I'm taking joy by the fistfulls, grabbing it up with abandon because I have finished the SAT! This is my second time to take it, and regardless of the score, never again! Yes, yes, I'm very proud of myself and Joel (who also took it) for learning all the material and doing our best. Now we just have to wait three weeks to find out what that "best" really is. But, once and for all, after a solid week of daily three hour tests filled with obscure questions about vocabulary and unsolvable algebra, I am finished. Never again shall I have to sludge through the marshy maze of SAT preparation.
On a side note, I must say that when I really think about it, it irks me in the extreme to know that the SAT is the measure of highschool intelligence for everyone. I mean, if you happen to excel at algebra or just take a strange delight in quantitative comparison, then, it is indeed an accurate measure of your intelligence. But what about everyone whose intelligence and passion lies in history, or music, or geography, or literature? (Especially literature!) Everything is so boxed these days, and if your specific knowledge or intelligence doesn't fit into the box, then it doesn't count. I say it lightly, but hey, if you really think about it, it makes you stop to think about it more.
It was rather ironic today as well, because one of the literature passages in the vocabulary section was all about how Americans are so focused on test scores and filling in the correct blanks and getting the advantage in life that they have let all the most meaningful, wondrous things fall by the wayside. Since a capacity for vision, or a hunger for beauty, or a compassionate spirit isn't measurable, the author pretty much implied, it isn't appreciated or emulated. Which I thought was a very interesting essay anyway, but even more so since it was on my SAT.
All that to say, I am now going to take that essayist's advice and focus on all the creative, interesting, fun things I can. It being Christmas, that ought to be pretty easy.
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3 comments:
It does sound maddening. As if your career is going to involve an ounce of algebra anyway...
Amen! PSAT (and next year SAT) algebra is staring me down, and so far I think it's winning. But I will get the upper hand somehow-- is there any extra credit on the Verbal section? ;-)
I too am sorry that education (as with all modern thought) has become so compartmentalised. We are studying the Middle Ages in school, and one thing I am very struck with is how everybody in the course of their lives played so many roles. It is inspiring to me, although a little saddening when I think of all my peers who are being forced into neat little catagories. In the Middle Ages, if I remember correctly, you did not get a degree for any one thing in the universities, you just LEARNED. Sounds great!
(btw, I am Lynn's daughter thing-one in Dallas. Had to use my blogging name!)
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