# SAT

16 Hacker News commenters recommended SAT and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** College admissions test people recommend as an objective, uniform measure that predicts first-year grades. Critics say it is too easy and easy to cram for.

## Why people recommend it

- Objective, uniform, hard to game (4 comments): "We could set up a standardized test for the UC schools ensure that the students being accepted have minimum baseline normalized across all applicants." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48310150)) "Standardized testing isn't perfect, but it's often the only objective equalizer we have." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48309289)) "they're relatively difficult for schools to game" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48329137))
- Predicts first-year college performance (2 comments): "It’s a pretty good measure for how a student will do in their first year in college." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46570688)) "SAT scores strongly correlate with GPA, retention, and degree completion" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48681510))
- Better measure than high school grades (2 comments): "grades (or at least grades in isolation) aren't a good predictor at all for this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48309389)) "the SAT is a far better measure of mathematical aptitude that high school grades" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48310068))

## What people warn about

- Too easy, can be prepared for (3 comments): "SAT is just a _bad_ test. It's way too easy to get top scores there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48313254)) "SAT as high school math exam itself I think is way too easy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48309541)) "SAT math is quite trivial and also can be prepared for" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48311564))
- Easy to game or cram for (2 comments): "since tests can be gamed so easily, I would caution against their over use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48909949)) "the SAT is a shitty IQ test that is constantly crammed for and cheated on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48637432))
- Test value questioned (2 comments): "That achievement has been hollowed out in tandem with the value of most college degrees." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46569570)) "I don't think it was a valuable test whatsoever" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48638879))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SAT", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sat/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).