Sorry, but grades/ec activities are WAY more important

larmonely
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:52:15 +0000

Let me sum up everything:

Vocab memorization is worthless.

Math problesm that are so easy that if you accidentally misread one of the numerous questions, you will get a lower score and suffer the 1/4 penalty.

Essay in 25 minutes what were they thinking…

Choose THE BEST answer questions which is what the COLLEGEBOARD thinks is the best, when ususally the college board people are old scientists living in a basement.

1/4 penalty FOR TRYING. The more you know without completely knowing how to do something the higher the odds that you will get a lower score for trying then someone who does not know anything at all. That’s smart.

All this adding together makes a pretty worthless test. Take the ACT. when the SAT becomes actually a viable test and not just an advertisement campaign, then it will be a fair test.



Vocab memorization is not worthless. Having a sophisticated vocabulary allows one to communicate ideas more effectively, an essential skill for success in college.

Math problems that are generally easy? They’re logic based questions, and some of them can be a bit tricky, if you don’t focus. That’s why you focus, and don’t accidentally misread the questions. And if you were to excel at math (which is the impression I’m getting from you since you think so highly of yourself as to think yourself qualified to objectively bash on a widely used, widely researched system), you would know that “accidentally misreading” a question or three won’t add on the extra docked point from the 1/4 guessing penalty.

An essay in 25 minutes? This is for the sake of getting your grade out in time. Do you know how long it takes to grade two page (max) essays? How about 1.5 million of those? How about 4-5 page ones from an hour-long test? Do you really think you have enough to say to fill up that much? 25 minutes is adequate for a 2 page essay, and with practice, coming up with an argument takes less and less time.

Furthermore, how do you know that the collegeboard people are “old scientists living in a basement?” Contrary to what you think, they go over their answers countless times, looking at all sides of the argument for every “debatable” answer. If they weren’t careful with making sure that there is a powerful argument for an answer, they would be in big ****, because that would affect the scores of a million+ test-takers. (And the only truly debatable answers on the test won’t knock you down to a 500-600, buddy.)

I do agree with you that the entire collegeboard SAT thing is a money-grubbing (I don’t care if they’re “non-profit,” $8 for early AP scores when they could just upload the scores online?) system, but it is undoubtedly a system that (though not perfect) adequately measures intelligence, work ethic, and communication-skills - all skills needed in college.