The ACT test (yes, the SAT parallel, and the cause of much anxiety among highschoolers) has apparently notified colleges that scores will come in a bit late this year, given recent changes to how they score the writing section of the test. Although one assumes they hired additional graders for this new task, they apparently underestimated the time needed to read through thousands of writing samples in an analytic manner.
They do this for a living and they still couldn’t admit just how time-consuming it is to grade writing!
Now you should call or write your former teachers to thank them for the endless hours they put into grading your papers. Yes, multiple-choice would be faster, and it would turn half my job into a breeze. But instead we opt for something that, you know, takes us forever but reflects real-world writing practices.
Erin
Alan Schmierer