<p>Being a professional writer does not make you a GOOD writer, nor does it mean you have the certain subset of skills necessary to writing the essay. I can think of at least a couple of professional or at least full-time writers who would do very poorly…</p>
<p>That test is so easy. If you’re smart enough, it’s no stress at all.</p>
<p>Oh wow.</p>
<p>People trying to say that SAT Writing score means more than being a professional writer…</p>
<p>NOT SURPRISING, coming from CC</p>
<p>Just because you get paid for writing doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good at it. C’mon. It simply means somebody likes it enough to pay for it. :/</p>
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<p>But reading her writing, wouldn’t you say that she writes better than 90% of the people who get 12’s on their SAT essay?</p>
<p>All of you are assuming that she wrote as well in the essay test as she usually does at her newsdesk. that’s a huge assumption. for all we know, she might have underperformed badly and her essay was absolutely horrible, and you can’t blame the test for that</p>
<p>I remember looking at my algebra II book the summer after my freshman year at college (music major) and realizing sadly that I couldn’t do some of the problems I used to be able to do easily. It’s like a foreign language–if you don’t use it it goes away.</p>
<p>I’m still good on grammar & word usage, but I’d really hate to have to write the essay. The most critical writing I’ve done lately has been a letter to the editor…about 100 words.</p>
<p>Re the writing score: The author probably doesn’t toss off her columns in 25 minutes without editing and polishing.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to see if people who write under shorter deadlines, such as bloggers or daily columnists, would score better than writers who occasionally write in a weekly magazine and are accustomed to longer deadlines.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the essay was timed, something professional writers aren’t accustomed to. They often go through multiple phases of brainstorming and editing, so an all-or-nothing-type test like this would surely affect her writing performance.</p>
<p>The CR score impressed me lol.</p>
<p>You don’t need a 12/12 on the essay to get an 800 on the writing. (Thank goodness 
)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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)</p>
<p>Is there any wonder why the majority of schools absolutely ignore the essay portion? No. And it’s because the scoring is hopelessly subjective.</p>
<p>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.<br>
Good work CB.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>I wonder what her actual (non-adjusted) original scores were.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>