–800 and two sub scores for the writing section: the essay score and the multiple choice sub score. In addition to their score, students receive their percentile (the percentage of other test takers with lower scores). The raw score, or the number of points gained from correct answers and lost from incorrect answers is also included.[35] Students may also receive, for an additional fee, the Question and Answer Service, which provides the student's answer, the correct answer to each question, and online resources explaining each question.

text: The corresponding percentile of each scaled score varies from test to test—for example, in 2003, a scaled score of 800 in both sections of the SAT Reasoning Test corresponded to a percentile of 99.9, while a scaled score of 800 in the SAT Physics Test corresponded to the 94th percentile. The differences in what scores mean with regard to percentiles are due to the content of the exam and the caliber of students choosing to take each exam. Subject Tests are subject to intensive study (often in the form of an AP, which is relatively more difficult), and only those who know they will perform well tend to take these tests, creating a skewed distribution of scores.

text: The percentiles that various SAT scores for college-bound seniors correspond to are summarized in the following chart:[36][37]

text:
Percentile
Score, 1600 Scale
(official, 2006)
Score, 2400 Scale
(official, 2006)

99.93/99.98*
1600
2400

99+ **
≥1540
≥2280

99
≥1480
≥2200

98
≥1450
≥2140

97
≥1420
≥2100

93
≥1340
≥1990

88
≥1280
≥1900

81
≥1220
≥1800

72
≥1150
≥1700

61
≥1090
≥1600

48
≥1010
≥1500

36
≥950
≥1400

24
≥870
≥1300

15
≥810
≥1200

8
≥730
≥1090

4
≥650
≥990

2
≥590
≥890

* The percentile of the perfect score was 99.98 on the 2400 scale and 99.93 on the 1600 scale.

** 99+ means better than 99.5 percent of test takers.

text: The older SAT (before 1995) had a very high ceiling. In any given year, only seven of the million test-takers scored above 1580. A score above 1580 was equivalent to the 99.9995 percentile.[38]

text: In 2015 the average score for the Class of 2015 was 1490 out of a maximum 2400. That was down 7 points from the previous class’s mark and was the lowest composite score of the past decade.[39]

text: SAT-ACT score comparisons[edit]

text: The College Board and ACT, Inc. conducted a joint study of students who took both the SAT and the ACT between September 2004 (for the ACT) or March 2005 (for the SAT) and June 2006. Tables were provided to concord scores for students taking the SAT after January 2005 and before March 2016. [40][41]

text: In May, 2016, the College Board released concordance tables to concord scores on the SAT used from March 2005 through January 2016 to the SAT used since March 2016, as well as tables to concord scores on the SAT used since March 2016 to the ACT.[42]

text: History[edit]

text:
Mean SAT Scores by year[43]

Year of
exam
Reading
/Verbal
Score
Math
Score

1972
530
509

1973
523
506

1974
521
505

1975
512
498

1976
509
497

1977
507
496

1978
507
494

1979
505
493

1980
502
492

1981
502
492

1982
504
493

1983
503
494

1984
504
497

1985
509
500

1986
509
500

1987
507
501

1988
505
501

1989
504
502

1990
500
501

1991
499
500

1992
500
501

1993
500
503

1994
499
504

1995
504
506

1996
505
508

1997
505
511

1998
505
512

1999
505
511

2000
505
514

2001
506
514

2002
504
516

2003
507
519

2004
508
518

2005
508
520

2006
503
518

2007
502
515

2008
502
515

2009
501
515

2010
501
516

2011
497
514

2012
496
514

2013
496
514

2014
497
513

2015
495
511

2016
494
508

2017
533
527

text: Many college entrance exams in the early 1900s were specific to each school and required candidates to travel to the school to take the tests. The College Board, a consortium of colleges in the northeastern United States, was formed in 1900 to establish a nationally administered, uniform set of essay tests based on the curricula of the boarding schools that typically provided graduates to the colleges of the Ivy League and Seven Sisters, among others.[44][45]

text: In the same time period, Lewis Terman and others began to promote the use of tests such as Alfred Binet's in American schools. Terman in particular thought that such tests could identify an innate "intelligence quotient" (IQ) in a person. The results of an IQ test could then be used to find an elite group of students who would be given the chance to finish high school and go on to college.[44] By the mid-1920s, the increasing use of IQ tests, such as the Army Alpha test administered to recruits in World War I, led the College Board to commission the development of the SAT. The commission, headed by Carl Brigham, argued that the test predicted success in higher education by identifying candidates primarily on the basis of intellectual promise rather than on specific accomplishment in high school subjects.[45] In 1934, James Conant and Henry Chauncey used the SAT as a means to identify recipients for scholarships to Harvard University. Specifically, Conant wanted to find students, other than those from the traditional northeastern private schools, that could do well at Harvard. The success of the scholarship program and the advent of World War II led to the end of the College Board essay exams and to the SAT being used as the only admissions test for College Board member colleges.[44]

text: The SAT rose in prominence after World War II due to several factors. Machine-based scoring of multiple-choice tests taken by pencil had made it possible to rapidly process the exams.[46] The G.I. Bill produced an influx of millions of veterans into higher education.[46][47] The formation of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) also played a significant role in the expansion of the SAT beyond the roughly fifty colleges that made up the College Board at the time.[48] The ETS was formed in 1947 by the College Board, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the American Council on Education, to consolidate respectively the operations of the SAT, the GRE, and the achievement tests developed by Ben Wood for use with Conant's scholarship exams.[46] The new organization was to be philosophically grounded in the concepts of open-minded, scientific research in testing with no doctrine to sell and with an eye toward public service.[49] The ETS was chartered after the death of Brigham, who had opposed the creation of such an entity. Brigham felt that the interests of a consolidated testing agency would be more aligned with sales or marketing than with research into the science of testing.[46] It has been argued that the interest of the ETS in expanding the SAT in order to support its operations aligned with the desire of public college and university faculties to have smaller, diversified, and more academic student bodies as a means to increase research activities.[44] In 1951, about 80,000 SATs were taken; in 1961, about 800,000; and by 1971, about 1.5 million SATs were being taken each year.[50]

text: A timeline of notable events in the history of the SAT follows.

text: 1901 essay exams[edit]

text: On June 17, 1901, the first exams of the College Board were administered to 973 students across 67 locations in the United States, and two in Europe. Although those taking the test came from a variety of backgrounds, approximately one third were from New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania. The majority of those taking the test were from private schools, academies, or endowed schools. About 60% of those taking the test applied to Columbia University. The test contained sections on English, French, German, Latin, Greek, history, mathematics, chemistry, and physics. The test was not multiple choice, but instead was evaluated based on essay responses as "excellent", "good", "doubtful", "poor" or "very poor".[51]

text: 1926 test[edit]

text: The first administration of the SAT occurred on June 23, 1926, when it was known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.[52][53] This test, prepared by a committee headed by Princeton psychologist Carl Campbell Brigham, had sections of definitions, arithmetic, classification, artificial language, antonyms, number series, analogies, logical inference, and paragraph reading. It was administered to over 8,000 students at over 300 test centers. Men composed 60% of the test-takers. Slightly over a quarter of males and females applied to Yale University and Smith College.[53] The test was paced rather quickly, test-takers being given only a little over 90 minutes to answer 315 questions.[52] The raw score of each participating student was converted to a score scale with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100. This scale was effectively equivalent to a 200 to 800 scale, although students could score more than 800 and less than 200.[46]

text: 1928 and 1929 tests[edit]

text: In 1928, the number of sections on the SAT was reduced to seven, and the time limit was increased to slightly under two hours. In 1929, the number of sections was again reduced, this time to six. These changes were designed in part to give test-takers more time per question. For these two years, all of the sections tested verbal ability: math was eliminated entirely from the SAT.[52]

text: 1930 test and 1936 changes[edit]

text: In 1930 the SAT was first split into the verbal and math sections, a structure that would continue through 2004. The verbal section of the 1930 test covered a more narrow range of content than its predecessors, examining only antonyms, double definitions (somewhat similar to sentence completions), and paragraph reading. In 1936, analogies were re-added. Between 1936 and 1946, students had between 80 and 115 minutes to answer 250 verbal questions (over a third of which were on antonyms). The mathematics test introduced in 1930 contained 100 free response questions to be answered in 80 minutes, and focused primarily on speed. From 1936 to 1941, like the 1928 and 1929 tests, the mathematics section was eliminated entirely. When the mathematics portion of the test was re-added in 1942, it consisted of multiple choice questions.[52]

text: 1941 and 1942 score scales[edit]

text: Until 1941, the scores on all SATs had been scaled to a mean of 500 with a standard deviation of 100. Although one test-taker could be compared to another for a given test date, comparisons from one year to another could not be made. For example, a score of 500 achieved on an SAT taken in one year could reflect a different ability level than a score of 500 achieved in another year. By 1940, it had become clear that setting the mean SAT score to 500 every year was unfair to those students who happened to take the SAT with a group of higher average ability.[54]

text: In order to make cross-year score comparisons possible, in April 1941 the SAT verbal section was scaled to a mean of 500, and a standard deviation of 100, and the June 1941 SAT verbal section was equated (linked) to the April 1941 test. All SAT verbal sections after 1941 were equated to previous tests so that the same scores on different SATs would be comparable. Similarly, in June 1942 the SAT math section was equated to the April 1942 math section, which itself was linked to the 1942 SAT verbal section, and all SAT math sections after 1942 would be equated to previous tests. From this point forward, SAT mean scores could change over time, depending on the average ability of the group taking the test compared to the roughly 10,600 students taking the SAT in April 1941. The 1941 and 1942 score scales would remain in use until 1995. [54] [55]

text: 1946 test and associated changes[edit]

text: Paragraph reading was eliminated from the verbal portion of the SAT in 1946, and replaced with reading comprehension, and "double definition" questions were replaced with sentence completions. Between 1946 and 1957 students were given 90 to 100 minutes to complete 107 to 170 verbal questions. Starting in 1958 time limits became more stable, and for 17 years, until 1975, students had 75 minutes to answer 90 questions. In 1959 questions on data sufficiency were introduced to the mathematics section, and then replaced with quantitative comparisons in 1974. In 1974 both verbal and math sections were reduced from 75 minutes to 60 minutes each, with changes in test composition compensating for the decreased time.[52]

text: 1960s and 1970s score declines[edit]

text: From 1926 to 1941, scores on the SAT were scaled to make 500 the mean score on each section. In 1941 and 1942, SAT scores were standardized via test equating, and as a consequence, average verbal and math scores could vary from that time forward.[54] In 1952, mean verbal and math scores were 476 and 494, respectively, and scores were generally stable in the 1950s and early 1960s. However, starting in the mid-1960s and continuing until the early 1980s, SAT scores declined: the average verbal score dropped by about 50 points, and the average math score fell by about 30 points. By the late 1970s, only the upper third of test takers were doing as well as the upper half of those taking the SAT in 1963. From 1961 to 1977, the number of SATs taken per year doubled, suggesting that the decline could be explained by demographic changes in the group of students taking the SAT. Commissioned by the College Board, an independent study of the decline found that most (up to about 75%) of the test decline in the 1960s could be explained by compositional changes in the group of students taking the test; however, only about 25 percent of the 1970s decrease in test scores could similarly be explained.[50] Later analyses suggested that up to 40 percent of the 1970s decline in scores could be explained by demographic changes, leaving unknown at least some of the reasons for the decline.[56]

text: 1994 changes[edit]

text: In early 1994, substantial changes were made to the SAT.[57] Antonyms were removed from the verbal section in order to make rote memorization of vocabulary less useful. Also, the fraction of verbal questions devoted to passage-based reading material was increased from about 30% to about 50%, and the passages were chosen to be more like typical college-level reading material, compared to previous SAT reading passages. The changes for increased emphasis on analytical reading were made in response to a 1990 report issued by a commission established by the College Board. The commission recommended that the SAT should, among other things, "approximate more closely the skills used in college and high school work".[52] A mandatory essay had been considered as well for the new version of the SAT; however, criticism from minority groups as well as a concomitant increase in the cost of the test necessary to grade the essay led the College Board to drop it from the planned changes.[58]

text: Major changes were also made to the SAT mathematics section at this time, due in part to the influence of suggestions made by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Test-takers were now permitted to use calculators on the math sections of the SAT. Also, for the first time since 1935, the SAT would now include some math questions that were not multiple choice, instead requiring students to supply the answers. Additionally, some of these "student-produced response" questions could have more than one correct answer. The tested mathematics content on the SAT was expanded to include concepts of slope of a line, probability, elementary statistics including median and mode, and counting problems.[52]

text: 1995 recentering (raising mean score back to 500)[edit]

text: By the early 1990s, average total SAT scores were around 900 (typically, 425 on the verbal and 475 on the math). The average scores on the 1994 modification of the SAT I were similar: 428 on the verbal and 482 on the math.[59] SAT scores for admitted applicants to highly selective colleges in the United States were typically much higher. For example, the score ranges of the middle 50% of admitted applicants to Princeton University in 1985 were 600 to 720 (verbal) and 660 to 750 (math).[60] Similarly, median scores on the modified 1994 SAT for freshmen entering Yale University in the fall of 1995 were 670 (verbal) and 720 (math).[61] For the majority of SAT takers, however, verbal and math scores were below 500: In 1992, half of the college-bound seniors taking the SAT were scoring between 340 and 500 on the verbal section and between 380 and 560 on the math section, with corresponding median scores of 420 and 470, respectively.[62]

text: The drop in SAT verbal scores, in particular, meant that the usefulness of the SAT score scale (200 to 800) had become degraded. At the top end of the verbal scale, significant gaps were occurring between raw scores and uncorrected scaled scores: a perfect raw score no longer corresponded to an 800, and a single omission out of 85 questions could lead to a drop of 30 or 40 points in the scaled score. Corrections to scores above 700 had been necessary to reduce the size of the gaps and to make a perfect raw score result in an 800. At the other end of the scale, about 1.5 percent of test takers would have scored below 200 on the verbal section if that had not been the reported minimum score. Although the math score averages were closer to the center of the scale (500) than the verbal scores, the distribution of math scores was no longer well approximated by a normal distribution. These problems, among others, suggested that the original score scale and its reference group of about 10,000 students taking the SAT in 1941 needed to be replaced.[54]

text: Beginning with the test administered in April 1995, the SAT score scale was recentered to return the average math and verbal scores close to 500. Although only 25 students had received perfect scores of 1600 in all of 1994, 137 students taking the April test scored a 1600.[63] The new scale used a reference group of about one million seniors in the class of 1990: the scale was designed so that the SAT scores of this cohort would have a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 110. Because the new scale would not be directly comparable to the old scale, scores awarded on April 1995 and later were officially reported with an "R" (for example, "560R") to reflect the change in scale, a practice that was continued until 2001.[54] Scores awarded before April 1995 may be compared to those on the recentered scale by using official College Board tables. For example, verbal and math scores of 500 received before 1995 correspond to scores of 580 and 520, respectively, on the 1995 scale.[64]

text: 1995 re-centering controversy[edit]

text: Certain educational organizations viewed the SAT re-centering initiative as an attempt to stave off international embarrassment in regards to continuously declining test scores, even among top students. As evidence, it was presented that the number of pupils who scored above 600 on the verbal portion of the test had fallen from a peak of 112,530 in 1972 to 73,080 in 1993, a 36% backslide, despite the fact that the total number of test-takers had risen over 500,000.[65] Other authors have argued that the evidence for a decline in student quality is mixed, citing that top scorers on the ACT have shown little change in the same period, and that the proportion of 17-year-olds scoring at the highest performance level on the NAEP long-term trend assessment has been roughly stable for decades.[66]

text: 2002 changes – Score Choice[edit]

text: In October 2002, the College Board dropped the Score Choice Option for SAT-II exams. Under this option, scores were not released to colleges until the student saw and approved of the score.[67] The College Board has since decided to re-implement Score Choice in the spring of 2009. It is described as optional, and it is not clear if the reports sent will indicate whether or not this student has opted-in or not. A number of highly selective colleges and universities, including Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford, have announced they will require applicants to submit all scores. Stanford, however, only prohibits Score Choice for the traditional SAT.[68] Others, such as MIT and Harvard, have fully embraced Score Choice.

text: 2005 changes, including a new 2400-point score[edit]

text: In 2005, the test was changed again, largely in response to criticism by the University of California system.[69] Because of issues concerning ambiguous questions, especially analogies, certain types of questions were eliminated (the analogies from the verbal and quantitative comparisons from the math section). The test was made marginally harder, as a corrective to the rising number of perfect scores. A new writing section, with an essay, based on the former SAT II Writing Subject Test, was added,[70] in part to increase the chances of closing the opening gap between the highest and midrange scores. Other factors included the desire to test the writing ability of each student; hence the essay. The essay section added an additional maximum 800 points to the score, which increased the new maximum score to 2400.[71] The "New SAT" was first offered on March 12, 2005, after the last administration of the "old" SAT in January 2005. The mathematics section was expanded to cover three years of high school mathematics. The verbal section's name was changed to the Critical Reading section.

text: Scoring problems of October 2005 tests[edit]

text: In March 2006, it was announced that a small percentage of the SATs taken in October 2005 had been scored incorrectly due to the test papers' being moist and not scanning properly, and that some students had received erroneous scores.[72] The College Board announced they would change the scores for the students who were given a lower score than they earned, but at this point many of those students had already applied to colleges using their original scores. The College Board decided not to change the scores for the students who were given a higher score than they earned. A lawsuit was filed in 2006 on behalf of the 4,411 students who received an incorrect score on the SAT.[73] The class-action suit was settled in August 2007 when the College Board and Pearson Educational Measurement, the company that scored the SATs, announced they would pay $2.85 million into a settlement fund. Under the agreement each student could either elect to receive $275 or submit a claim for more money if he or she felt the damage was greater.[74] A similar scoring error occurred on a secondary school admission test in 2010–2011 when the ERB (Educational Records Bureau) announced after the admission process was over that an error had been made in the scoring of the tests of 2010 (17%) of the students who had taken the Independent School Entrance Examination for admission to private secondary schools for 2011. Commenting on the effect of the error on students' school applications in The New York Times, David Clune, President of the ERB stated "It is a lesson we all learn at some point—that life isn't fair."[75]

text: 2008 changes[edit]

text: In late 2008, a new variable came into play. Previously, applicants to most colleges were required to submit all scores, with some colleges that embraced Score Choice retaining the option of allowing their applicants not to have to submit all scores. However, in 2008, an initiative to make Score Choice universal had begun, with some opposition from colleges desiring to maintain score report practices. While students theoretically now have the choice to submit their best score (in theory one could send any score one wishes to send) to the college of their choice, some colleges and universities, such as Cornell, ask that students send all test scores.[76] This had led the College Board to display on their web site which colleges agree with or dislike Score Choice, with continued claims that students will still never have scores submitted against their will.[77] Regardless of whether a given college permits applicants to exercise Score Choice options, most colleges do not penalize students who report poor scores along with high ones; many universities, such as Columbia[citation needed] and Cornell,[citation needed] expressly promise to overlook those scores that may be undesirable to the student and/or to focus more on those scores that are most representative of the student's achievement and academic potential. College Board maintains a list of colleges and their respective score choice policies that is recent as of November 2011.[78]

text: 2012 changes[edit]

text: Beginning in 2012, test takers are required to submit a current, recognizable photo during registration. Students are required to present their photo admission ticket – or another acceptable form of photo ID – for admittance to their designated test center. Student scores and registration information, including the photo provided, are made available to the student’s high school. In the event of an investigation involving the validity of a student’s test scores, their photo may be made available to institutions to which they have sent scores. Any college that is granted access to a student’s photo is first required to certify that they are all admitted students.[79]

text: 2016 changes, including the return to a 1600-point score[edit]

text: On March 5, 2014, the College Board announced its plan to redesign the SAT in order to link the exam more closely to the work high school students encounter in the classroom.[7] The new exam was administered for the first time in March, 2016.[80] Some of the major changes are: an emphasis on the use of evidence to support answers, a shift away from obscure vocabulary to words that students are more likely to encounter in college and career, a math section that is focused on fewer areas, a return to the 1600-point score scale, an optional essay, and the removal of penalty for wrong answers (rights-only scoring).[81] To combat the perceived advantage of costly test preparation courses, the College Board announced a new partnership with Khan Academy to offer free online practice problems and instructional videos.[7]

text: Name changes[edit]

text: The SAT has been renamed several times since its introduction in 1926. It was originally known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.[82][52] In 1990, a commission set up by the College Board to review the proposed changes to the SAT program recommended that the meaning of the initialism SAT be changed to "Scholastic Assessment Test" because a "test that integrates measures of achievement as well as developed ability can no longer be accurately described as a test of aptitude".[83][84] In 1993, the College Board changed the name of the test to SAT I: Reasoning Test; at the same time, the name of the Achievement Tests was changed to SAT II: Subject Tests.[82] The Reasoning Test and Subject Tests were to be collectively known as the Scholastic Assessment Tests. According to the president of the College Board at the time, the name change was meant "to correct the impression among some people that the SAT measures something that is innate and impervious to change regardless of effort or instruction."[85] The new SAT debuted in March 1994, and was referred to as the Scholastic Assessment Test by major news organizations.[57][86] However, in 1997, the College Board announced that the SAT could not properly be called the Scholastic Assessment Test, and that the letters SAT did not stand for anything.[87] In 2004, the Roman numeral in SAT I: Reasoning Test was dropped, making SAT Reasoning Test the new name of the SAT.[82]

text: Math–verbal achievement gap[edit]

text: In 2002, Richard Rothstein (education scholar and columnist) wrote in The New York Times that the U.S. math averages on the SAT and ACT continued their decade-long rise over national verbal averages on the tests.[88]

text: Reuse of old SAT exams[edit]

text: The College Board has been accused of completely reusing old SAT papers previously given in the United States.[89] The recycling of questions from previous exams has been exploited to allow for cheating on exams and impugned the validity of some students' test scores, according to college officials. Test preparation companies in Asia have been found to provide test questions to students within hours of a new SAT exam's administration.[90][91]

text: Perception[edit]

text: Association with culture[edit]

text: For decades many critics have accused designers of the verbal SAT of cultural bias as an explanation for the disparity in scores between poorer and wealthier test-takers.[92] A famous (and long past) example of this bias in the SAT I was the oarsman–regatta analogy question. The object of the question was to find the pair of terms that had the relationship most similar to the relationship between "runner" and "marathon". The correct answer was "oarsman" and "regatta". The choice of the correct answer was thought to have presupposed students' familiarity with rowing, a sport popular with the wealthy. However, according to Murray and Herrnstein, the black-white gap is smaller in culture-loaded questions like this one than in questions that appear to be culturally neutral.[93] Analogy questions have since been replaced by short reading passages.

text: Association with family income[edit]

text: A report from the New York Times stated that family income can explain about 95% of the variance in SAT scores.[94] In response, Lisa Wade, contributor at the website The Society Pages, commented that those with higher family income, “tend to have better teachers, more resource-rich educational environments, more educated parents who can help them with school and, sometimes, expensive SAT tutoring.”[95] However, University of California system research found that after controlling for family income and parental education, the already low ability of the SAT to measure aptitude and college readiness fell sharply while the more substantial aptitude and college readiness measuring abilities of high school GPA and the SAT II each remained undiminished (and even slightly increased). The University of California system required both the SAT and the SAT II from applicants to the UC system during the four years included in the study. They further found that, after controlling for family income and parental education, the so-called achievement tests known as the SAT II measure aptitude and college readiness 10 times higher than the SAT.[96] As with racial bias, correlation with income could also be due to the social class of the makers of the test, although according to the authors of The Bell Cuve, empirical research suggests that poorer students actually perform worse on questions the authors believed to be "neutral" compared to the ones they termed as "privileged."[97]

text: Association with gender[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2015)

text: The largest association with gender on the SAT is found in the math section where male students, on average, score higher than female students by approximately 30 points.[98] In 2013, the American College Testing Board released a report boys outperformed girls on the mathematics section of the test.[99]

text: Association with race and ethnicity[edit]

text: African American, Hispanic, and Native American students, on average, perform an order of one standard deviation lower on the SAT than white and Asian students.[100][101][102][103]

text: Researchers believe that the difference in scores is closely related to the overall achievement gap in American society between students of different racial groups. This gap may be explainable in part by the fact that students of disadvantaged racial groups tend to go to schools that provide lower educational quality. This view is supported by evidence that the black-white gap is higher in cities and neighborhoods that are more racially segregated.[104] It has also been suggested that stereotype threat has a significant effect on lowering achievement of minority students. For example, African Americans perform worse on a test when they are told that the test measures "verbal reasoning ability", than when no mention of the test subject is made.[105] Other research cites poorer minority proficiency in key coursework relevant to the SAT (English and math), as well as peer pressure against students who try to focus on their schoolwork ("acting white").[106] Cultural issues are also evident among black students in wealthier households, with high achieving parents. John Ogbu, a Nigerian-American professor of anthropology, found that instead of looking to their parents as role models, black youth chose other models like rappers and did not put forth the effort to be a good student. However, they felt that racism was wrong.[107]

text: One set of studies has reported differential item functioning – namely, some test questions function differently based on the racial group of the test taker, reflecting some kind of systematic difference in a groups ability to understand certain test questions or to acquire the knowledge required to answer them. In 2003 Freedle published data showing that Black students have had a slight advantage on the verbal questions that are labeled as difficult on the SAT, whereas white and Asian students tended to have a slight advantage on questions labeled as easy. Freedle argued that these findings suggest that "easy" test items use vocabulary that is easier to understand for white middle class students than for minorities, who often use a different language in the home environment, whereas the difficult items use complex language learned only through lectures and textbooks, giving both student groups equal opportunities to acquiring it.[108][109] [110] The study was severely criticized by the ETS board, but the findings were replicated in a subsequent study by Santelices and Wilson in 2010.[111][112]

text: There is no evidence that SAT scores systematically underestimate future performance of minority students. However, the predictive validity of the SAT has been shown to depend on the dominant ethnic and racial composition of the college.[113] Some studies have also shown that African American students under-perform in college relative to their white peers with the same SAT scores; researchers have argued that this is likely because white students tend to benefit from social advantages outside of the educational environment (for example, high parental involvement in their education, inclusion in campus academic activities, positive bias from same-race teachers and peers) which result in better grades.[105]

text: Christopher Jencks concludes that as a group African Americans have been harmed by the introduction of standardized entrance exams such as the SAT. This, according to him, is not because the tests themselves are flawed, but because of labeling bias and selection bias; the tests measure the skills that African Americans are less likely to develop in their socialization, rather than the skills they are more likely to develop. Furthermore, standardized entrance exams are often labeled as tests of general ability, rather than of certain aspects of ability. Thus, a situation is produced in which African American ability is consistently underestimated within the education and workplace environments, contributing in turn to selection bias against them which exacerbates underachievement.[105]

text: Dropping SAT[edit]

text: A growing number of colleges have joined the SAT optional movement. These colleges do not require the SAT for admission.

text: One example of a college that did this is Drew University in New Jersey. After they adopted an optional SAT policy, they had a 20% increase in applications. Dean of Admissions Mary Beth Carey says that "Our own research showed us that high school grade point average is by far the most important predictor of success in college." The college reported that they accepted their most diverse class ever as a result of the policy.[114]

text: In a 2001 speech to the American Council on Education, Richard C. Atkinson, the president of the University of California, urged dropping the SAT as a college admissions requirement:

text: Anyone involved in education should be concerned about how overemphasis on the SAT is distorting educational priorities and practices, how the test is perceived by many as unfair, and how it can have a devastating impact on the self-esteem and aspirations of young students. There is widespread agreement that overemphasis on the SAT harms American education.[115]

text: In response to threats by the University of California to drop the SAT as an admission requirement, the College Entrance Examination Board announced the restructuring of the SAT, to take effect in March 2005, as detailed above.

text: In the 1960s and 1970s there was a movement to drop achievement scores. After a period of time, the countries, states and provinces that reintroduced them agreed that academic standards had dropped, students had studied less, and had taken their studying less seriously. They reintroduced the tests after studies and research concluded that the high-stakes tests produced benefits that outweighed the costs.[116]

text: IQ studies[edit]

text: Frey and Detterman (2003) investigated associations of SAT scores with intelligence test scores. Using an estimate of general mental ability, or g, based on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, which can be best thought of as representing crystallized intelligence (learned abilities), they found SAT scores to be highly correlated with g (r=.82 in their sample, .857 when adjusted for non-linearity) in their sample taken from a 1979 national probability survey. Additionally, they investigated the correlation between SAT results, using the revised and recentered form of the test, and scores on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, a test of fluid intelligence (reasoning), this time using a non-random sample. They found that the correlation of SAT results with scores on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices was .483. They estimated that this latter correlation would have been about 0.72 were it not for the restriction of ability range in the sample. They also noted that there appeared to be a ceiling effect on the Raven’s scores which may have suppressed the correlation.[117] Beaujean and colleagues (2006) have reached similar conclusions to those reached by Frey and Detterman.[118]

text: Preparation[edit]

text: SAT preparation is a highly lucrative field[119] pioneered by Stanley Kaplan in 1938 and many companies and organizations offer test preparation in the form of books, classes, online courses, and tutoring. The test preparation industry began almost simultaneously with the introduction of university entrance exams in the U.S. and flourished from the start.[120]

text: The College Board maintains that the SAT is essentially uncoachable and research by the College Board and the National Association of College Admission Counseling suggests that tutoring courses result in an average increase of about 20 points on the math section and 10 points on the verbal section.[121] Other studies have shown significantly different results. A longitudinal study from Ohio State showed that taking private SAT prep classes correlated with scores higher by ~60 points.[122] A study from Oxford showed that coaching courses boosted scores by an average of 56 points.[120]

text: Montgomery and Lilly (2012) performed a systematic literature review of all published SAT coaching research in search of high quality studies (defined as those with randomized controlled trials). They found that the randomized treatments resulted in V/M gains of +23/32 points for a total of +56; the high quality study that showed the highest score increase was Johnson (1984; San Francisco) which was based on a 30-hour prep course that showed an average increase of 178 points. The Johnson San Francisco study was also the only high quality study found on a prep course of 30 hours or more in length, although validity of this outlier study is uncertain due to the attrition of half the participants.[120]

text: Use by high-IQ societies[edit]

text: Certain high IQ societies, like Mensa, the Prometheus Society and the Triple Nine Society, use scores from certain years as one of their admission tests. For instance, the Triple Nine Society accepts scores of 1450 on tests taken before April 1995, and scores of at least 1520 on tests taken between April 1995 and February 2005.[123]

text: The SAT is sometimes given to students younger than 13 by organizations such as the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Duke TIP, and other organizations who use the results to select, study and mentor students of exceptional ability.

text: Writing section[edit]

text: In 2005, MIT Writing Director Pavan Sreekireddy plotted essay length versus essay score on the new SAT from released essays and found a high correlation between them. After studying over 50 graded essays, he found that longer essays consistently produced higher scores. In fact, he argues that by simply gauging the length of an essay without reading it, the given score of an essay could likely be determined correctly over 90% of the time. He also discovered that several of these essays were full of factual errors; the College Board does not claim to grade for factual accuracy.

text: Perelman, along with the National Council of Teachers of English also criticized the 25-minute writing section of the test for damaging standards of writing teaching in the classroom. They say that writing teachers training their students for the SAT will not focus on revision, depth, accuracy, but will instead produce long, formulaic, and wordy pieces.[124] "You're getting teachers to train students to be bad writers", concluded Perelman.[125]