Buckle up, kids! Daddy's puttin' the hammer down.

Spike ,'Touched'


What Happens in Natter 35 Stays in Natter 35  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Gus - May 05, 2005 1:39:15 pm PDT #1693 of 10001
Bag the crypto. Say what is on your mind.

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.


dcp - May 05, 2005 1:42:54 pm PDT #1694 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

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::


bon bon - May 05, 2005 1:46:16 pm PDT #1695 of 10001
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

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.


Jesse - May 05, 2005 1:51:42 pm PDT #1696 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

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.


ChiKat - May 05, 2005 1:54:20 pm PDT #1697 of 10001
That man was going to shank me. Over an omelette. Two eggs and a slice of government cheese. Is that what my life is worth?

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.


§ ita § - May 05, 2005 1:57:01 pm PDT #1698 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

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.


Gus - May 05, 2005 2:00:29 pm PDT #1699 of 10001
Bag the crypto. Say what is on your mind.

Ditto.

A Civil War essay:

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


Burrell - May 05, 2005 2:00:32 pm PDT #1700 of 10001
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!

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.


Sheryl - May 05, 2005 2:08:12 pm PDT #1701 of 10001
Fandom means never having to say "But where would I wear that?"

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.


Maria - May 05, 2005 2:17:46 pm PDT #1702 of 10001
Not so nice is that I'm about to ruin a Friday morning for a bunch of people because of a series of unfortunate events and an upset foreign government. - shrift

Late chiming in here, and the good stuff has already been said, but Tom should know just how much people care about him.

You can do this, and we'll be here for whatever you need us. Lots of ~ma to you.