<p>
[quote]
The remaining of the test consists of VERY simple mechanical questions ... questions that should extirely trivial to someone who was considered prepared enough to start an AP class. After all, we are talking about 9th grade grammar, and not the type of questions that would show up in an AP Lit test.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't necessarily agree. For those that language comes naturally to, yes. But there are people in AP or advanced english classes who aren't necessarily naturals at this and with a little more work can polish things up. "Entirely trivial" is a bit of an exaggeration IMO. In theory, I would agree. However, in practice, I know a lot of people who get overwhelmed with all the words thrown at them in the MC. </p>
<p>It's not necessarily like writing yourself. I work well with language and a lot of the SAT questions annoy me, because even the "correct" version, though technically correct, is sometimes written a way that is not natural and is not the way anyone would ever write it. True, the other answers choices often have a mistake that is apparent if you have the "ear" for this stuff. But I think some people encounter problems when they see these akward choices. I see why they want to assess grammar but it's a little bit of an unnatural way that sort of tends to attempt to trick people rather than allow them to show what they know. If I write something, I don't write it four different times with various grammar mistakes and then pick the right one. I think it indicates more whether you can read five sentences and pick one, than whether you can write a proper sentence. A more effective way is to give the sentence with mistakes and ask the student to edit it. IME, this is how grammar was taught in schools to me. Obviously, that can't be done on the SAT for logistical purposes, but for people who can't sit for hours on end reading choice after choice, it would be much more efficient. </p>
<p>I got two wrong on the writing MC the first time I took the SAT, with no prep. But even for me, all the answers can start swimming together towards the end...I'd be willing to bet that the two wrong were on my last section, although I didn't get the question and answer service so I don't really know. I know a lot of people that I know for a fact are good writers and write clearly, but their writing score doesn't necessarily reflect it. It's not usually incredibly drastic, but there does seem to be some discrepancy. I've noticed this mostly in people who tend to be very precise. I think they get overwhelmed with the wordiness of the choices, when in reality they're the best and most accurate students I know. I've often seen verbal scores that are significantly different from the writing score, and that's the only conclusion I can draw. I think the writing is more mentally demanding, although easier to be accurate on as it tends to be less subjective in nature than some of the verbal part (which I think is straightforward for the most part but has the occasional question I'd qualify as "stretching it" - probably gets discounted or is part of equating though.)</p>