Fighting the Man
I just finished licking an envelope with a letter to our dear friends at the College Board. Like many of you, I took the SAT this past saturday. I found an incorrect question, which I think is terribly exciting. I'm hoping I'll become legendary and push out that first senior who also wrote the SAT in Guy's scare-the-freshmen stories about people that're so amazingly more brilliant than thou you can only hope to achieve half of what they're going to do on a hungover saturday over the span of your entire life.
The contents of the letter are
Dear College Board,
I recently took the new SAT I test on Saturday, May 7th at Grimsley High School, Greensboro NC. For reference, my registration number is: *************. Feel free to call or email me for questions or clarifications at 336.286.6690 or at Klynagh@guilford.edu. The question in question (ha…ha…) was part of the grid-in math section. From memory, the question is as follows;
Juan is standing in line. There are 9 more people behind him than there are in front of him. He notices that three times the number of people in front of him is equal to the total number of people in line. How many people are in the line in total?
The logical mathematical answer is 27 (with 18 people behind Juan and 9 in front of him). The problem with this is that the question specifically states Juan himself is standing in the line, and his observations don’t include him (IE - he only looks at people in front of him and people behind him). If this were a multiple choice question, this mistake would be forgivable and likely would’ve gone unnoticed.
Since the question is on the grid-in however, and students must submit their own answers, there was likely some confusion for students who noticed the impropriety. Should we have overlooked the mistake and recorded 27 people as our answer (I did), or should we have (knowing how much you guys dig political correctness) taken the leap of faith regarding your love of diversity and assumed there were fractions of people in line (no doubt amputees from jungle and desert conflicts or unlucky recipients of rare genetic disorders) and answered 28 people.
any case, I just thought you should be aware so you could mercifully score students who over-thought the question and perhaps answered 28 or some other number which took into account our narrator, Juan. I know you guys are busy administering AP exams and working out kinks in the new SAT, but don’t forget to take it easy now and again. Try not to work too hard.
Love,
Kevin J. Lynagh
P.S. I’ve heard lots of folklore about students finding wrong answers on the SAT. What exactly happens? If it would be possible to get some extra points or perhaps a fancy letter of apology, I would greatly appreciate it. It’s exactly the sort of academic bling I’m trying to collect to document my valiantly self-righteous rebellions against the Man.
I haven't written here in a very long time. I've been doing a lot of things, which've been more important than sitting down to write about. Quick overview:
The girl I've mentioned briefly in the past few entries and whom I was with for new years I managed to become ridiculously enamored with. We also dated for 5 or so months. She's going to be in China for the rest of the summer (grr).
I'm probably going to go completely insane over the summer, but before I do I hope to learn a lot of neat things. I got a skateboard from one of Kaitlyn's suitemates, so I've been messing around with that. Oh, I've been playing guitar since the start of the semester too.
Grades are doing pretty well. I'm thinking about visiting Harvard and all of the nonsense up around there sometime. At the beginning of each semester there's a 'shopping period' at Harvard, where everyone runs around between classes and can stay for as long or as little as they want to find out which classes and professors are neat. I'm thinking about just jumping in the chaos for a few days and seeing what classes are like. I think one of you should join me, and we'll take a bus/train/plane/your car up there and have an adventure.
I've got a digital camera and now, tons of free time. Don't be surpised if lots of photographs start popping up around here.
That's all for now
The contents of the letter are
Dear College Board,
I recently took the new SAT I test on Saturday, May 7th at Grimsley High School, Greensboro NC. For reference, my registration number is: *************. Feel free to call or email me for questions or clarifications at 336.286.6690 or at Klynagh@guilford.edu. The question in question (ha…ha…) was part of the grid-in math section. From memory, the question is as follows;
Juan is standing in line. There are 9 more people behind him than there are in front of him. He notices that three times the number of people in front of him is equal to the total number of people in line. How many people are in the line in total?
The logical mathematical answer is 27 (with 18 people behind Juan and 9 in front of him). The problem with this is that the question specifically states Juan himself is standing in the line, and his observations don’t include him (IE - he only looks at people in front of him and people behind him). If this were a multiple choice question, this mistake would be forgivable and likely would’ve gone unnoticed.
Since the question is on the grid-in however, and students must submit their own answers, there was likely some confusion for students who noticed the impropriety. Should we have overlooked the mistake and recorded 27 people as our answer (I did), or should we have (knowing how much you guys dig political correctness) taken the leap of faith regarding your love of diversity and assumed there were fractions of people in line (no doubt amputees from jungle and desert conflicts or unlucky recipients of rare genetic disorders) and answered 28 people.
any case, I just thought you should be aware so you could mercifully score students who over-thought the question and perhaps answered 28 or some other number which took into account our narrator, Juan. I know you guys are busy administering AP exams and working out kinks in the new SAT, but don’t forget to take it easy now and again. Try not to work too hard.
Love,
Kevin J. Lynagh
P.S. I’ve heard lots of folklore about students finding wrong answers on the SAT. What exactly happens? If it would be possible to get some extra points or perhaps a fancy letter of apology, I would greatly appreciate it. It’s exactly the sort of academic bling I’m trying to collect to document my valiantly self-righteous rebellions against the Man.
I haven't written here in a very long time. I've been doing a lot of things, which've been more important than sitting down to write about. Quick overview:
The girl I've mentioned briefly in the past few entries and whom I was with for new years I managed to become ridiculously enamored with. We also dated for 5 or so months. She's going to be in China for the rest of the summer (grr).
I'm probably going to go completely insane over the summer, but before I do I hope to learn a lot of neat things. I got a skateboard from one of Kaitlyn's suitemates, so I've been messing around with that. Oh, I've been playing guitar since the start of the semester too.
Grades are doing pretty well. I'm thinking about visiting Harvard and all of the nonsense up around there sometime. At the beginning of each semester there's a 'shopping period' at Harvard, where everyone runs around between classes and can stay for as long or as little as they want to find out which classes and professors are neat. I'm thinking about just jumping in the chaos for a few days and seeing what classes are like. I think one of you should join me, and we'll take a bus/train/plane/your car up there and have an adventure.
I've got a digital camera and now, tons of free time. Don't be surpised if lots of photographs start popping up around here.
That's all for now