I'm sure it will be commented upon ad nauseam by folks with more energy and insight than I happen to have right now, but I did get a kick out of this article on the new "writing sample" portion of the SAT.
Les Perelman, director of undergraduate writing at MIT, analyzed the graded sample tests and found a correlation between the length of the essays and their scores: "'the longer the essay, the higher the score,' Dr. Perelman said... 'if you graded them based on length without ever reading them, you'd be right over 90% of the time.'"
In fact, Perelman can now grade essays just by glancing at them from a distance:
SAT graders are told to read an essay just once and spend two to three minutes per essay, and Dr. Perelman is now adept at rapid-fire SAT grading. This reporter held up a sample essay far enough away so it could not be read, and he was still able to guess the correct grade by its bulk and shape. "That's a 4," he said. "It looks like a 4."
Writers may make errors in facts or information that do not affect the quality of their essays. For example, a writer may state... "Anna Karenina," a play by the French author Joseph Conrad, was a very upbeat literary work.' "
I don't find any of this very outrageous, frankly. I'm always impressed when anyone, child or adult, student or teacher, manages to write a complete grammatical sentence. It happens every now and again. Sometimes it seems as though it's entirely by accident, like winning the lottery. Filling up a whole sheet of paper with such sentences, in any order, is actually a pretty impressive feat. And it's not as if anyone genuinely believes the "writing sample" test evaluates the ability to write well. Sixes for everyone!
Posted by Dr. Frank at May 4, 2005 04:44 PM | TrackBackMe your sentences like. Theeir 2-cul.
Posted by: Van Serpico at May 4, 2005 05:08 PMI think that if they actually graded the essays based on the writing, most kids would fail. Even as a sophmore in college I see atrocious writing on a daily basis. There are many kids that can't even string a sentence together let alone a paragaph. Besides, aren't the SATs long enough already?
Posted by: Manda Magpie at May 4, 2005 06:55 PMi was one of the first group to take the gre with the writing section a couple of years ago. it was really easy. i was thinking, sweet god, how could you even get into grad school without getting a six here?
so apparently the writing requirements even for those getting post-graduate education are not that strenuous. and yes i did capitalize. but i've gotten much much lazier since then.
Posted by: r a e d y at May 4, 2005 11:24 PMSo are they going to nix the SAT II writing test? I took that and it was pretty easy.
Posted by: Manda Magpie at May 4, 2005 11:42 PMIt just furthers my beief that the children aren't stupid and the education system isn't failing but the educator are. That is why we need to quit throwing money at the problem and throw away the crappy teachers. Note: Neither of those sentences are correctly structured, but I'm sure you're aware of just how difficult it is to write a sentence of any length or great meaning while making sure that you don't have any dangling participles, are correctly using your gerunds and correclty placing your prepositional phrases. I have an English minor and can do it, but it's just too difficult and time consuming. You end up sounding like a Vulcan anyway. The best way to write an absolutely prefect sentence is to keep it short and simple such as: My name is Zaphod. That is a perfect sentence. ;)
Posted by: Zaphod at May 5, 2005 12:58 PMThe future goal is to get rid of the national SAT-9 test and focus only on state and local High School Exit Exams ONLY. The SATs aren't what they used to be. These kids are so used to being tested and tested and tested. What's one more stinking test?
Posted by: Leslie at May 8, 2005 10:36 PM