MAYOR HENRY MESSAGE

I hope you are enjoying your summer! Throughout the summer months, there is much to see and do here In Old Bridge Township. For great family and friend outings, please visit our local parks and fields for some outdoor recreation. We have fantastic outdoor spaces for everyone to enjoy.

The nationally accredited Silver Linings Center continues to develop new and exciting social, wellness and lifestyle programs to service the seniors of our community. A full calendar of activities is planned in August 2023. If interested in joining the fun, call 732-721-5600 x6600 to set up an appointment to register, or visit the Township website at oldbridge.com/silverlinings for more information. The Silver Linings Center also provides services including transportation, healthcare guidance, pharmaceutical assistance and so much more.

The Old Bridge Township Department of Parks and Recreation is pleased to announce our annual Saltwater Day which will take place on Saturday,

August 12th from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm. This event will have arts, crafts, vendors, rides, entertainment, food, and conclude with fireworks. Live music will be played throughout the day. For our 21 and older guests, the Laurence Harbor Fire Department will be hosting a beer garden, proof of age required. This event will take place rain or shine.

On August 31st at 4pm, I invite residents to join myself along with the Municipal Alliance for the Prevention of Substance Abuse in the Silver Linings Center for International Overdose Awareness Day. We will remember those without stigma that we have lost to overdose and those who continue to struggle.

I would like to thank all the local organizations that have participated during the summer months in Mayor Henry’s Clean Team in conjunction with the Township’s Public Works Recycling Department.

As you enjoy the remainder of your summer, please continue to be safe and stay well.

Mayor Owen Henry

WAS THE SAT MORE DIFFICULT IN MARCH?

After a parent posed the aforementioned question to me for the 100th time, I decided it was a good topic for this column. The answer is...maybe.

The March SAT may have also been “easier.” Each SAT, just like every other standardized test (the NJGPA, the ACT, the GRE, the LSAT, and the MCAT) is “equated.”

Unless you are a psychometrician, you may have heard that the SAT is “curved.” This is not exactly true. A 10 point curve, as we’ve always understood it in school, is what happens when the best score in the class is a 90. The SAT is scored out of 1600, but there are not 1600 questions on the test, nor is the score reflective of the percent of questions a student gets correct.

First, the SAT is centered, or scaled so that the mean (average) score is about 1060. In 2021, the average reading and writing and language score was 523 and the average math score was 528. The standard deviation (which is a calculation of the difference in scores) is about 100 points.

The SAT is scored comparatively, that is, each score represents a percentile. For example, a 1400 is the 94th percentile. Although the College Board tries to make all tests of equal difficulty, inevitably, there is some variation. As a result, on some tests, getting 19 questions wrong is a 1400, while on others, getting 21 wrong is a 1400. Simply put, on a harder test a student could get more wrong and get the same score as a student who gets more right on an easier test. In the end, it is a wash.

It is poppycock that the SAT is more difficult in any given month. The March test is released to the public every year. It is equated differently every year…and I can tell you from personal experience that sometimes my students perform better on the March test, while other times they do not perform quite as well.

Special thanks to Aaron Golumbfskie of Prep Matters, Mike Bergin of Chariot Learning, and Amy Seeley of Seeley Test Pros for the information that made this article possible. Check out Aaron featured on Mike and Amy’s podcast, Tests and the Rest, at https://gettestbright. com/how-the-sat-is-actually-scored/ Suggestions for a topic? Contact Paul Pscolka at Paul.Pscolka@ivymasters. com 732-485-6480 www.ivymasters.com