Bell Curves Blog

I would give you a 9 because of some errors in grammar but you have a clear argument

I am going to give it a 10. It is great in the predictable sense, which seems to always result in a score of a 10.Were the time markers actually written on the page?

Thanks so much for sharing this. You’re answering a question I’ve always had! I’m finding it really hard to assign a grade with the factual errors (bravo by the way…still rolling over Grover Washington), even though the accuracy shouldn’t count. I think I’ll go with 9, maybe 10. A couple of sentences ramble, and your argument gets a little lost with Frank. Anxious to see the result!

I wrote the time markers on it for myself. I struggled with this one. I started to reply to the topic one way thought it wasn’t as fun or as clear and erased an entire paragraph and restarted. I was surprised how long it took me to write it (its been a long time since I took my last official proctored SAT with kids. Thanks @debbiesteir for motivating me to do it again), you know us big muckety muck corporate types dont do the legwork we have our minions do it.

Anyway the time markers I wrote during the test, so yup I wrote the entire conclusion in like 4 minutes. And my hand hurt after I wrote it, I type I never write for 20 minutes anymore.

I think I might have to retest in December and write a better argument but still keep the egregious errors

I’m guessing a 9 also, and think it might have been an 11 had you argued the opposite and shown how undisciplined Frank Lloyd Wright (heh) was instead of just telling us.

Since I know you’re all curious. My essay score was an 8.

I disagree with you Eli. We’ve gotten great scores doing a whole host of tomfoolery. Part of the point of this post is to show that you can get decent score doing almost any of the “great taboo” things that are often told to kids.

The readers grade writing not content so no matter what position you take you can get a good score if its well written. Akil (sorry boss) would have gotten a better score if he held a bit better to his point and developed his argument better. There have been published essays where the author advocated atrocities like the Holocaust and still got above a 10. Its writing primarily that governs the score, all other things are secondary. Test-takers should keep that in mind and not get so caught up in trying to follow someone elses list of dos and donts.