SAT Diversion: Take 1926 version of the exam

  "Standardized Test Close-Up" by flickr user Shannan Muskopf, cc license Many families will have their high school students take the SAT this summer. The preparation and weight of this exam, which has been around since 1926, can make for a frustratingly stressful time in parents and students' lives. So, here's a quick but low stress diversion for parents and students alike.
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Many families will have their high school students take the SAT this summer. The preparation and weight of this exam, which has been around since 1926, can make for a frustratingly stressful time in parents and students’ lives. So, here’s a quick but low stress diversion for parents and students alike.

The Washington Post published a scanned version of the original 1926 SAT from the College Entrance Examination Board (now known as the College Board). The questions range in difficulty, but a quick scan reveals at least a couple of shockingly easy questions:

  • If two pencils cost 5 cents, how many pencils could you buy for fifty cents?
  • Which two numbers are next in this sequence: 7, 14, 28, 56, 112…
  • Which two words of the following four are opposite in meaning: dead, deep, alive, near

Many classic SAT sections have apparently been around since its inception. Students wishing they could permanently stay away from SAT analogies are out of luck–they’re in the 1926 test, too. However, there are also some odd sections. One section in particular asks students to create sentences in a fabricated language according to arbitrary rules set forth in the exam.

Wanna take the test yourself? You can review the document here. Unfortunately for those who are curious about how they’d measure up, there is no answer sheet against which one can judge their performance.