zhuern

by the way, how long are SAT results valid?

Sally_Rubenstone

The College Board keeps SAT scores on file until the end of time. (Exception: The parents of students who took SAT's in middle school for admission to talent-search programs must specifically request to have those records preserved or they will not be.)

I took the SAT's in 1968, and I could access my scores from the College Board even now, if I wanted to. (Though, in fact, I still remember them ... as pathetic as that may sound. )

However, most college admission officials claim that the scores are only valid for five years. Some may ask applicants to re-test if they took the SAT more than five years earlier; others may waive the scores for older applicants.

kwu

Unnecessarily insulting anyone is reprehensible. However, I fail to see how one's age mitigates or aggravates the offense.

This sort of condescension and pretentiousness is far more obnoxious.

--

With regards to the article and its author, it's not so much the fairly strong essay score that bothered me but more importantly Shellenbarger's decision to hide her Writing score--which is comprised of both the Multiple Choice subscore and the Essay score. Since the Essay score is, in my opinion, fairly strong, a low total Writing score would therefore reveal a poor grasp of the rules of English grammar. Since she has decided not to disclose her Writing score, one might assume that this is indeed the case, that Shellenbarger did poorly on the Writing section.

QuantMech

Hmm . . . offhand, I'd guess that Sue Shellenbarger scored somewhere between 720 and 780 on the writing portion. She scored 800 on the CR, after all. Her quick run through the blue book should have shown her the grammar rules that CB particularly cares about, and also the level of formality that they expect in the writing section.

I'm impressed that she managed to score 600 M, when she hasn't been using math very much at all for 40+ years. Personally, I'd guess that she found studying so "hard," because the SAT material is--well, really, let's face it--not exactly captivating, especially for someone who has been out of the classroom for so long (and who has probably experienced a detectable drop in her personal boredom threshold, as a result).

Joel Hildebrand, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, published his last research paper at the age of 98. There's no reason that others can't emulate him, if they live that long.

azrim14

can i get into collegepark with a low gpa and high SAT scores? Also what summer college courses would look good on my HS transcript?

ThisCouldBeHeavn

tsan's EC's > you

Somebody Random

This is a pretty awesome story.

I never took the SAT, but I did do practice problems out of the Blue Book and others for the fun of it. Why didn't I take it?

I was poor. Amazingly I've been able to pull some strings and send myself to Community College this fall after a whole year since graduation.

Avalanche Lily

Essay-wise, when the SAT was revised I remember people testing the graders to see what kind of scores Hemingway, Shakespeare, and other authors whose writing ability is less in question that the author of this article would score. The results were not good. Admittedly, Shakespeare's English skills were for an entirely different kind of English, and he had a tendency to make up words, but the point is that the SAT essay examines an entirely different kind of writing than that which professional writers use. A 10/12 probably just means that this reporter may not be as good at making up and explaining examples for an extremely broad topic as she is for reporting in a way that is both informative and entertaining.

Also, it may mean as little as that her graders were in a bad mood, which to me is the scariest part.

carpeveum

I hope many parents everywhere will read about your brave experiment. I think you did an awesome job!

Doctor Moi

I would like to challange my mother... She doesn't even remember what her SAT scores were!

monstor344

Which is exactly why the essay section either needs to be removed or heavily reworked.

easyasabc

lol my highest is 11/12, but 10/12 doesn't judge a writer's skill to produce good work. I mean imagine, thats like JK Rowling being forced to write her 7th harry potter book in like a week two..haha