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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gauguin who wrote (18856)	3/11/1999 2:22:00 AM
From: Gauguin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Uh oh. I don't think that last post was appropriate. But you guys made me think about it, and that's my opinion, and I'm sorry if I spouted. Off. Yah. It's your fault. But I don't mean to upset anyone.

To: Gauguin who wrote (18856)	3/11/1999 12:28:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

When we were given the PSAT in 11th grade, I had no ******* idea what this thing was. Since our school had a German curriculum, this was a multiple-choice test of novel and unknown format - delivered without any context instead of two scheduled classes. I did quite well on our school's curve, but I didn't (by an ootch) make the cut for semifinalist. What struck me the most is that if I'd had any idea how the test worked (and the SAT format is very amenable to being worked) I would have done noticeably better. The culture of how to answer a question is real different in the SAT format and the one our school used. Not that one is better, but they were different. So for the SAT I saw prep books on the bookstore shelf. I bought one and set a wristwatch on my acid-stained desk (nitric, not lysergic) and did all five practice exams. I also memorized the math and vocab primers in the back of the book. (I was flubbing math questions because all my terminology was not in English!! This "cultural bias" business is not all bs.) I got better with each practice test. For the SAT I had to report to a local high school. It looked ominously different from my home institution. Even more disorienting - the smell was all wrong. But I was ready. I knew about No.2 pencils - about 30 minutes per block of questions - about what they really wanted from the word analogy questions. I took that test and got very good numbers. Not perfect - but good enough to make choice of college effectively discretionary. But I was out of the cut for National Merit. CW, I tip my hat.