Category Archives: Rants

NYTimes:

By Wednesday, comments on the now-infamous prompt — which included the question, “How authentic can these shows be when producers design challenges for the participants and then editors alter filmed scenes?” — had stretched across nearly 40 pages on College Confidential. Media coverage added to the scrutiny.

Angela Garcia, executive director of the SAT program, said she did not think it was unfair to ask that question of students who had neither the time nor inclination to watch Mike Sorrentino on “Jersey Shore,” or Kim Kardashian on “Kourtney & Kim Take New York.”

“The primary goal of the essay prompt is to give students an opportunity to demonstrate their writing skills,” she said.

So I guess this is a big deal lately. Last weekend’s SAT asked high school kids if they thought reality TV could be authentic or not. In my opinion, a pretty easy question, and one that doesn’t even deal directly with reality TV — all you really need to write about in this case is the ethics of perception. But turns out, this stumped everyone from pretentious smart fucks to morons.

Let’s quote a smart kid:

“This is one of those moments when I wish I actually watched TV,” one test-taker wrote on Saturday on the Web site College Confidential, under the user name “littlepenguin.”

“I ended up talking about Jacob Riis and how any form of media cannot capture reality objectively,” he wrote, invoking the 19th-century social reformer. “I kinda want to cry right now.”

Bro, no one gives a shit that you know who Jacob Riis, especially not SAT graders. This is a classic example of doing waaaaaay to much. It’s why I hate everyone at TU so much — I bet half the kids here would have written the same thing, then cried about it on an online message board. Wanna know what I did when I finished the SAT? Got fucking hammered, that’s what. Forgot every question immediately.

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