Why Sarah Palin Needs Me as Her SAT Tutor
By Debby Dodds
I’m a professional SAT tutor. One of the most popular test dates, in terms of attendance if not in terms of the affection of its teen participants, is Saturday, October 4th. Another is the first week in November. The fall may be election time for some but for me, this is SAT season. I’ve been prepping kids all week with strategies and review exercises to enhance their knowledge about the material on these exams that they take to show their college readiness. So, suffice to say, the SATs were on my mind as I listened to the debate on my car radio on October 2nd. I must admit, Sarah Palin drove me a little nuts. In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a liberal Democrat, but it was not just her opinions on the issues that I found difficult to listen to. What bothered me the most was that I knew she desperately needed me as her SAT tutor or she would be likely to get a very low score.
Of course, I know Ms. Palin is a grown woman. She has already attended many years of college, at many, many different institutions of higher learning. However, I cannot help but to think that some SAT tips might serve her well in the future.
The SAT begins with a twenty five minute essay on some general, yet philosophical topic, such as, “Are all issues black and white or can there be shades of gray? Are simplistic, polemical arguments valid?” The essay is then scored by two trained readers who can each bestow a score between zero and six on the writer. One important reminder on the essay instructions warns, “An off-topic essay will receive a score of zero.” Ms. Palin often had problems with this habit of digression in the debate last evening. Sometimes Ms. Palin went off on tangents after quick, unspecific answers to questions. When asked if she and McCain were against a measure to prevent courts from adjusting individual’s mortgage payments and principles, she responded, “That is not so, but because that's just a quick answer, I want to talk about, again, my record on energy versus your ticket's energy ticket, also.” Other times she just completely refused to address the moderator’s prompt. When asked, “Governor, please (do) you want to respond to what he (Biden) said about Sen. McCain's comments about health care?” Palin replied, “I would like to respond about the tax increases.” She even went so far as to petulantly assert, “And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.” I’m very concerned that Sarah Palin would receive a “0” total from both readers on her essay segment.There is a grammar section on the Writing portion of the SAT as well. Now it would be disingenuous to claim that the standards of written and spoken grammar are the same. Most people speak in a much more casual way than the way in which they choose to express themselves when they write. However, as I currently have no written samples of Ms. Palin to judge, I must merely voice concern when I hear sentence constructions such as, “Again, John McCain and I, that commitment that we have made, and we're going to follow through on that, getting rid of that corruption.” and, “I do take issue with some of the principle there with that redistribution of wealth principle that seems to be espoused by you.” I think that, at the very least, Ms. Palin could use some review on her idiomatic expressions and sentence clarity.Reading Comprehension is an important skill for the SATs and there’s no doubt Ms. Palin must have read quite a few documents to prepare for this debate. She seems to lack the ability to assimilate some main ideas. Her reading of the Constitution regarding the powers of a Vice President shows she has definite difficulties in this area. She should actively reread Article One of this document and mark up the main ideas. Of course, she should use a copy of the Constitution and not use her #2 pencil on the original, even if her pencil does have an eraser. Additionally, Ms. Palin had a problem with the recall of specific details, referring to General McKiernan, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, as “General McClellan.” Perhaps she mixed up the monikers because she’d also been reading about Civil War history? There was a Union General by that appellation. Keeping names, dates and places clear is an important ability to hone for the SAT. Finally, the McCain campaign acknowledges the he does not support changes to the bankruptcy laws, even in this time of economic crisis; however when Biden stated this, Ms. Palin contradicted him and claimed McCain did not disagree with the idea of amending the bankruptcy laws. Perhaps this is wishful thinking on her part, and not a blatant attempt to twist facts? It is a moot point. Neither tactic would serve her well on the Critical Reading portion of the SAT. A more linear, less creative approach is most successful on this area of the exam. Arguably, Mr. Biden had some problems in this area of Reading Comprehension too. However, I can only tutor one of them at a time. He’ll have to wait his turn.Finally, the Math section aptitude test might present a challenge for Ms. Palin. Regarding the troop number in Iraq, she seems to have made a simple “greater than” vs. “equal to” error. The troops on the ground in Iraq before the surge were at 133,000 but now the troop level is 150,000. 150,000 is 17,000 greater than 133,000. These numbers are not even close to being equal to each other. Furthermore, Ms. Palin asserted that Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden’s running mate, voted to raise, or not decrease, taxes “94 times!” It was arguably half that many votes that were cast by Mr. Obama on tax related issues and many of these “tax increases” did not apply to people making less than $250,000. Ms. Palin might have some challenges with basic addition skills.Ms. Palin seems to be a supporter of education. In the debate she pledged, “I'm very, very concerned about where we're going with education and we have got to ramp it up and put more attention in that arena.” I love that. I also love that she wants to pay teachers more! Because she has such a generous spirit, I’m going to double my tutoring fees for her and I’m sure she’ll happily pay them. We have a lot of work to do. I’d recommend two sessions a week and, if she does her homework, we might be ready for the December SAT date. I hope she’ll be free then and not have any other pressing business interfering with the administration of the SAT, such as helping McCain get ready to lead our country. I think she should concentrate on getting good scores on the SAT instead.TIP:
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Joan Walsh
Kerry Lauerman
Strong American Schools
Salon.com
Comments
This alone should be reason for McCain to reconsider his choice, or to be haunted by his lack of reason in his choice. Also......most reasonable people, being aware of their own qualifications, would assess the decision to accept the major candidate's choice of them.
Palin decided an opportunistic knee-jerk acceptance was her destiny.
It was time to revisit her contrived, folksy mannerisms. Winking and hard-charming her way to the executive,........er...uh,...excuse me, the legislative branch of government.
Ellia
I think Debby should call Palin AFTER the election to help give her a clue!
I think all of our current candidates could use a healthy dose of your sense of humor!
She is SUPER talented and with a wit unmatched !!!
I couldn't watch the debate as I wasn't in the mood to vomit that night ;-)