I find it crazy that several hundred thousand college students took the SAT not even a week ago. I think that the registration fee should be a little cheaper than the fifty-one dollars that it is now because some people may not have the money to take it or retake it they don’t pass the first time around. I also believe an eighty-seven year old test can’t still be the most accurate representation of a students knowledge because as times have changed the schools demand more of their students which means the work for students change every year. Why are the SAT test any different?
I don’t think that an essay is the greatest representation of a students knowledge. Some people just aren't strong writers which doesn't mean they're stupid by any means. I personally know quite a few people that are not strong writers but are very smart. I wouldn't completely remove the essay from the SAT but I would reduce the percentage in which it is counted towards the final score.
I find it appalling that Les Perelman actually tells people “ just make stuff up” on a test that makes or breaks you getting into the college you’re wanting to go to. He also says that, “trying to be true will only hold you back.” It seems like it would be the other way around. It seems like that being true will make the graders of the SAT choose your essay over others because yours is actually true but it’s actually the total opposite. The SAT graders don’t even read the whole essay yeah that’s right they don’t read the essay you put your hardest into to make every little thing right. They skim over your essay looking for things like quotes and your use of words. Another thing is that you could completely make up a word and not get penalized for it at all because no one looks up the word that you use on the essay. This is because each grader looks at your essay for 3 minutes or less. If they look at it for any longer they will get kicked off the position of grader because they are too slow. The graders get a bonus if they grade thirty papers in an hour which is ridiculous to reward people for half reading and grading the stuff you worked so hard on. Who’s to say that they grade every other paper and just put a grade down for the other ones so that they can get thirty papers graded in one hour to get that bonus.
I think that if I took the SAT right now I probably wouldn't do so well because I’m one of those people that don’t find writing easy. I have to work really hard to make my writing worth reading. I find that it’s hard to overcome your weaknesses in writing because there's so many parts in writing, content, punctuation, etc. Strong writer or not I feel that everybody should be entitled to a legit grading of their work not the nonsense grading that occurs now.
