> SAT, of course, has not been here since Year 1. I never even heard of
> it until I already had my Ph.D. In fact, the first time I ever heard of the
> GRE was when another person on the faculty proclaimed that *everyone*
> in grand school had taken it. These tests are relatively recent. No SAT
> (or any other national test) at Western Michigan in 1947; no GRE at
> U of Mich in 1955.
it derives from military attempts to develop, well, a Standard Aptitude Test; as such, it made a pretty big leap during WWII. initially, ivy league schools adopted it to test students who were applying for scholarships. midwestern schools--even now, i think--accept another test, called ACT.
there's a new history of the SAT out, _The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy_ by nicholas lemann (FSG), and a very redable review of it in NYRB:
<http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWarchdisplay.cgi?19991118020R>
kalamazoo, eh? heh. a b c d e f g i got the hell out of there.
cheers, t