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Arts and Culture

Reality TV on the SAT

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Posted on Mar 16, 2011
Wikimedia Commons / Luke Ford (CC-BY-SA)

Reality star Kim Kardashian appears at the Hollywood Life Magazine Awards in 2007.

Figuring in among the many gauges of intelligence on this year’s SAT is one that raised a controversy for reasons beyond the usual critique that the infamous test for college candidates favors certain populations with access to a particular kind of knowledge and training. This time, the kerfuffle was about an essay question some students encountered last weekend about ... reality television. Apocalypse watchers take note.  —KA

The New York Times:

This is one of those moments when I wish I actually watched TV,” one test-taker wrote on Saturday on the Web site College Confidential, under the user name “littlepenguin.”

“I ended up talking about Jacob Riis and how any form of media cannot capture reality objectively,” he wrote, invoking the 19th-century social reformer. “I kinda want to cry right now.”

Less than a minute later, a fellow test-taker identified as “krndandaman” responded: “I don’t watch tv at all so it was hard for me. I have no interest in reality tv shows…”

The commenter ended the post with the symbol for a frowning face.

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By satverbaltutor, March 17, 2011 at 7:14 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The prompt itself didn’t specifically ask about reality television; the background to
the prompt, which can generally be ignored, mentioned it for context. Test-takers
were under no obligation to discuss reality television; they were free to discuss any
form of entertainment, even though reality television was the most obvious
example. Taken without the accompanying blurb, the question was actually a
serious one about the role of the media and could be answered with a wide variety
of “serious” examples.

That said, the College Board could have put a bit more thought into such narrowly
phrased question.

Report this

By TDoff, March 17, 2011 at 6:35 pm Link to this comment

This poses an interesting question. Do the US colleges and universities that use SAT scores as a part of their evaluation of prospective students, know that SAT tests are prepared by uneducated boobs?

And now that the boobs have been revealed, how will these educational institutions respond to the dilemma?

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By TDoff, March 17, 2011 at 2:52 pm Link to this comment

More apropos for aspirants to ‘higher education’ so they can fill a slot in the US Corporate training schools, would be to test their knowledge and opinion of the commercials aired during ‘Reality’ shows, to see if they are paying attention to the real purpose of those ‘Reality’ shows. Questions such as ‘How important to your future career do you believe it is that your genitalia smell like a popular fruit beverage as you report to work each morning?’. ‘Would you buy a used car from the actor/‘doctor’ who tries so hard on those drug commercials to get you to push your real doctor to start you on a lifetime habit of popping pills made by Pfizer?

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By SarcastiCanuck, March 17, 2011 at 11:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Unfuckingbelievable America.You have now fallen over the precipice of ridiculous mountain.Most of these reality shows are celebrations of stupidity,materialism and avarice.Why not questions on video games or porn stars,because that is what the brilliant should be excelling at,huh.Paris Hilton for president.

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Lafayette's avatar

By Lafayette, March 17, 2011 at 1:32 am Link to this comment

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Figuring in among the many gauges of intelligence on this year’s SAT is one that raised a controversy for reasons beyond the usual critique that the infamous test for college candidate

If thE test were given to the current Hollywood-asteroids in LA as a residency requirement, the city would empty in a day.

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By thethirdman, March 16, 2011 at 10:40 pm Link to this comment

It would have helped if TD would have included the question so we could judge
for ourselves…

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