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Hundreds of universities including several top schools ignore or pay little heed to students' scores on the writing section of the SAT in admissions decisions skeptical about how well the essay reflects writing skills. Reservations about the validity of the essay portion of the writing exam frustrate students who spend hours and sometimes thousands of dollars preparing for it and raise questions about the test's future. Criticism about the essay has been building for more than a year since an MIT professor's experiment indicated that students could get high scores simply by writing longer and throwing in big words.
It is what it is - I can see why CB ignores factual errors (students aren't able to look things up during the test and it would certainly bog down the scoring of the exam if the graders had to verify 'facts'). Maybe it can't really test a good writer but can it weed out the very bad? If I were sitting in an admissions office there might be times when I'd want to read a student's writing under the test conditions that CB imposes. Essays are so polished they can be blinding - it's nice to have something that you can be reasonably sure was produced by the student alone. Students applying to elite schools almost always had to take the SAT II in Writing so for some this isn't a change. I'm sure expanding it to everyone has helped the CB bottom line.
Maybe it was just me but at times the article seems to conflate or confuse the essay portion and the overall writing score so it's hard to tell which portion some of the quotes refer to. A very unscientific sample--from checking out the policies of several dozen schools on the College Board site (info from the Common Data Sets)--suggests that many perhaps the majority of LACs are now using the writing section score in admissions in one way or another. Universities seem slower with most still checking "no official policy a of now." To track down the policy of a particular institution you can pull up the school and click on the SAT. AP. CLEP tab.
There is little doubt that Les Perelman is correct in his assessment. However should we not place the blame of the current malaise regarding the impact of formulaic essays squarely where it belongs? ETS and The College Board via the SAT Reasoning Test are supposed to test students on subjects they learned in high school. The SAT Writing portion should reflect what students are taught in high school. To reflect this. The College Board and its British contractor are mostly relying on high school teacher to provide the grading. Inasmuch as Perelman correctly describes the need to deprogram freshmen one should wonder how different this is from the required deprogramming of the faulty preparation received in high school. The saddest news is that while MIT has the resources to correct the problem most colleges and universities in the country are not that fortunate. And neither are their students!
Les Perelman director of MIT's writing program disagrees. He became so frustrated by what he believed were formulaic essays that freshmen were turning in after the SAT essay was introduced that he conducted an experiment: He trained three high school students who had taken the SAT once already to insert some factual errors use big words and ignore logical thought on the SAT essay and each received a near-perfect score.
I don't believe Perelman is a "professor" at MIT--he is the director of the Writing Across the Curriculum" program--and I don't think there is any evidence based on this article that MIT actually analyzed whether or not the Writing section serves its purpose. I do believe I will continue to take everything I read in the Boston Globe with many grains of salt.
Les Perelman Leslie C. Perelman is Director of Writing Across the Curriculum in Writing and Humanistic Studies at MIT where is also serves as an Associate Dean in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education. He was Project Director for a grant to MIT from the National Science Foundation to develop a model Communication-Intensive Undergraduate Program in Science and Engineering. Currently he is Principal Investigator for the MIT Online Assessment Tool (MOAT). Before coming to MIT he directed writing programs at the University of Southern California and Tulane University. Prof. Perelman has been a consultant on computers and writing for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education of the U. S. Department of Education and for the Modern Language Association. He also worked with other colleges and universities in developing model for integrating instruction in writing and speaking into technical and scientific undergraduate programs. Prof. Perelman is primary author of the first hypertext technical writing handbook. The Mayfield Guide to Technical and Scientific Writing and has published articles on technical communication computers and writing the history of rhetoric sociolinguistic theory and medieval literature. He has also written both end-user and technical computer documentation. Recently. Prof. Perelman has become a well-known critic of the new SAT Writing Test being interviewed by both The New York Times and National Public Radio. He has also published an opinion piece in The Los Angeles Times.
Reviewing a school’s Common Data Set (CDS) can show how much emphasis if any such school places on the SAT: (1) the Writing Score; and (2) the Essay Component of the Writing Score. Two sections of the CDS contain relevant information: 1. Section C8C contains an answer grid for the following question: “C. Please indicate how your institution will use the SAT or ACT writing component.” Some of the possible answers include: “For admission,” “For advising,” “As a validity check on the application essay,” and “Not using essay component.” 2. Section C9 contains 25%/75% SAT scores. Some schools list their 25/75 numbers for SAT Writing and others do not. More and more schools seem to be considering the Writing Score and the Essay Component. What some specific schools are doing (thanks to richs73cas for many of the CDS links): Essay Component of Writing Score NOT UsedCornell: C8C Answer: Not using essay component (does NOT list W scores in C9) Grinnell: C8C Answer: Not using essay component (does NOT list W scores in C9) MIT: C8C Answer: Not using essay component (does NOT list W scores in C9) Writing Score SEEMS not to be UsedAmherst: Combined 50% given out of possible 1600 score; no W scores listed Caltech: No W scores listed in C9 (combined verbal/math 50% given)Chicago: Gives SAT I scores on 1600 scale not 2400 Northwestern: C8C unanswered; no W scores in C9 Writing Score MAY be UsedBoston College: Starting for Class of 2010 lists W Scores Carlton: C8C Answer: No college policy as of now (but lists W scores in C9) Michigan State: C8C Answer: No college policy as of now (but lists W scores in C9) NYU: C8C Answer: No college policy as of now (but lists W scores in C9) UGA: C8C Answer: No college policy as of now (but lists W scores in C9) UNC: C8C Answer: No college policy as of now and not using essay component (but lists W scores in C9) Wesleyan: Lists W scores in Fact Sheet Essay Component of Writing Score Used for AdmissionBowdoin: C8C Answer: For admission for placement and for advising Brown: C8C Answer: For admission CMC:C8C Answer: For admission Carnegie Mellon: C8C Answer: For admission Dartmouth: C8C Answer: For admission for placement and for advising Emory: C8C Answer: For admission Florida State: C8C Answer: For admission Haverford: C8C Answer: For admission Macalester: For admission and as a validity check on the application essay Reed: For admission for placement and as a validity check on the application essay Stanford: C8C Answer: For admission Swarthmore: C8C Answer: For admission and as a validity check on the application essay UC-Berkeley: C8C Answer: For admission for placement and for advising UCLA: C8C Answer: For admission and placement UVA: C8C Answer: For admission for placement and for advising Vanderbilt: C8C Answer: For admission for placement and as a validity check on the application essay Williams: C8C Answer: For admission Yale: C8C Answer: For admission
One solution would be for the essay to be actually *included* in the official scores being sent out by college board. That way adcoms can see not only the numeric score but also see what was written and compare the level of writing in the SAT with the personal essays sent in with the applications. If the SAT essay is too different in style and sophistication from the personal essay it could raise questions about how heavily the 'personal' essay was edited by people other than the applicant.
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