Immersion in the language pays off

I'm going to brag on Chloe's behalf because what I'm going to brag about is tenuously relevant to the purpose of this blog. She took the SAT subject test in Spanish (they used to be called SAT II). She needed the score for a college application but hadn't received it yet so she checked the Web site, which said she got an 800, in the 90th percentile. Well, that's great! But 800 out of what? The Web site didn't say, but the ambiguous bar illustrating her score ended at 800. Brilliant analysts that we are, we finally concluded that that means 800/800. Now I, no fan of standardized testing, find myself irrationally wanting the College Board (and isn't that a presumptuous name for a company that makes gazillions of dollars even though it's not affiliated with colleges?) to break the percentiles down further than 10-point spreads, as if it matters. Pretty good for someone who was a non-Spanish speaker just over a year ago and it validates the contention that living a language is the quickest way to learn it.

Comments

[Katy]

Well done Chloe! I wouldn't have expected any less.