The current model seems to rely on what could be called "security by obscurity". Of course students shouldn't be able to spend hours analysing a single text before the test, but if you publish a corpus of 200 texts, then anyone who read and analysed them thoroughly before the test aren't really cheating anymore, they are just educating themselves.
http://www.arrl.org/question-pools
I don't know if something like that would work for the SAT, but if the question pool were large enough, it would.
Less exactly but still useful: critical thinking, intelligence, ability to solve problems quickly.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/201...
SAT and ACT each have a timed handwritten essay component, but it's not very well-regarded. There is no long-form working of problems, though that does appear on AP/IB subject tests which are also necessary to be competitive at highly selective schools.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/201...
Intelligence is dynamic and amorphous and is not something that can be measured on a single linear scale. My biggest objection to the current paper-and-and-pencil-and-no-technology test taking model is the inherent Luddism which stresses an obsolete method of learning.
What evidence do you have for your claim about intelligence?
Edit: correction: the TI-82 has a 6MHz processor where as an iPhone has a 1.4 GHz processor
Also, you're wrong about the billions of times faster. Look up the numbers.
If we are trying to teach students how to work in the real world, shouldn't we let them use computers that they would be using in the real world as opposed to obsolete computers that were made before they were born?
>If we are trying to teach students how to work in the real world
The SAT is not about assessing knowledge. It's supposed to be an aptitude test.
Ah this appears to be the root of the problem I was looking for, the game rules.
The question begs: what would we rather have our children have aptitude in, closed and isolated paper-and-pencil exams using obsolete technology, or open and collaborative problem solving using modern technology?