Annnnd the delux chumba in the mabweni goes to Abdoulaye Wade and a plate of mafé poulet

(This is a brief break from the Senegal trip.)

This post is dedicated to Ms. Laura and Ms. Chemeli, who have supported this blog more than anybody else.

The SAT is not an international test. It was written by the American people, for the American people (much like Abraham Lincoln’s vision for the US government). There are two major disadvantages that outsiders face when they take the SAT.

1) Americans grow up taking standardized bubble-shading tests. They are bred for the job. By the time they are 17, they are SAT taking robots and they know things that are not inherently obvious. For instance, they know to fill in all of the answers at the end of each page or section. The ordinary international applicant would simply go back and forth between the test booklet and the answer sheet hundreds of times. This wastes valuable seconds, seconds that could be used to think, “My God, what in the world is this question about? Who is Sidney Crosby? And what’s a zamboni?!” And that leads me to the second difficulty…

2) The SAT frequently references US culture. An example that Ms. Laura gave me is the proverbial baseball diamond math question. Unless he or she has spent the last 18 years in the bat cave, any American teenager reading about Jimmy’s journey from first to third base immediately pictures a diamond. It is ridiculous to expect the same of someone who has never even heard of baseball, so they can't possibly answer the question.

As a second, more subtle example, here is the first practice mathematics question on the College Board website:



The answer was D) 3/8. If you got the right answer, it’s weird that you tried.

What does matter is that the question has the American names for school grades in it. Because although it is not essential that you know what a sophomore is to find the answer, you will be slowed down if you don't. If this happens repeatedly, it makes a difference.

If you don’t believe me, read this question, in which I have substituted some of the vocabulary for random Swahili words:



It’s not impossible, but the foreign gibberish is distracting. The point is that for non-Americans, it is very possible to be fluent in English and still have difficulty on the Math section for language reasons. And that’s just not fair.

In an attempt to balance things out, I have written two possible questions for October's SAT that I'm hoping College Board will include, just so that American teenagers will finally know what it is like to be culturally excluded from a multiple choice test.

1)
2)


If you answered C) and then D), congratulations! If you actually understand why the answers were C) and D), you belong to a very special category of people. If you were confused, then I guarantee you that is how most of my friends at ALA feel when they take the SAT.





ps. If you sort of got the joke behind question 2 but would like some clarification, the Springboks are the name of the South African rugby team, but they are also small antelope-like animals. Biltong is the South African equivalent of beef jerky, and it is delicious. Also, mad is a type of fruit.