The SAT Favors Rich Kids?

For many years, individuals have attempted to determine whether or not the SAT is influenced in any way by the economic statuses of the students who take it. Although CollegeBoard remains firm in their belief that the SAT is "uncoachable", the numbers say otherwise. Test score data from California has shown that test-takers with family incomes of less than $20,000 a year had a mean score of 1310 while test-takers with family incomes of over $200,000 had a mean score of 1715, a difference of 405 points. Further calculations have shown that there is an average of 40-points gained in SAT score for every $20,000 in income. Many attribute these statistics to the facts that families with more money simply have the time and capital to invest in test preparation, while students whose families do not have the resources to do so ultimately do not score as well as their wealthier counterparts. Herein lies another problem with the SAT: the fact that socioeconomic factors play into the success, or lack of success, students see in their results.