leafblade1354

You don't need a 12/12 on the essay to get an 800 on the writing. (Thank goodness )

broetchen

Why assume her essay wasn't good? Rather than the explanations about how her writing may have been off due to lack of time, lack of editing, why not conclude that the essay portion of the test is not a good indicator of writing skill. Seems to me to be the more likely explanation.

JBVirtuoso

First of all, this is great. I'm glad someone was brave enough to do this. It doesn't really prove much, but it's interesting. I'd also be interested to see how different age groups perform. For instance, a typical grad student probably hasn't lost much cognitive ability, so I wonder how a grad student in, say, anthropology would do on the SAT.

Next, I know this thread isn't about the efficiency of the writing section, but it came up anyway. I'm glad my college (the University of Chicago) places virtually no value on it. I'm considered by most to be a good essay writer; I've won plenty of awards for it. But I scored a 10 on the SAT essay, and a 10 and later an 8 on the ACT essay. I am grateful for SAT essay prompts, as the ACT ones are extremely limiting. I didn't enjoy writing about high school sports, which is probably why my score suffered so much that last time.

Fernando Morient

did you guys just realize... just realize!!!!!!!!
she messed up our curve on the CR.
(just kidding I know the curve gets already decided way before the test results come out depending on the difficulty)

toblin

Is there any wonder why the majority of schools absolutely ignore the essay portion? No. And it's because the scoring is hopelessly subjective.

The SAT peeps were coerced into requiring the essay part by California. As a result, other schools took a harder look at the whole standardized test paridum. And whata-u-know, eliminating the whole SAT requirement has become common.
Good work CB.

ThisCouldBeHeavn

Whether she wrote a good essay is irrelevant. The point is that an ideal test of writing ability would give someone like her a 12/12. Maybe she did write a bad essay, but knowing how good of a writer she is, what does that say about the test's ability to gauge someone's writing?

I wonder what her actual (non-adjusted) original scores were.

bartleby

I don't know if anyone pointed this out, but all tests that measure IQ (which the SAT has been proven to do--it is a watered-down IQ test) are designed for a particular age group in mind. 58 year olds are not the ones expected to be taking the SAT.

Vyse

My grandparents have amazing vocabularies, but I couldnt ever see them succeeding at doing math. The test format itself might even make it hard for them to place the definitions of words that they clearly know. But I showed them that freerice.com game, and they both scored way higher than me. They both have read a lot since retiring, which had to have helped also.

screwitlah

Again, blindly assuming that her writing ability is of 12/12 material. As many have pointed out before, professional writers aren't necessarily perfect writers, and they usually have more than enough time at their disposal to polish their final work before publication, plus an entire army of colleagues and editors to back her up. What you read in books and the papers is the result of TEAMWORK, not an individual's effort. Please keep that in mind. Don't blame the test just because it's fashionable to do so.

BTW, 10/12 is an EXCELLENT score. If she scored something like 6 I'd question the test, but not when it's a 10.

Stevens11

This is a very interesting piece if you consider some recent findings and common assumptions about the way mind works. I've heard that people in their late teens/twenties - the typical age of an SAT taker - make decisions based on quick thinking and fast analysis of new information, which would help a test taker. Folks in their 50s supposedly rely on past experience to guide their decisions, instead of quick thinking. The author has spent decades as a writer, and her writing score is essentially the same - perhaps because she's been "practicing" all these years. The math score dropped.

crucial bbq

You have to keep in mind that she is a journalist and journalistic writing, particularly for a newspapers, follows its own style and formatting rules. She may be good at her own particular style, but that does not necessarily mean that she would be able to score a 12/12 in a timed essay. Also, keep in mind that she is (more than likely) used to conducting research for her articles and not banging out something in a short amount of time.

Anyways; I am going to take the SAT for the first time at the end of the year, and I am 35 years old. I am taking it because I will be a transfer student and two of the schools that I am going to apply to require SAT's from every applicant -no exceptions.

I am really curious as to how will I do.

arlington91

haha this is quite an interesting article. Im studin for the sat 2 for spanish right now and i feel like i can emphatize with her. I havent taken spanish for almost 2 years and now i can barely get a 500 yet i was almost fluent two years ago.

sigurros

....... face palm

RacinReaver

Grad students will generally have taken the GRE at the end of their undergrad education. The math is the same as what was on the SAT, but the Verbal has been ramped up. Sadly, even as an engineering student, I did worse on the math section, but I managed to perform only slightly worse on the GRE verbal (as compared to most of my friends who completely bombed it). The real surprise was my SAT II Writing score of 520 compared to my GRE Writing score of 5.5/6. Amazing how I can somehow jump from the bottom 40% of college bound students to the top 20% of graduate school students with only having taken three classes in my undergrad which required me to write essays.

jcsmooth

I took the SAT once in December 07, did the same "prep" that the writer had in the 60s (alarm clock setting) and managed just fine. It's absolutely true that the culture now has more to do with higher stress levels than actual difficulty of the test increasing.