By JACQUES STEINBERG
for the NY Times
Every year, the SAT reduces more than a few teenage test-takers to tears.
But few questions on the so-called Big Test appear to have provoked more anxious chatter — at least in this era of texting and online comment streams and discussion threads — than an essay prompt in some versions of the SAT administered last Saturday in which students were asked to opine on reality television.
“This is one of those moments when I wish I actually watched TV,” one test-taker wrote on Saturday on the Web site College Confidential, under the user name “littlepenguin.”“I ended up talking about Jacob Riis and how any form of media cannot capture reality objectively,” he wrote, invoking the 19th-century social reformer. “I kinda want to cry right now.”
Less than a minute later, a fellow test-taker identified as “krndandaman” responded: “I don’t watch tv at all so it was hard for me. I have no interest in reality tv shows...”
The commenter ended the post with the symbol for a frowning face.
If I'm not mistaken, the essays for standardized tests like SAT aren't graded for factual accuracy.
ReplyDeleteTheoretically, then, it should be possible to respond to any standardized essay prompt by completely fabricating specific examples and scientific studies, resulting in a "convincing" essay of complete bullshit.
I love that some sweet geek is worried that an answer about Jacob Riis might fail!
ReplyDeleteMore evidence of pandering to "supposed" interests of good students.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I use pop culture references in class to connect to more esoteric or non-mainstream concepts that I'm teaching. I've never had a student NOT know who Charlie Sheen was or what American Idol was, though. Are these all home-schoolers and Amish kids taking the SAT?
ReplyDeleteI had a horrible SAT experience. Hungover. Wearing last night's clothes. All of that.
ReplyDeleteHow excited I would have been to have had a prompt about Sesame Street or WKRP in Cincinnati.
This made me LMAO. TAKE THAT, TigerMoms.
ReplyDeleteIt sucks that SchmittyRKD and Darla are right. I mean... you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't know who Jacob Riis is. But none of my students know who Johnny Carson is.
The question is not about reality TV.
ReplyDeleteRe-read and discuss.
Oh man...my detailed comment errored out in Blogger. Not enough time to type it again. Lite version @SchmittyRKD:
ReplyDelete-Last time I looked at current literature, you are correct:
-facts were not germane or scoreable...and the biggest determinate for a high score was word count (Perelman/MIT found a 90% correlation).
Test takers had a 1 in 3 chance of being scored by somebody with less than 5 years teaching experience. Graders had an average of 330 essays to score in a 10-day window.
All of this is 5 years old and current mileage may vary....