[zach]

> "Academic researchers say that uptick is a sign of grade inflation, not of smarter students."

I don't think this is right. There is good evidence that the highest percentiles of students (the ones populating the competitive colleges mentioned) are indeed smarter, because they have standardized test scores to match.

First off, the bar for a PSAT score that gets National Merit recognition has risen significantly for most students in recent years. More graphically though, the number of students who get a 36 on the ACT goes back a while and is a good representation of the upper score band:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_(test)#Highest_score

And indeed at the graduate level, GMAT scores at the top business schools are rising steadily:

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-b...

So instead of the positive, hopeful story "our best students are becoming even more capable, year after year," we get a story like this shaming colleges and universities for "grade inflation" instead. Disappointing.

[war1025]

It could also just as easily be that people are studying more for those tests ahead of time. I personally did maybe two hours of prep work before taking the ACT and SAT. I would guess that was on the high end of people I knew, many of whome I don't think even bothered to take the practice tests.

[duxup]

I attended a school that got questions about their average ACT scores. Other schools that you wouldn't expect had better scores.

Other schools provided ACT prep time for their students.

So did our school.

The difference was our school provided practice and prep for all students and everyone took the ACT.

The other schools also provided practice and prep tim, but the ACT was not required so many students didn't take it.

Education stats are always curious.

[alexbeloi]

IQ scores are also increasing[0].

Are we actually smarter than our grandparents? Or has the education system trained us to be better test takers (one of the suggested contributing factors).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

[TangoTrotFox]

You should read section 4 [1] of that page.

Somewhere around the mid 90s individuals in most developed countries started to end up with lower IQs than previous generations and there are ever more results corroborating this change, whose magnitude has been rather significant. IQ results are distributed to ensure a population distribution with a median of 100 and a standard deviation of about 15 points. And of course 84% of all people fall within one standard deviation. We're seeing declines that already in the multiple points and they do not seem to be stopping.

One critical point here is that there are two 'convenient' ways to try to dismiss this. And they really amount to the same thing and suffer the same flaw. Those ways are to argue that humans have started to reach some sort of peak intelligence, or that environmental effects were driving former increases in IQ and as we reach a very healthy and wealthy society compared to past times, we're just seeing diminishing returns. The problem is both of those convenient hypothesis would lead us to expect to see an asymptotic decline in growth that would approach zero. We're not seeing that. We're seeing IQ literally decrease, not grow more slowly.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Possible_end_of_p...

[Jach]

No they're not[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect#Possible_end_of_p...

[vilmosi]

I guess it depends on the country and timescale you're looking at. But they are increasing.

[jedberg]

Those tests have gotten easier. In fact, the SAT folks specifically made it easier because they were losing market share. Too many people were taking the ACT instead, so the SAT went back to their old format and then made it easer.

https://www.fairtest.org/sat-losing-marketshare-act-testopti...

[Smoofer]

I'm unsure whether this is exactly grade inflation, but both of those graphs can be explained by increased access to information.

Obviously people studied before, but our collective information about these standardized tests has become readily accessible.

Now, general test taking tips, test-specific guides, and even full courses on tests are available to everyone rather than those who could afford a book or a private tutor.

[icedchai]

Sounds believable, until you consider that the standardize tests are all getting easier, too.

[zach]

Right, score inflation alongside grade inflation. The administrators of the GMAT have an answer to that: https://www.gmac.com/why-gmac/gmac-news/gmnews/2017/july-201...

It says that it doesn't explain the "conundrum" of increased higher-end scores. But it definitely addresses that it's very unlikely the test has gotten easier, since average scores have remained stable, as they have for the PSAT and ACT.

[njarboe]

If the top 20% of the population took the ACT in the 1980's and now its the top 60%, one could easily see how the test got easier and the average scores remained stable.

[wutangson1]

out of curiosity, with regards to rising GMAT scores, does that really reflect that 'our student are even more capable'? The scores supposedly correspond to a percentage of the test taking population one scored higher than, right? So, how is it that in 2005-2010, the reported avg HBS score was a 710, and now it is much higher? Because this goes for all the top 5 (if not top 10 or 20). If a 720 then corresponded to doing better than 96% of the test taking population, where did all these other top 4% of test takers world wide come from in the last 10 years?