How much do you miss high school?
There’s been a bit of to-do* in the blogosphere following a recent NYT article on the essay portion of the new (since March 2005) SAT. The article quoted (scanned) in full three essays that had scored perfect twelves on the real test, then made a minor fuss about the “imperfections” and awkward writing.
What, then? Are these essays really the cream of the crop? Is most student writing much worse than this?** Can a 25-minute essay test on an abstract philosophical topic reasonably assess one’s writing skills? What are all these kids whining about, anyway?
Enter the Blogger SAT Challenge, created/hosted/whatever by Dave Munger and Chad Orzel. For a bunch of people who’ve been griping about students’ poor performance on what seems like a straightforward task, it’s time to put their money where their mouths are***. I won’t take the time to explain it all here; if you’re interested, go read about it for yourself. But you’ll have to do it RIGHT NOW WHILE YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT IT, as the challenge ends at midnight tonight.
Do you have what it takes to get into college (all over again)? Prove it. Take the challenge and find out just how short 25 minutes really is.
[Full disclosure: I’m one of the graders. Mwahahaha. Don’t worry, it’s all anonymous.]
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* Good blog etiquette would demand that I include actual links here and not just wave my hands at some vague discussion out in cyberspace. My body, on the other hand, demands that I get enough sleep tonight.
** Um, ‘fraid so. Don’t get me started.
*** This sounds horrible, but the “their” is actually plural (i.e., not the singular “their” that really means “his or her”).
P.S. Arrrrrrrgh! I’ve missed Talk Like a Pirate Day AGAIN. This is what happens when you go to a less-than-quirky college. (Is there an adjective that means “mainstream” or “popular,” but in a pejorative sense? I can’t think of one.)
Tags: writing
September 20th, 2006 at 7:28 am
I also completely missed talk like a pirate day! This makes me sad …
And there is no way that I am going to try to take that essay test … I hated high school and actually failed the essay portion of this test that we had to take to graduate (I passed the second time). I can usually do fine in my hum classes, but only if I am given more time and I am actually interested in the topic.
September 20th, 2006 at 9:36 am
bourgeois
September 20th, 2006 at 10:46 am
@Shannon: Yeah. Uninteresting, too-broad prompts are what I like least about the SAT essay.
@cly: Oooh, that’s a good one. Not the sense I was looking for, but a quality word nonetheless.