The Third International Math & Science Study

TIMSS

TIMSS: Exposing the Truth Behind SAT Scores

The TIMSS study proved that a TIMSS score of 410 is equivalent to zero math skills.   But it also proved that politicized standardized tests seriously mislead us regarding the differences between the sexes in math skills.  A student taking SAT Math gets 200 points out of 800 just for signing his name. That leaves a possible 600 points. A third of the SAT Math test isn't math at all--it is silly questions which test memorization only, but not math skills. Anyone who finished high school, paid attention, remembered basic math principles, and correctly answered all memorization questions will get another 200 points in SAT Math. Without even proving that they can apply math principles to problem solving, they already have 400 points. Most of the other two thirds of the test is multiple choice questions. If you just guess on four-answer questions, you will get 25% of them correct and if you just guess on five-answer questions you will get 20% of them correct.  Just guessing on the other two thirds of the test will bag another 90 points. A student who signs his name, remembers math principles, answers the memorization questions correctly,  guesses on all the actual math questions, but never applies math principles to problem solving, will receive a score of 490 [read: Ground Zero].

The median SAT Math score of 498 for males indicates that the majority of males were able to apply math principles to problem solving.  But the SAT Math score of 455 for females shows that most girls don't even remember the math principles in the first place, much less are they able to apply them to problem solving. The median score for boys was 8 points higher than Ground Zero, but the median score for girls was 35 points lower, which makes the bell curves for math skills of boys and girls applicable:

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