<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>I notice that most of the posters who think this is no big deal are younger. Just wait til you’re in your 50’s! I am studying a foreign language in a class where the other students range from 15-25 (I’m 50), and although I pick up concepts more quickly, the memorizing is killing me. Every time I review a chapter from a few weeks ago, it’s like I’ve never seen it before. <em>sigh</em> I would absolutely bomb the SATs, and I’m smart.</p>
<p>I’m not making a blind assumption, I’ve read the article written by her. And though there is an editor, it’s not like they wrote the article for her. At most they would have made a few minor changes. Even if you assume she’s not a perfect writer, it’s silly for the SAT to expect better than you could get out of a professional. Sure she also has to adjust for the format, but that just shows how out of step the SAT essay is with every other writing assignment a person is given.</p>
<p>I find it a touch sad how reverently some cling to the idea that the SAT test just HAS to be accurate. Her score of “10” MUST mean that her essay wasn’t that good, etc. etc. I guess College Board has done a great job indoctrinating their customers on the infallibility of their tests. Come on, people, even if you hold the reasoning test in high regard-- most people agree that the contrived nature of the essay and its scoring isn’t going to necessarily reward every decent writer with a high score. And just because SAT didn’t give you a high score on that essay, does not mean that you aren’t a capable writer.</p>
<p>OK, I just have to speak up for the over 50 crowd and dispel the myth that at our age our cognitive skills are diminshed. Let’s not contribute to the rationale of those who would discriminate against us based on age! Barring any health issues, there is absolutley no reason that our mental capacities cannot improve with age. I was over 50 when I graduated from law school , and if I do say so myself, I am better than ever!</p>
<p>The writing section correlates as well as the rest of the SAT with freshman academic performance --or better, but it’s easy to understand why a professional writer got a 10. She omits needless words. .</p>
<p>^ I deeply hope that matok’s comment was not to be taken seriously. Otherwise, what you’ve said was extraordinarily rude and disrespectful. Banter is excusable among people of your own age, but unnecessarily insulting a person old enough to be your parent is highly reprehensible.</p>
<p>Thanks for leaping to my defense, but I had no problem with matok’s post, t-san. Apparently it’s only my ability to crack a joke that has been “impared” by age.</p>
<p>1960s teens aren’t the only ones who just set alarm clocks. ;)</p>
<p>Kudos to Mrs. Shellenbarger, though. I’m sure that relearning math after being away from it for decades was horribly hard. Luckily I’ve never had to do that.</p>
<p>Im in my mid 40s and may be able to complete my bachelors degree this year if I can keep my current pace. My mom was kind of an inspiration as she earned her masters when she was in her 50s. I see that other posters are still working the gray matter like PoetsMom graduating from law school in her 50s and mousegray is studying a foreign language at 50. </p>
<p>I think its great that folks have the drive to keep learning and expanding their abilities at any age. Not sure if I will go for a masters or go back and try to learn Spanish again but I most likely will involve myself with some kind of educational activity in the years to come.</p>