<p>“What Mollie said. There AREN’T people like that. People like that cannot handle MIT without changing their attitudes, at least to some degree. People like that are not admitted to MIT when the admissions officers find an unhealthy degree of perfectionism. They know that those students are going to fall apart once they fail an exam (which they almost certainly will do at some point) and they’d rather give the spot to someone who has an equally competitive SAT score but has shown (through essays, recommendations, etc, not the possibly lower score per se) that they can handle failure.”</p>
<p>After criticising my points above, how can you state this? You’re saying that there is absolutely no possibility that anyone with a degree of perfectionism that great can handle failure. A generalisation such as that is extremely irresponsible coming from an admissions blogger such as yourself, and I refuse to be ashamed of my comments when your own are highly inappropriate, albeit in a different manner. </p>
<p>So you’re saying that studying for a test can’t possibly cause one “to gain knowledge or understanding of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience”? Oh, dear. Does studying for any test cause one to learn then? Or is the SAT a mystical beast that refutes all possibility of learning? Or, if you’re more specifically referencing those students who are already in the top range, as I must assume you are (otherwise, that would just seem stupid) you don’t think that even they can learn? I know for a fact after getting a 780 on my math section, I knew that I didn’t know something afterwards, and I learned it (although in my defense, I didn’t study for it, and I only retook the test to improve my overall score, not simply my math score - and it did improve, and it did not detract from my life in any way shape or form). I’d also like to take this opportunity to absolutely destroy the idea that one has to specifically study for the SAT to take it again and get a higher score, as normal classes tend to increase your scores. Thus, just because someone is going to take the SAT again doesn’t mean that they’re freaking out and studying more - another generalisation.</p>
<p>“…the “experience” of high learning that you assumed I did not have (an assumption you made for no reason other to make a rather nasty and insulting point which would have had no basis in fact or logic, even if it were true).”</p>
<p>If you’ll notice, I did not state that you hadn’t had the experience yourself, as can be gleaned from the use of the adverb “perhaps” below:</p>
<p>“…perhaps you haven’t had the experience yourself, so you immediately attack the actions of those people who can and do.”</p>
<p>And by “ignorance” of students of high calibre, I mean a lack of direct social interaction with the very people that you criticise. When was the last time you were in a high school with students that WERE obsessed with the SAT? I know very many, but I can tell you that your accusations of a lack of ability for coping with failure are absolutely ridiculous in many cases.</p>