IOwnedMay5SAT

Alright, so I looked at my SAT1 essay and I couldn't read half the introductory paragraph. All the spaces where I erased and wrote a word over the smudge were impossible to read. I know that I was completly able to read the essay while in the test room and I'm a little bit ****ed about gaps of illegible words in my paragraphs. It really took away from my essay's coherence and I believe it negatively impacted my grade. The college board should figure out a way to better reproduce the essays. Also, I believe that some MIT professor did a study that proved the average score of a person writing in cursive was higher than the people writing in print. The collegeboard should implement a program that scans the writing and puts it into typed print... For the price they charge to take the test they could do alot better at making the essay portion fairer.

stix2400

The MIT professor's findings were insignificant (as in a .2 average difference). I guess it is because those who write in cursive probobly write more in general. Just think about it. It's like the essay length thing. Those who know what they're talking about will have longer essays. That doesn't mean that Joe Shmoe can make his score higher by rambling on for half a page after he ran out of ideas. An essay written in print would recieve the same score as the same essay in cursive. It's just that those people who write in cursive generally know what they're doing more than others. Non-native speakers are less likely to write in cursive and there are other groups as well...

TheVeganActress

did you use the right type of pencils?

IOwnedMay5SAT

I agree with you for the most part on the MIT professor's findings about cursive versus print writing and I just threw it in because it is the only study I have heard of regarding essay bias. I did write in no:2 pencil for the essay part. Problems came when I erased and wrote something above the erased word. There is a whole line that is impossible to read in first paragraph because I erased a whole sentance and wrote another above it. Along with single words being illegible throughout killing the flow of the essay. Is there any way to get the essay rescored... I got a 9 on it which is another reason of concern to me. One gave it a 4 one gave it a 5. Again emphasizing the lack of perscion in their grading system.

xALTRUISTx

The essay overlooks differences in writing speed. Maybe, that's why colleges aren't taking it seriously...or they're just waiting. I had a great essay IN MY MIND, but I didn't write quickly enough to finish it. That,s not fair. It's says nothing about my writing ability...just ability to WRITE. At least, I write neatly.

oregonianmom

My S printed his essay (he *never* writes in cursive), and his handwriting was pretty bad from what I could tell when I looked at it online. He got a perfect score.

IOwnedMay5SAT

Not talking about handwriting.. I am talking about the college board's "replicas" of the actual essay where the machine copys it in such a way that it is illegible where as if you read the original there would be no ambiguity in what was written.

frrrph

Oh, I thought you meant as in its structure and criteria, etc. After some browsing here on CC, as an international student, I found out that some of the features that would help one get a good score on my old country's standardized test, apparently are cause for reduction on the American SAT.

I took the ACT so I don't know if there is as big of a difference there, but for example, the SAT values literary quotations whereas the test of the other country (Western, high-quality educational system) would probably mark you down for trying to "fill space". Good vocabulary and straight-up lines of reasoning is what works there.

Every test is biased in its own way, by this definiton, so it really is about learning what kind of a structure is desired and what type of skillset the test is trying to assess.

iin77

Essay is biased. I got a 9 SAT and 8 ACT essay. What other explanation is there? =-)

xALTRUISTx

LOL@iin

If iin doesn't score well, it MUST be biased. It simply must!

russiasaurus

The essay's ridiculous and colleges know it. Who ever heard of accurately judging writing ability based on, essentially, speed alone?

citygirlsmom

guess you need to press down harder with that wee pencil!!! They can show a woman's underwear wtih a google satelite, but the CB can't scan a legible page!!!