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Does anybody else get the feeling that some of the “right” answers to SAT I reading comp questions are really wrong or at least inaccurate? I’ve been prepping these questions for about 6 months now, and although i can usually guess what the “right” answer is supposed to be, it sometimes seems like it isn’t totally justified, its just less wrong than the others. I suspect that the people who make up these tests don’t really put much thought into it or take the time to really understand the passage they’re asking questions about. They just give the first answer that pops into their head and make us try to figure out what THEY think rather than what the passage actually says. That really pisses me off because they’re always telling us that we have to be so careful and thoughtful to do well on the test, but they can’t be bothered to make sure that they get things exactly right, and we’re the ones who suffer for their sloppiness.

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 03:50 pm: Edit

sorry, double post

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 03:57 pm: Edit

On average, I'd say there's about one or two questions per SAT that I think are defensible but maybe a bit sleazy, and about one every two or three tests that I have a genuine beef with. In other words, I don't think it's endemic, but yeah, it does happen.

And actually, I just noticed one of these yesterday, when I was posting on my 'SAT Advice from a test prep guy thread'. In the passage on Guernica and the political impact of art, there's one question that I in fact have an enormous beef with. The question is #27, and the relevant part of the passage is as follows:


...So in the end it [Picasso's Guernica] did about as much for the devastated townspeople as Auden's verses did for the people and causes he wrote about, making nothing relevant happen, simply memorializing, enshrining, spiritualizing, about at the same level as a solemn ritual whose function is to confess the extreme limits of our powers to make anything happen.
Fine, some would say. But if the sole political role of poetry is this deflected, consolatory, ceremonial -- not to say reliquary -- office, why is the political attitude that art is dangerous so pervasive in our society?

27. The author would probably characterize "some" (line 54) as being

(A) understandably content to follow a practical course of action
(B) relieved that a difficult decision has been made
(C) agreeable to a compromise that would weaken the author's argument
(D) reluctant to compare the concerns of artists with those of politicians
(E) convinced that art has a limited political role

(E), "convinced that art has a limited political role," is the credited answer. This is not impossible to get, since the other 4 are definitely wrong, but still, if I'm interpreting the difficulty levels correctly, students actually did worse than random on this. And if you look back at the passage, it's clear that 'some' can be reasonably interpreted to not be referring to those with the 'art doesn't do anything' position held in the earlier paragraph, but to the holders of the argument about to be made. "Some," in this interpretation, is essentially a subtle rhetorical device -- the author's framing the upcoming argument as not merely his own personal opinion, but as the objection held by "some" people who, while they accept the truth of the Guernica anecdote, have a significant counterargument to make. This strikes me as a much more reasonable interpretation of the word than ETS's; if theirs is correct, in my opinion, the author of the passage is either an awkward writer or kind of a dick.

So, yes, it does happen, and I do plan to write more about it at some point, because it pisses me off even though it's bound to happen at some point. But what should a student do about it when taking the test? Here's my patented surefire numbertwopencil.net 2-step strategy: 1. Use Process of Elimination. 2. Suck it up and deal.

The first point is obvious -- as you can see above, even though ETS's credited answer is almost certainly wrong, it's not as wrong as the others, and I find this to generally be the case in the questions I have a legitimate beef with. It's not that I don't usually get them right, it's that I don't agree with the reasoning I had to use to do so.

The second point is best illustrated with a thought experiment adapted from John Allen Paulos's excellent book A Mathematician Reads The Newspaper: Suppose you are presented with a "Twister"-ish spinner on a pie chart. This pie chart is made up of only two colors, red and green, and the red takes up 70% of the pie. You're requested to spin the pointer 100 times while guessing what color it's going to land on; every time you guess right, you get a dollar. What's the optimal guessing strategy to take?

Most people's instinct is to guess red 70 times and green 30 times, but if you think about it for a moment, that makes no sense. As long as the spinner is random and unpredictable, those 30 guesses are only going to hurt you: with average luck, you'll get 49 of the red guesses right, but only 9 of the green ones, making for a total of $58. Whereas if you had simply guessed red every single time, average luck would bring you the maximum expectable reward, $70.

The funny thing is that this would hold true even if the chart was 51% red and 49% green; statistically, it would still be worth it to guess red every time. And though the lemons on the CR section aren't random, it's just not worth the time it takes to pick them out in a test situation; it takes me about 20 seconds to answer the typical CR question, while it takes me a minimum of 10 minutes to confidently determine that a CR question I have a beef with is genuinely screwed-up and that I'm not just missing something head-slappingly obvious. And since the ratio of fair to unfair questions on the CR is way, way higher than 51/49, it's clear that the best strategy is just to accept the fact that, every once in a while, you're going to get a question wrong through no fault of your own just like everybody else is going to, and to assume that each question is in fact fair even if they're not actually 100% of the pie chart.

Philosophically, I understand this can be hard to accept; every student wants to feel like they're in control of the test they're taking, and this is generally a good thing. But here's a quote from a David Foster Wallace essay to mull over, in which he talks about playing high-school tennis on the wind-swept courts of Philo, Illinois:


The best-planned, best-hit ball often blew just out of bounds, was the basic unlyrical problem. It drove some kids near-mad with the caprice and unfairness of it all, and on real windy days these kids, usually with talent out the bazoo, would have their apoplectic racket-throwing tantrum in about the match's third game and lapse into a kind of sullen coma by the end of the first set, now bitterly expecting to get screwed over by wind, net, tape, sun.

I, who was affectionately known as Slug because I was such a lazy turd in practice, located my biggest tennis asset in a weird robotic detachment from whatever unfairness of wind and weather I couldn't plan for. I couldn't begin to tell you how many tournament matches I won between the ages of twelve and fifteen against bigger, faster, more coordinated, and better-coached opponents simply by hitting balls unimaginately back down the middle of the court in schizophrenic gales, letting the other kid play with more verve and panache, waiting for enough of his ambitious balls aimed near the lines to curve or slide via wind outside the green court and white stripe into the red raw territory that won me yet another ugly point. It wasn't pretty or fun to watch, and even with the Illinois wind I never could have won whole matches this way had the opponent not eventually had his small nervous breakdown, buckling under the obvious injustice of losing to a shallow-chested "pusher" because of the •••••• rural courts and rotten wind that rewarded cautious automatism instead of verve and panache. I was an unpopular player, with good reason.

But to say that I did not use verve or imagination was untrue. Acceptance is its own verve, and it takes imagination for a player to like wind, and I like wind; or rather I at least felt the wind had some basic right to be there, and found it sort of interesting, and was willing to expand my logistical territory to countenance the devastating effect a 15-to-30 mph stutter-breeze swirling southwest to east would have on my best calculations as to how ambitiously to respond to Joe Perfecthair's topspin drive into my backhand corner.

Now, on the SAT the wind isn't a "schizophrenic gale"; it's a light breeze that suddenly gusts once every other test or so. But when it does, have the verve to accept it even if you don't like it; the SAT is written by human beings, and, like the wind, human beings have some basic right to occasionally screw things up. And most of all, don't fall into the trap that Wallace's opponents do -- a trap that, for various endocrinological reasons, you're more likely be susceptible to now than at virtually any other age. If the test bounces one foul on you, fine -- not only does this not mean that you'll "lose", it doesn't even mean you won't get an 800. But don't let it make you lose your cool and miss the next five perfectly fair ones.

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 04:03 pm: Edit

Incidentally, if you really do want to see a standardized test's Reading Comp. section that's so screwed up as to be effectively useless, you could do much worse than to click here.

By breeze on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 04:47 pm: Edit

Hey, numbertwopencil, where'd you find that Guernica question?

By Burble on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Plethora, did you have any specific examples in mind? That Geurnica thing is way over my head.

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 05:00 pm: Edit

It's on the Sunday May 2000 SAT - page 647 of 10 real SATs. And yes, as I said in the "SAT help" thread, it is a really hard passage in general.

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 05:08 pm: Edit

It's on the Sunday May 2000 SAT - page 647 of 10 real SATs. And yes, as I said in the "SAT help" thread, it is a really hard passage in general.

By Mr. Kurtz on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 06:09 pm: Edit

I totally agree with you, Plethora. Here’s an example. On the College Board’s Learning Center website there’s this godawful reading passage in which a Mexican immigrant drones on and on about his family history. The relevant part of it reads as follows:

In my dreams, the ancestors who have passed on visit
with me in this world. They ask me questions they were
once asked: Where did our forbears come from and what
45 have we amounted to in this world? Where have we come
to in the span of time, and where are we headed, like an
arrow shot long ago into an infinite empty space? What
messages and markings of the ancient past do we carry
in these handed-down bodies we live in today?
50 With these questions swirling inside me, I have redis-
covered some stories of the family past in the landscapes
of Texas and Mexico, in the timeless language of stone,
river, wind, and trees.

The SAT question is as follows:

The narrator indicates that the questions his ancestors pose (lines 43-49) are ones that

(A) he cannot possibly answer truthfully
(B) are meant to forewarn as well as confuse
(C) are not really intended to elicit a response
(D) contain the answers hidden within themselves
(E) have been asked before and will be asked again


The correct answer is supposed to be (E), but how do they figure that? Obviously, the ancestor’s questions have been asked before because the narrator says “They ask me questions they were once asked.” But where in the passage does it say these questions WILL BE ASKED AGAIN? Nowhere! It’s not even hinted at. Go to the website and read the whole passage if you don’t believe me. (http://www.collegeboard.com/sat/center/q0502/v_cr_1.html)

All the time in our college prep courses we’re being told that we’re supposed to read carefully, and not make unwarranted assumptions or read into the text things that aren’t there or at least clearly implied. But then here comes ETS telling us that if we don’t make THEIR unwarranted assumptions and see the nonexistent things that THEY see in the text, we’re subliterate morons without the reading comprehension skills necessary for college. I’m not sure if ETS does this purposely or if they’re just incompetent. Here’s how they explain the “right” answer on their website:

• The narrator states in the sentence preceding his ancestors' questions that these are questions "they were once asked." He says nothing else about these questions other than that "with these questions swirling inside me," he has "rediscovered some stories of the family past in the landscapes of Texas and Mexico, in the timeless language of stone, river, wind, and trees."
• It makes sense to say that the questions the narrator's ancestors "were once asked" and are now being asked of him are questions that "have been asked before and will be asked again." Clearly, these are difficult, if not impossible, questions to answer, and they get passed along from one generation to the next.

Their “explanation” is simply that “it makes sense” to say that the questions will be asked again in the next generation. Notice that nowhere in this 116-word “explanation” do they cite a single shred of textual evidence to support their claim that the questions will be asked again. To offer such a lame defense of their answer, the people at ETS must either be idiots or believe that we are.

By karakul on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 08:53 am: Edit

Kurtz is absoultely right. When I practiced that question I wanted to go for E at first b/c the first part is obviously right, but then I reconsidered b/c the second part of E is wrong, so I ended up choosing C, which says that the questions "are not really intended to elicit a response." After all, the anscestors are asking the guy these questions IN A DREAM, so he wouldn't really be expected to answer them, right? I was kinda shocked to find out that the correct answer was E. I figured I must have missed something, but then I read the ETS explanation and it was just bullsh*t. Like Kurtz says, its a case of them actually punishing us for reading carefully.

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 02:34 pm: Edit

Any time ETS uses "clearly" in an answer explanation, your BS detector should go off; if it's that clear, they should have been able to provide a quote from somewhere. But there is an textual basis for this answer, though it's a subtle one that a lot of students (especially American students, being from the land of perpetual re-invention,) couldn't be expected to pick up on in the minute or so available to them.

The two key phrases are "like an arrow shot long ago into an infinite empty space" and, earlier, "our past trailing in the wake behind us like a comet tail of memories." Both of these imply that the tradition of this guy's family is an inherently continuous tradition -- that it's meaningful not just because it happened in the past, but because it's part of a continuum that necessarily stretches to the future, barring the death of 'infinity empty space' itself. And on the SAT, my advice is that if an answer can only be wrong if the universe blows up, you might as well pick it.

But the problem here is that the question doesn't ask for what the passage 'implies', it asks for what it 'indicates'. Given that the best defense I could muster for this question entirely rests on similies, I would agree that this sets the bar too high and pushes the answer into the 'borderline-sleazy' category mentioned in my first post. But I don't actually think the answer is wrong per se.

By visogoth on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 03:08 pm: Edit

Too clever by half, Numbertwopencil. I'm surprised to see you defending this. The passage says "where are WE headed, like an arrow shot long ago into an infinite empty space?" The word "we" clearly refers to members of the narrator's family--past , present, and future--and it is this "we" that is likened to the arrow. Thus, the arrow represents successive generations of the narrator's family; it clearly does NOT represent the questions that are posed to the narrator in his dreams. So even if the simile implies that the FAMILY will go on for generations, it certainly does not imply that the QUESTIONS will be handed down from one generation to another. The narrator neither "indicates" nor "implies" what ETS claims. So I have to disagree with you, No. 2: this one is way over the "borderline."

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 03:30 pm: Edit

I could be convinced that it's wrong, and I'm at least half-trying to play devil's advocate here and give ETS the best possible explanation that it could conceivably muster. That 'we' is pretty ambiguous, but I read it as representing his family as an abstract entity, sort of the sum total of all the spiritual energy of himself and his ancestors -- but, though I could support this reading with plenty of outside sources, the very mention of 'outside sources' shows why this is arguable. So let's put it this way: I think the author would definitely agree that yes, (E) is true, and would regard any attempt at proving it didn't have to be true as running counter to his entire worldview. But I also think that this question is over the borderline -- not way over, but over -- in terms of what's fair on the SATs, and I agree that it should never have appeared on the test in the first place.

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 03:39 pm: Edit

And just to clarify -- the similie works if you look at the 'we' as representing his entire family, because to the narrator, the 'family' is more than simply the past and present people he's genetically related to; it's the entire cumulative tradition that he comes from and tries to sustain...sort of like how the Yankees 'family' is more than the sum total of whatever players happen to be on the team this particular year. The questions, being part of this tradition, are in this reading actually part of the arrow itself -- they're part of the process that has been and will be perpetuated. But as I said, nobody should have to figure this all out in under a minute, and my interpretation doesn't even 100% convince myself.

By succubus on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 05:57 pm: Edit

I don't know, Numbertwopencil. Next to this "questions" question , your "Guernica" question looks pretty good! Mr. Kurtz's argument for C is a lot more plausible than your argument for E.

By karakul on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 09:07 pm: Edit

Uh, excuse me, Succubus. It was me, not Kurtz, who was arguing for C.

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 09:18 pm: Edit

Well, it's certainly debatable -- but going into a debate involving a thorough textual interpretation to further defend my view would be a whole lot of work. And the way I see it, it doesn't really matter: we all agree that the question doesn't meet the standard of fairness that the SAT should be held to. So on the 'deeper' issues of what the text 'really' means, I think I'll just agree to differ.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 12:53 am: Edit

Sometimes the best method is not to find the RIGHT answer, it is to determine the WRONG answers, and then work from there...

I have to agree with the rest of you. The ETS does not always have legitimate arguments to substantiate their claims. The same is true for analogies sometimes. Never for math, though...

By laptop on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 09:08 am: Edit

Whatever you may think about the rights and wrongs of their question, the circularity of ETS's reasoning is truly astounding. They basically say E is true because it makes sense to say E. It's like when you ask a 5 yearold why they did something and they say "Because I did it"!

By rachel on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 08:34 pm: Edit

This is so interesting because my mom and I had a problem with that same question. We discussed it with a couple of my teachers, and finally my mom wrote a letter to the College Board. This is what they wrote back.


"As one of the test development specialists responsible for the SAT I-Verbal,
I have been asked to respond to your comments concerning Question # 21 in
Section 4 of the test currently posted on the College Board Learning Center
website. I examined the question and discussed it with some of my
colleagues before writing my response.

In your e-mail you noted that the narrator does not indicate at any point in
the passage that the questions posed by his ancestors "will be asked again,"
as stated in the correct answer to the question. You also pointed out that
the explanation of the correct answer on the website, which states that "it
makes sense" to say that the questions will be asked again, does not explain
why this makes sense.

It's true that the narrator does not state outright that the questions will
be asked again. However, the very fact that his ancestors are asking
questions of him that "they were once asked" suggests that this posing of
questions is an ongoing process--something that will continue into the
future. In addition, the overall passage emphasizes the idea of family
inheritance, of what we retain or discover of our predecessors. The
narrator refers to the "subtle faculties and proclivities" that were
"passed, speechlessly through the flesh of successive generations," and
concludes the passage with a reference to the ultimate legacy from our
families: "the land." Thus, the questions posed by the narrator's ancestors
fit into the larger thematic framework of family inheritance and cyclical
history.

I hope this explanation is helpful. Thank you for taking the time to
contact us about your concerns. We always appreciate comments and questions
that may help us improve the quality of our tests. Best of luck to your
daughter in her studies!"


My mom and I thought they really just danced around the issue, and my teachers said the letter was pretentious and evasive. My dad, who’s a lawyer, thought ETS knew it was a bad question but were just covering their asses. He says ETS never admits when they’re wrong because if they did they’d be sued by every kid who didn’t get into Harvard. It’s kind of like the tobacco companies!

By Mr. Kurtz on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 08:54 pm: Edit

Very interesting , Rachel. Very interesting. Incognito: the problem with your strategy is that in this case if you determine the wrong answers first and eliminate them, your screwed because ETS says one of the wrong answers is right!

By Incognito (Incognito) on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 09:22 pm: Edit

hmmm...
but just pick the ones that are obviously wrong.
Lets take it down the pipeline for your question:


(A) he cannot possibly answer truthfully
well, where does he ever say that he cannot answer the questions truthfully? His INability to answer the questions of his ancestors is never really addressed. In fact, he even states "I have redis-covered some stories of the family past in the landscapes of Texas and Mexico." A cannot be the answer. Eliminate A.


(B) are meant to forewarn as well as confuse
forewarn against what?? Danger or future events are not really discussed. This is the easiest one to eliminate. Eliminate B


(C) are not really intended to elicit a response
well, perhaps this COULD be the answer. How can he possibly respond to his ancestors? Also, after the questions are asked, he does not give a response to the questions. He simply states "With these questions swirling inside me, I have rediscovered some stories of the family past in the landscapes of Texas and Mexico, in the timeless language of stone, river, wind, and trees." This is not a response to the questions at all. So, perhaps this COULD be the answer. Keep C.


(D) contain the answers hidden within themselves
Where is this ever suggested in the passage? How are the answers hidden in the questions? Where do we ever find this implication? Eliminate D.

(E) have been asked before and will be asked again.
The questions were asked before. Will they be asked again? Well, we all agree that the passage never overtly states this. But on page #70 of 10 Real SATs (2nd ed.) the College Board tells us about what they call "extended reasoning." Extended reasoning is a euphemism for "thinking not necessarily in terms of LOGIC, but in terms of how the ETS thinks." It is possible that the questions will be asked again. There are several implications. One is the arrow "shot long ago into an infinite empty space." The other is that the ancestors ask questions they were once asked. Another is in the question "what messages and markings of the ancient past do we carry in these handed-down bodies we live in today." There is a feeling of infinate and timeless uncertainty. The questions are almost presented to us in a fasion of endless inheritence. Keep E.

So now we have eliminated choices A, B, and D.


Again, it is an inference that the CB expects us to reach. I know it is rediculous, and I know that they are being unreasonable. Critical reading questions are by far the most subjective questions on the test, followed by Analogies. But they are relatively rare. We have to deal w/them. I agree w/the rest of you. I'm glad that Rachel posted that letter. By doing so she essentially brought the strange and evasive reasoning of the CB/ETS out into a brighter light. It would be interesting to see how many students got these questions right...

By pseudopod on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 08:27 pm: Edit

Incognito: You make a pretty clever case for the elimination of A. It's not totally convincing, but I won't argue that with you now. What I want to point out is that the hypocrites at ETS themselves don't seem to be convinced that A is really wrong. In their explanation of why E is supposed to be the right answer, they inadvertently support A. [I'm referring to the explanation they give on the CB website which is quoted in its entirety in Mr. Kurtz's first post on this thread.] They say "Clearly, these are difficult, if not impossible, questions to answer." That comes pretty damned close to saying that

(A) he cannot possibly answer truthfully

is the right answer! Plethora was right. ETS can't be putting much thought into what they're doing.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 08:35 pm: Edit

hahaha!!
pseudopod, you're absolutely right! I always knew that the CB was backwards, but I never knew that they were THIS bad! Did you write to them about this?? If not, I'll be happy to do so myself. (Nice catch, pseudopod)

By pseudopod on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 09:24 pm: Edit

Incognito: I'd be very happy if you'd let the CB know about this. How do you contact them?

By Incognito (Incognito) on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 09:43 pm: Edit

http://www.collegeboard.com/html/communications000.html

I can write to them or you can. It really doesnt matter. The bottom line is that they cant really evade this one...

By pseudopod on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 10:09 pm: Edit

Go for it, Incognito. Let us know what they say.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 11:04 pm: Edit

Ok, I sent it. I'll be sure to post their response here when I receive it...This should be very interesting...

By milquetoast on Tuesday, February 11, 2003 - 08:59 pm: Edit

I was just looking at the ETS' letter to Rachel's mom. The doublespeak is utterly amazing.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Tuesday, February 11, 2003 - 09:07 pm: Edit

the "doublespeak" is amazing? explain.

BTW, they still have not responded...

By milquetoast on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 08:01 pm: Edit

Incognito: I mean that they begin (in the second-to-the-last paragraph of their response to Rachel’s mom) as if they’re addressing the issue at hand, throw up a smokescreen, and end up addressing an entirely different issue. Their conclusion is that "the questions posed by the narrator's ancestors fit into the larger thematic framework of family inheritance and cyclical history." Well, that may be, but it doesn't show that the "narrator indicates" that the questions that his ancestors pose will be asked again. If ETS wanted to test whether we recognize that the ancestors’ questions fit into a larger thematic framework of family inheritance and cyclical history (whatever the hell that means), then they should have asked a question about THAT. But in fact they chose to ask a question about something else, and they insult our intelligence when they try to make us believe that the correct answer to a question they DIDN’T ask somehow justifies a wrong answer to the question they DID ask. Doublespeak!

By visogoth on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 08:29 pm: Edit

Well put Milquetoast. And lets not forget (as Mistah Kurtz pointed out) that the narrator is asked these questions IN A FFFUCKING DREAM! So if we're going to buy ETS's argument that "this posing of questions is an ongoing process--something that will continue into the future," then we have to assume the existence of some magical spirit world in which ghosts eternally haunt the dreams of their sleeping descendants! NOT BLOODY LIKELY!!!

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 08:38 pm: Edit

No, you just have to assume this guy believes in the existence of some magical spirit world in which ghosts eternally haunt the dreams of their sleeping descendants. Which, though never explicitly stated, is quite a bit more likely.

By visogoth on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 08:49 pm: Edit

True, Numbertwopencil, that is more likely--almost anything would be. But you'll note that ETS didn't argue that THE NARRATOR BELIEVES that the posing of questions will continue into the future; they argued that it will in fact continue.

By harris on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 09:57 am: Edit

Numbertwopencil:

You’re right about the Guernica passage. The word “some” in line 54 does unquestionably refer to those who would ask the question with which the quoted excerpt ends. But it’s misleading to call that question a “counterargument” if by that you mean to suggest that those who ask this question necessarily deny the position taken in the previous paragraph. The position of the “some” can be paraphrased as follows:

Given the fact that art has such a limited political role in our society, it is curious (paradoxical, ironic) that so many people in our society are so afraid of the political consequences of art that they wish to suppress it.

On this interpretation, the “some” are not arguing against the art-doesn’t-do-anything position; they’re conceding that position and using it to examine a separate but related issue. So even when “some” is interpreted as you rightly interpret it, answer E remains correct. The Guernica question is far more defensible than the Mexican ancestors question, which, as others on this thread have amply demonstrated, is a real travesty.

By ETS on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 10:49 pm: Edit

Okay, you impudent little guttersnipes! I’ve had it up to here with all your sophomoric insolence! How dare you question the sagacity of ETS? Wrong right answers, indeed! You might as well deny the Pythagorean Theorem or impugn the authority of Holy Scripture as suggest that ETS would introduce error into the SAT! Must I remind you that we know ALL the words? Words like “oligarchy” and “pontificate” and “sanctimonious” glide off our tongues as fluently as the dulcet tones of a baroque toccata waft through the hallowed air of a cavernous cathedral. Indeed, we ourselves invented many of these words. Nay, we at ETS originated the very concepts of pontification and sanctimony! How, then, do you suppose it possible that we would ever fail to grasp the precise significance of any verbal expression--let alone one that occurs in a passage of our own choosing? Why, the unmitigated gall! Be advised, you contumelious little reprobates, that we know who you are, and that if you should persist in your protestations of our fallibility, we shall be obliged, when reporting your SAT scores, to prove just how fallible we can be!

Best wishes to you in your academic ventures.

ETS

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 11:04 pm: Edit

Now I'm all lachrymose.

By Milquetoast on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 09:16 pm: Edit

Literally LOL!!

By Incognito (Incognito) on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 11:57 pm: Edit

Hey everyone! In my Monday, February 10, 2003 - 11:04 pm post I promised I'd post their response to my question. Sorry for the delay, but it took them for ever, and when they did respond, I was away.

Anyway, here was their response:

**********************************************************************

Dear Mr. ------:

As one of the test developers responsible for the Verbal sections of
the SAT
I: Reasoning Test, I am writing in response to your e-mail concerning a
critical reading question that is discussed on the College Board's SAT
Learning Center website. The question on the website asks how the
narrator
of the passage characterizes the questions posed by his ancestors. You
wondered whether the explanation for the correct answer, choice (E),
might
actually provide some justification for choice (A) also being correct.
You
point out that the explanation for (E) states that "Clearly, these are
difficult, if not impossible, questions to answer," and you ask if this
is
the same as saying "he cannot possibly answer truthfully" (choice A).

First, I think our characterization of these questions on the website
as
"difficult, if not impossible to answer" was not the best way to
describe
these questions. We wanted to make the point that these are not easy
questions to answer, but I'm afraid we ended up making an inaccurate
generalization about the questions. The questions aren't, in fact,
impossible to answer. Some of these questions can be answered
empirically
(such as "Where did our forbears come from"), and it is certainly
possible
to answer most or all of them "truthfully" with sufficient research,
soul-searching, insight, and anticipation.

The real issue, though, is what the focus of the passage is. The focus
of
the passage is not on whether the narrator can be truthful in his
answers to
these questions, as stated in choice (A). His ability to be truthful
is not
addressed in the passage. Rather, the passage focuses on the
narrator's
exploration of his family's past, the knowledge he has begun to
acquire, and
his sense of the continuity between generations. The questions posed
by his
ancestors and "swirling inside" him as he moves through the landscape
serve
to guide him in this exploration.

Choice (E), then, is clearly the best answer to the question. The
narrator
tells us in the passage that these questions "were once asked" of his
ancestors, and we can assume that they will be asked again of future
generations.

I hope that this letter has been helpful to you. We appreciate your
taking
the time to contact us about your concerns. Good luck with your test
preparations!

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 12:14 am: Edit

...your last name is Santers!!! What's your first name? John, Josh, Jake, Joseph?

By Incognito (Incognito) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 12:21 am: Edit

um, no, I have never heard of the name "Santers"....where did you ever get that?

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 12:24 am: Edit

LOL. Nice save. A bit late though

By Palindrome (Palindrome) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 07:24 am: Edit

Incognito,

Can you post the letter that you sent to them?

By Incognito (Incognito) on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 - 04:34 pm: Edit

Dear College Board,

I am sorry to bother you with this long letter, but it has been on my mind for a while.

I found the following critical reading question on the College Board's Learning Center website
(http://www.collegeboard.com/sat/center/q0502/v_cr_1.html ).

The relevant part of it reads as follows:

In my dreams, the ancestors who have passed on visit with me in this world. They ask me questions they were once asked: Where did our forbears come from and what 45 have we amounted to in this world? Where have we come to in the span of time, and where are we headed, like an
arrow shot long ago into an infinite empty space? What messages and markings of the ancient past do we carry in these handed-down bodies we live in today? 50 With these questions swirling inside me, I have rediscovered some stories of the family past in the landscapes of Texas and Mexico, in the timeless language of stone, river, wind, and trees."

The SAT question is as follows:

The narrator indicates that the questions his ancestors pose
(lines
43-49) are ones that

(A) he cannot possibly answer truthfully
(B) are meant to forewarn as well as confuse
(C) are not really intended to elicit a response
(D) contain the answers hidden within themselves
(E) have been asked before and will be asked again


The answer is supposedly E.

Strangely, in your explanation for why E is the correct answer,
you
overtly state that "Clearly, these are difficult, if not impossible,
questions to answer." Is that not the same as saying "he cannot
possibly
answer truthfully" (which is choice A)?

Could there possibly be a flaw in the reasoning here? If the
person who
received this letter is in no authority to answer my question, I would
appreciate it if you could please send my request on to ETS or whoever
designed the SAT question above.

Thank you for your time.

J. S.
I_needsathelp@yahoo.com

By Zeitgeist (Zeitgeist) on Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 11:53 pm: Edit

Just read ETS' response to Incognito. I give them credit for acknowledging the inconsistency in their explanation. But I couldn't help noticing that they're still dodging the issue. They say:

Choice (E), then, is clearly the best answer to the question. The narrator tells us in the passage that these questions "were once asked" of his ancestors, and we can assume that they will be asked again of future generations.

Notice that they say "we can assume . . ." Well, sure. We can also assume that the ancestors were abducted by space lizards and transported to a distant galaxy where up is down and black is white. Being able to assume something doesn't make it true, and it damn sure doesn't make it something that the "narrator indicates."

By Virago (Virago) on Sunday, March 02, 2003 - 10:35 am: Edit

That's true, Zeitgeist. It's like Milquetoast said, they're throwing up a smoke screen and trying to spin the question in the direction of their wrong answer. They say:

The real issue, though, is what the focus of the passage is.


Uh, excuse me. The real issue is NOT what the focus of the passage is, the real issue is whether the "narrator indicates" that the ancestor's questions will be asked again. Seems they're more eager to redefine the "real issue" than address it.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Saturday, March 08, 2003 - 01:22 pm: Edit

If you people would like to see another weird SAT reading question, then take a look at question #34 of the Nov. '95 exam (section #1). It is in "10 Real SATs" on page #367. It was rated a 4 in terms of difficulty. I didnt really completely understand why the right answer to this question was an accurate statement about the passage. For those of you who do not have the "10 Real SATs" book, I can post the question for you. I just thought that this was another strange question (although certainly not as messed up as the other ones posted on this thread). Considering the fact that Critical Reading is my weakest area, you should not be too surprised that I consider the answer to this question to be a little bit strange. Take a look at it....

By Numbertwopencil (Numbertwopencil) on Monday, March 10, 2003 - 03:15 pm: Edit

Actually, #34 I think is pretty much okay...it's #32 that I've always thought was screwed up...given the unrealistic nature of having "all the major characters' futures neatly resolved," I've always thought that D -- or even A -- is just as arguable answer as E. It's on my list, for when I eventually do a rundown of all the questionable RC questions...

By Incognito (Incognito) on Monday, March 10, 2003 - 07:55 pm: Edit

Hmm...I really cant go against you w/question 32. You're right about it. I just had a hunch on that one and put the right answer (luck does play an important role sometimes I suppose). But as for question 34, the fact that it is rated a 4 instead of a 5 makes me think...am I completely missing something?...

By Dxiw (Dxiw) on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 - 02:15 am: Edit

numbertwopencil - I just read that passage and that question on a practice SAT from 10 real sat's. I agree, its a bitch.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 05:51 pm: Edit

bump

By Zeitgeist (Zeitgeist) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 07:53 pm: Edit

Lines 62-80 of the November '95 passage:


Another summer I determined to read all the novels of Dickens. Reading his fat novels, I loved the feeling I got—after the first hundred pages—of being at home in a fictional world where I knew the names of the characters and cared about what was going to happen to them. And it bothered me that I was forced away at the conclusion, when the fiction closed tight, like a fortune-teller’s fist—the futures of all the major characters neatly resolved. I never knew how to take such feelings seriously, however. Nor did I suspect that these experiences could be part of the novel’s meaning. Still, there were pleasures to sustain me after I’d finished my books. Carrying a volume back to the library, I would be pleased by its weight. I’d run my fingers along the edges of the pages and marvel at the breadth of my achievement. Around my room, growing stacks of paperback books reinforced my assurance.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 07:55 pm: Edit

yeah, but do you have an explanation for the questions above? Because my one doesnt really make too much sense (in the context of the passage)?...

By Zeitgeist (Zeitgeist) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 08:20 pm: Edit

Question 32:

The author uses the phrase "the fiction closed tight" (lines 69-70) in order to

(A) demonstrate that the endings of the novels were not believable
(B) blur the distinction between fictional works and real life
(C) indicate how impenetrable some of the novels were
(D) criticize the artificiality of Dickens' characters
(E) show his unhappiness at having to part with a fictional world

Seems to me that a stronger case can be made for A than for E. When the author says "it bothered me that I was forced away at the conclusion" he seems to be saying that he found the endings of Dickens' novel so unrealistic that he was repelled. This interpretation is supported by the image of the "fortune-teller's fist" closing tightly on the coins that one has paid in order to hear an unbelievably pat prediction of one's future. When the author speaks with scorn of "the futures of all the major characters neatly resolved," it sounds like he's disappointed not because the story has come to an end but because it's come to such an incredibly facile end. Answer E doesn't account for anything that the author says immediately after "the fiction closed tight." I'm with you on this one, Number2Pencil.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 08:29 pm: Edit

Yeah, question 32 is pretty bad. But the beleivability isnt really a major factor in the phrase. There is an element of coldness (which could be the source of the unhappiness mentioned in choice E) that may be "implied" by the tightly-closing fist. But anyways, its a poor question nevertheless. If somebody guesses E over A in this question, it is pretty much a matter of luck. But isnt question 34 another problem? I'll post the question for those of you who dont have the book if you want....

By Zeitgeist (Zeitgeist) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 08:49 pm: Edit

Question 34:

The author uses the phrase "the breadth of my achievement" (lines 78-79) primarily in order to suggest that

(A) he was confusing quantity with quality
(B) the books he had read varied widely in difficulty
(C) he should have been prouder of himself than he was
(D) he believes every child should read as much as possible
(E) no one else knew how much he was reading


When the author says "the breadth of my achievement," he's making a punning allusion to the thickness of the book that he has just read, so he's clearly emphasizing how much he has read (quantity). But I don't see anywhere in the passage that the author "suggests" that he was confusing this quantity with the quality of what he read or the quality of his reading. This seems like another case of sloppy thinking from ETS. (The author is emphasizing quantity, so that means he MUST be contrasting it with quality--just as in the Mexican ancestors case the questions were asked before, so that means they MUST be asked again). So I agree with you, Incognito, that this is a weird question (or at least that A is a weird answer), but unlike in question 32, I don't see any other answer for which a better case can be made.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 08:57 pm: Edit

Zeitgeist :

I'm glad that I got some reassurance that this question's chioce was odd. (I'm reassured that I wasnt missing anything). I agree with you when you say that there arent really any other logical choices for this question. Well, anyways, thank you for the responses. The others who posted on this thread will surely appreciate your thoughtful input. It's a good thing that these types of critical reading questions are (in my opinion) relatively rare.

By Zeitgeist (Zeitgeist) on Sunday, March 16, 2003 - 09:09 pm: Edit

Incognito,

Glad to be of some help. I have to disagree about the rarity of flawed questions, though. I'll be interested to see Number2Pencil's list. Mine's pretty long and growing longer every day!

By Randy80016 (Randy80016) on Monday, March 17, 2003 - 02:35 am: Edit

I didn't have as much issue with the first few questions posted, but number 32, and the mexican one are sheer b.s.

Its annoying because these type of questions are so frequent- I missed 3 on the SAT, all verbal, and I don't remember exactly which ones they were, but I feel I could have made 1600 or damn close with a little more luck, and a little more effort on ETS's part to select quality questions.

but these questions are NOTHING in comparison to those on the AP Literature and Lang tests, about 1/4 of all questions on the AP Lit tests we've gone over in class are of the questionable at best nature, and many are clearly the wrong right answer- also there will be ones where the majority, 80+ % of test takers puts the same wrong answer. Luckily that test is out of 5, not 1600 so its ok that many questions are bogus, since you can still score perfect without them.