SAT Examiners Can Be Fooled

Below is a paragraph from the writing portion of an SAT exam. The essay was scored a 5 out of a possible 6.

In the 1930’s, American businesses were locked in a fierce economic competition with Russian merchants for fear that their communist philosophies would dominate American markets. As a result, American competition drove the country into an economic depression and the only way to pull them out of it was through civil cooperation. American president Franklin Delenor Roosevelt advocated for civil unity despite the communist threat of success by quoting “the only thing we need to fear is itself,” which desdained competition as an alternative to cooperation for success. In the end, the American economy pulled out of the depression and succeeded communism.

This essay was an "experiment" by MIT professor Les Perelman who coached a student on how to "fool" the SAT examiners into giving a good score on a not so good essay. Prof. Perlman's goal was to prove that the new writing portion of the SAT is crap.

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