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05/07/2005 Archived Entry: "SAT"
More SAT
Making the rounds, NPR interviews MIT's Les Perelman on the SAT and its problems. Les does do a good job critiquing the SAT, but not for the problems related to timed-writing assessment. Instead, he critiques the SAT's approach: the de-emphasis on facts, the dependence on the 5 paragraph essay model, etc.
But....Perelman still wants an exam for writing. He asks for: An all day affair, "two lengthy pieces of writing," time to "revise," ability to have readings ahead of time, etc.
I feel like the only person who thinks that whatever the flavor, the test does nothing. I'm a fairly educated person. I have a fancy degree. I'm a pretty good writer. I wrote a writing textbook. Sit me down for 40 minutes or two hours. Odds are, I won't do much of anything of value. That's not how I work. Take a piece of writing I produce in this time period, look it over, give an assessment: "HE SUCKS." No doubt. But it's not an assessment of how I write. It's an assessment of how I wrote under these very specific conditions. Whatever the timed test, very little is achieved. The timed test is a state of false consciousness. It reflects a desire to be more like the other disciplines which test achievement, often in measurable ways. To admit that writing is not measurable the way mathematics or certain scientific studies are, that would be a better achievement for all of us.
Replies: 8 comments
as a veteran hack writer, i beg to differ. if you have the rudiments of comprehension aka can string a thought or two together and the rudiments of grammar, you should have no problem putting together a small writing sample in a two hour span.
resistance to this test lies in the on-going project of "romanticizing" writing as something other than a basic life skill that, if you have talent, can be so much more but if you don't, allows one to communicate with other human beings.
Posted by write or die @ 05/12/2005 10:19 PM EST
The SAT writing exam and its obvious flaws demonstrate the confusion over the purposes of writing and of testing. What are they testing -- content or process? According to Perlman, content is clearly out. And content IS important. I don't read novels if they suck, and if a manual gives bad directions, it isn't likely to sell too many copies. And anyone who has ever tried to write anything vaguely important (a thesis, an analytic paper, a love letter, a suicide note) knows you can hardly do that in 25 minutes. So, a 16 or 17 year old is supposed to just perform in a vacuum and create some wonderful prose product out of their ass. So, I guess process is out, too. Whoever said that the SAT change was about making money for ETS (the company that makes the SAT) was cynical, but correct.
But, y'know, some high school teachers are in favor of this test. They see it as a "step in the right direction" in that it gives a nod to the importance of composition. But these are the same people who teach the 5-para essay
Posted by Tricia @ 05/09/2005 09:07 PM EST
Back at Arizona, we took timed comprehensive exams too. Absolutely the most nerve-wracking part of getting the degree. No books, no notes, no nothing...just the candidate, a computer (the department had an "exam room" for this purpose), and a list of questions to choose from. Three separate exams in four-hour blocks. Here at Miami, PhD students do take-home comps, a MUCH BETTER model.
As for the SAT issue, the timed writing assessment is a poor way to go about placement into comp. classes, and, yeah, (by helping universities market themselves as places to "test out" of so-called preliminary subjects) it certainly feeds into the tired writing-as-remediation trope...but college writing outside of first-year comp classes DOES frequently involve lots of timed writing (essay final exams, etc.), and professionals of all sorts often have to write "under the gun" (a memo or e-mail responding to a crisis situation, etc.).
Of course in essay exam environments, students have been processing material over some period of time and the timed writing is a culmination of what came before. And in the workplace scenarios, there's a real urgency, a real context/rhetorical situation that's missing from the SAT.
I haven't heard any good argument supporting the SAT writing assessment. Just the mythic b.s. about writing and standards being important. Look no further than the bottom line: the SAT people get to charge more for the damn thing now.
Posted by Bill @ 05/09/2005 02:55 PM EST
Timed diss exam!
Is that what you mean? Man, we didn't have timed exams at UF. "Go home and do the work, get back to me when you're done."
Writing from Austin, he says...and don't forget to get the MLA cite on the blog right!
he he
Posted by jeff @ 05/08/2005 09:19 PM EST
Quit it! Just when I was beginning to feel good about the 2.5-hour exam I'm taking tomorrow morning. Instructs: Part I: Write like hell on composition's influences. Part II: In 250 words or less, account for how the development of mind works. On your mark, get ready....
As you can see, I'm studying really hard. My first sentence (after staring out the window for twenty minutes): "According to Jeff Rice in an entry at Yellog Dog, timed writing examinations...."
Posted by Derek @ 05/08/2005 07:21 PM EST
You're completely right, of course. I never did well with timed writing tests. Even back in elementary school I needed time to sit and think, and I did not think well under such pressure. I can't remember what grade it was, but we spent all year preparing for some timed writing test with prompts like "write about an animal." I'd spend most of the 45 minutes or hour sitting around staring at blank paper and my teacher would come over and try to be encouraging. She knew I could write when I wasn't faced with the timed essay.
Posted by John @ 05/08/2005 01:30 PM EST
This SAT writing test strikes me as a fundamentally bad idea, too. Georgia has a similarly ridiculous test called the Regents Exam, and all Georgia college students are required to take (and pass) the test during their sophomore year, in which I believe they have an hour to write a 250 word essay.
I've had students in the past who were solid writers who failed the test, often because they had ESL problems or simply didn't produce a "good" essay under such artificial constraints. Really frustrating.....
Posted by Chuck @ 05/08/2005 11:53 AM EST
TWO lengthy pieces of writing in ONE day? ALL DAY? That's far too much pressure for anyone, including teenagers.
The problem with having any kind of writing assessment on the SAT is that it invites teaching to the test with all of the quantitative, formulaic, prescriptive nonsense that makes writing a conveyor belt activity.
Posted by joanna @ 05/08/2005 10:03 AM EST