Chiming in late -- Tom you can totall do this! And it's worth it and I'll just I'll echo what everyone has said here, especially JZ.

Also, don't discount the power of baby steps and small changes.

GUD!

Tapes arrived. UPS does not lie. Will review same as soon as I can find and hook up a VCR player to view said tapes.

There is at least one working VCR on the discarded technology heap. I'm sure of it, somewhere under the 16 bit computers, just above the cassette tapes ... If I dig down to the eight tracks, I will be sure I have gone too deep.

WTF?

NYT headline: SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors [link]

Excerpt:

He was also struck by all the factual errors in even the top essays. An essay on the Civil War, given a perfect six, describes the nation being changed forever by the "firing of two shots at Fort Sumter in late 1862." (Actually, it was in early 1861, and, according to "Battle Cry of Freedom" by James M. McPherson, it was "33 hours of bombardment by 4,000 shot and shells.")

Dr. Perelman contacted the College Board and was surprised to learn that on the new SAT essay, students are not penalized for incorrect facts. The official guide for scorers explains: "Writers may make errors in facts or information that do not affect the quality of their essays. For example, a writer may state 'The American Revolution began in 1842' or ' "Anna Karenina," a play by the French author Joseph Conrad, was a very upbeat literary work.' " (Actually, that's 1775; a novel by the Russian Leo Tolstoy; and poor Anna hurls herself under a train.) No matter. "You are scoring the writing, and not the correctness of facts."

and

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."

other articles:

Washington Post [link]

L.A. Times [link]

SparkNotes Test Prep [link]

I used to be proud of how well I did on my history and English AP tests. Not any more. ::sigh::

I don't see what's wrong with not being penalized for wrong facts in the writing portion of the SATs. It's not a history test. Nor would I want to rely on the graders of that exam to know the facts well enough to penalize on the basis of them. Unlike, say, the actual history and literature SAT IIs or AP exams.

Yeah, it's different if it's a writing test or a history test. In real life, you have reference works in front of you, but you still have to put the sentences together.

I don't see what's wrong with not being penalized for wrong facts in the writing portion of the SATs.

Same here. What I don't like, however, is the formulaic writing that this kind of test perpetuates. As long as students learn that it's another style of writing, great, but I hope they don't think that it's necessarily good writing.

Aimée, Allyson, I last read this, and is not good.

I would love to be tested on an essay when the facts don't matter. I think it would be COOL.

Ditto.

A Civil War essay:

White northern dudes were pissed about cheap labor. Gunshooting pursued. Later, there was Fark.

I've never graded SAT essays, but I've graded placement tests before. The focus for placement tests is on grammar, organization, and coherence. Not facts and certainly not length.

Timelies all!

I'm just glad the essay section wasn't part of the SAT when I took it. Writing an essay in a short period of time is not my strong suit.