I'm entering my junior year, and with that comes things like the SAT and its optional(?) essay. It's known that they choose obscure essay topics that most people haven't really thought about. Which makes sense; it would be unfair to give people topics that not everyone is equally familiar with.
But wait. There is one topic that everyone taking that SAT is equally familiar with, and probably very passionate about.
Yep, I'm talking about the test they just took.
Look, students like complaining about tests. They really like complaining about tests. When the PARCC happened, pretty much everyone spent more time and thought telling the PARCC why it sucked than on the PARCC's essays. This is what we do.
It's what I've spent at least three posts doing.
In addition, all the material they could possibly want is there, right in that packet that they just spent hours pouring over.
And, as a bonus, any particularly good comments can be forwarded to the test-makers for future improvement.
The questions could be broad or specific. "Write a persuasive essay about why the SAT should or should not be used as a metric for college admissions." "Evaluate how effective this test was at testing critical thinking skills."
It doesn't even have to be about the SAT specifically. Do you know what would probably test our creativity? Designing the education system we think would be ideal. Persuading the grader that standardized tests should be replaced with a metric we design, or that standardized tests are the best metric possible. Yes, it'd be pretty hard to design a metric in a couple of minutes, but for those who haven't done it already, there's always the latter argument. And writing essays in 25 minutes about things you, frankly, have no opinion regarding, is not easy either.
Or we could broaden it still more. I think it's fair to say the vast majority of people taking the SAT are students, home-schooled or not, who want to go to college. Write an essay about grades, whether they hurt or help. Write an essay about whether education should be provided by the state. Write a persuasive essay proposing anything that you think would make school better (nap-time). Write an essay about Pearson. Write an essay about why colleges should be free. Write an essay about colleges, period.
Good essays to be forwarded to the respective institutions.
There are things that apply to everyone taking the test. There is absolutely no need to go search for obscure topics when every person taking this test is sitting in a classroom with a number two pencil, hoping for a good score so they can get into the college of their dreams.
Or any college, possibly.
These aren't just topics we care about or topics that all testers know about. These are hot topics. Education matters, and as students, it affects our lives directly.
I still really like the idea of writing about the test, though.
Your ideas?
I agree with you. I feel that the topic should be about something every student should have learned about during school or experienced over their lifetime enough to be able to hold a stance about it. Blueberry pancakes taste really good too! Wow Emma we are such twins!
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