<p>I was gonna wait until scores came out, but if you insist…</p>
<p>I got the oh-so-controversial “reality TV” (actually more like “reality entertainment”) essay. In order to prove that reality entertainment is bad, I wrote about the perils of bullfighting, telling the story of the ill-fated matador Gaston Caperton (look him up). I made up a few historical facts (something about Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia invading Spain in the 14th century) and peppered my writing with ~50% authentic and ~50% fake/profane Spanish words. Scores and full essay text to come once available.</p>
<p>I included the invitation to give my essay a score of zero. I also made several marks at the bottom of my essay using a variety of writing implements I smuggled into the testing room, including pen, colored pencil, charcoal pencil, #2.5 pencil, #3 pencil, etc. – you get the idea. The essay itself was written in #2 pencil. I’m curious to see which of my various other marks (I did my best to label them) get picked up by the scanners.</p>
<p>I may or may not have engaged in other questionable behavior. However, I’d rather wait until I have my scores back and my essay firmly in hand before I reveal anything further.</p>
<p>Cawledge Bored spies, if you are reading this post, you can rest easy: much like my essay, this post is an entirely unfactual piece of creative writing.</p>
<p>Exactly - I have always wondered what would happen if you just totally made up absurd essay examples but in a well-written essay. Looking forward to hearing how you did on the March SAT. Wondering how you handled the “Reality Show” topic???</p>
<p>My full report will come on April 5th, 2011 (when the scan of my essay will be posted online).</p>
<p>Overall, I scored a 2340 (2380 if we ignore that whole essay thing… see below). I’m pleased with the score considering that I rushed through the multiple choice problems in order to make time for… ahem… <em>other</em> endeavors. Here’s the breakdown:</p>
<p>Critical Reading = 800
Math = 790: In my haste, I found the area underneath the Fibonacci spiral rather than the length of the spiral.
Writing = 750: The essay tanked my score; see below.</p>
<p>Ask, and ye shall receive. (That’s probably in the Bible somewhere.)</p>
<p>As promised, my FULL REPORT:</p>
<p>As reported above, I ended up scoring as follows:
</p>
<p>It turns out I also missed some sentence completion question, probably due to having been rushing, as I don’t recall guessing on any of those.</p>
<p>Experiment I: THE ESSAY (scored an 8; annotated in the 2nd paragraph):</p>
<p>Although forms of entertainment that purport to showcase “reality” bring short-term benefits in the form of entertainment, such benefits are fleeting rather than permanent. Simultaneously, the process of creating such “entertainment” has the potential to yield permanent consequences, whether intended or unintended, that continue to inflict pain long after the “entertainment” has dissipated. Thus, in assessing the value of so-called “reality” entertainment, it is imperative that society duly weigh the benefits and potential costs thereof. After a careful analysis of so-called “reality” entertainment, I argue that the costs outweigh the benefits in the long term.</p>
<p>Bullfighting has long been a staple of Spanish culture and is arguably one of the oldest examples of “reality” entertainment. The historic bullfighting arena dates back to the conquest of Spain by the Great Elector, Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia, in the 14th century(a). Over 380,000(b) "fan</p>
<p>I just did an infinite sum of the the pythagorean spiral (sigma (arctan1/root(x))), in BC calc, so I was disappointed when I didn’t find the freaking circumference on the SAT.</p>