Editing SAT (section)

==== By researchers ====
Because it is strongly correlated with general intelligence, the SAT has often been used as a proxy to measure intelligence by researchers, especially since 2004.<ref name="Frey-2019" /> In particular, scientists studying mathematically gifted individuals have been using the mathematics section of the SAT to identify subjects for their research.<ref name="O'Boyle-2005">{{Cite journal|last=O'Boyle|first=Michael W.|date=2005|title=Some current findings on brain characteristics of the mathematically gifted adolescent|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ854977.pdf|journal=International Education Journal|publisher=Shannon Research Press|volume=6|issue=2|pages=247–251|issn=1443-1475|access-date=August 26, 2021|archive-date=August 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826232712/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ854977.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

A growing body of research indicates that SAT scores can predict individual success decades into the future, for example in terms of income and occupational achievements.<ref name="Frey-2019" /><ref name="Dewan-2014">{{Cite news|last=Dewan|first=Shaila|date=March 29, 2014|title=How Businesses Use Your SATs|work=The New York Times|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/sunday-review/how-businesses-use-your-sats.html|url-status=live|access-date=February 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212173342/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/sunday-review/how-businesses-use-your-sats.html|archive-date=February 12, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Hambrick-2011">{{Cite web|last=Hambrick|first=David Z.|date=December 16, 2011|title=The SAT Is a Good Intelligence Test|url=https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/12/04/why-should-sats-matter/the-sat-is-a-good-intelligence-test|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226183950/https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/12/04/why-should-sats-matter/the-sat-is-a-good-intelligence-test|archive-date=February 26, 2021|access-date=March 1, 2021|website=The New York Times}}</ref> A longitudinal study published in 2005 by educational psychologists Jonathan Wai, David Lubinski, and Camilla Benbow suggests that among the intellectually precocious (the top 1%), those with higher scores in the mathematics section of the SAT at the age of 12 were more likely to earn a PhD in the [[Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics|STEM]] fields, to have a publication, to register a patent, or to secure university tenure.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wai|first1=Jonathan|last2=Lubinski|first2=David|last3=Benbow|first3=Camilla|date=2005|title=Creativity and Occupational Accomplishments Among Intellectually Precocious Youths: An Age 13 to Age 33 Longitudinal Study|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/attachments/56143/creativity-and-occupational-accomplishments-among-intellectually-precocious-youths.pdf|journal=Journal of Educational Psychology|publisher=American Psychological Association|volume=97|issue=3|pages=484–492|doi=10.1037/0022-0663.97.3.484|access-date=January 30, 2021|archive-date=August 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230821182206/https://www.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/attachments/56143/creativity-and-occupational-accomplishments-among-intellectually-precocious-youths.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Wai-2015" /> Wai further showed that an individual's academic ability, as measured by the average SAT or ACT scores of the institution attended, predicted individual differences in income, even among the richest people of all, and being a member of the 'American elite', namely Fortune 500 CEOs, billionaires, federal judges, and members of Congress.<ref name="Wai-2013">{{Cite journal|last=Wai|first=Jonathan|date=July–August 2013|title=Investigating America's elite: Cognitive ability, education, and sex differences|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289613000263|journal=Journal of Intelligence|volume=41|issue=4|pages=203–211|doi=10.1016/j.intell.2013.03.005|via=Elsevier Science Direct|access-date=February 14, 2021|archive-date=April 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428195436/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289613000263|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Frey-2019" /> Wai concluded that the American elite was also the cognitive elite.<ref name="Wai-2013" /> Gregory Park, Lubinski, and Benbow gave statistical evidence that intellectually gifted adolescents, as identified by SAT scores, could be expected to accomplish great feats of creativity in the future, both in the arts and in STEM.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Park|first1=Gregory|last2=Lubinski|first2=David|last3=Benbow|first3=Camilla|date=November 2007|title=Contrasting intellectual patterns predict creativity in the arts and sciences: tracking intellectually precocious youth over 25 years|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17958707/|journal=Psychological Science|volume=18|issue=11|pages=948–52|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.02007.x|pmid=17958707|s2cid=11576778|via=|access-date=February 14, 2021|archive-date=January 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116220448/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17958707/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Frey-2019" />

The SAT is sometimes given to students at age 12 or 13 by organizations such as the [[Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth]] (SMPY), Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and the Duke University [[Talent Identification Program]] (TIP) to select, study, and mentor students of exceptional ability, that is, those in the top one percent.<ref name="Haier-2018" /> Among SMPY participants, those within the top quartile, as indicated by the SAT composite score (mathematics and verbal), were markedly more likely to have a doctoral degree, to have at least one publication in STEM, to earn income in the 95th percentile, to have at least one literary publication, or to register at least one patent than those in the bottom quartile. Duke TIP participants generally picked career tracks in STEM should they be stronger in mathematics, as indicated by SAT mathematics scores, or the humanities if they possessed greater verbal ability, as indicated by SAT verbal scores. For comparison, the bottom SMPY quartile is five times more likely than the average American to have a patent. Meanwhile, as of 2016, the shares doctorates among SMPY participants was 44% and Duke TIP 37%, compared to two percent among the general U.S. population.<ref name="Lubinsky-2018">{{Cite book|last=Lubinsky|first=David|url=http://www.cambridge.org/9781316629642|title=The Nature of Human Intelligence|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-1-107-17657-7|editor-last=Sternberg|editor-first=Robert|location=|pages=|chapter=Chapter 15: Individual Differences at the Top|access-date=January 30, 2021|archive-date=August 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230821181135/https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/psychology/cognition/nature-human-intelligence?format=PB&isbn=9781316629642|url-status=live}}</ref> Consequently, the notion that beyond a certain point, differences in cognitive ability as measured by standardized tests such as the SAT cease to matter is gainsaid by the evidence.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Robertson|first1=Kimberley Ferriman|last2=Smeets|first2=Stijn|last3=Lubinski|first3=David|last4=Benbow|first4=Camilla P.|date=December 14, 2010|title=Beyond the Threshold Hypothesis: Even Among the Gifted and Top Math/Science Graduate Students, Cognitive Abilities, Vocational Interests, and Lifestyle Preferences Matter for Career Choice, Performance, and Persistence|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721410391442|journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science|publisher=Association for Psychological Science|volume=19|issue=6|pages=346–351|doi=10.1177/0963721410391442|s2cid=46218795|access-date=March 2, 2021|archive-date=March 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316123753/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721410391442|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 2010 paper which showed that the sex gap in SAT mathematics scores had dropped dramatically between the early 1980s and the early 1990s but had persisted for the next two decades or so, Wai and his colleagues argued that "sex differences in abilities in the extreme right tail should not be dismissed as no longer part of the explanation for the dearth of women in math-intensive fields of science."<ref name="Wai-2010" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Tierney|first=John|date=June 7, 2012|title=Daring to Discuss Women in Science|work=The New York Times|department=Science|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/science/08tier.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all|url-status=live|access-date=February 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170412093229/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/science/08tier.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all|archive-date=April 12, 2017}}</ref>