Can blogging raise your SAT scores?

Don't know, but we can test this hypothesis.

Go to Cognitive Daily and/or Uncertain Principles and take the test (and read what they have to say about it, each from his own perspective).

It is just the essay part of the test. You get the prompt. You write. After 20 minutes (you are typing - kids who write with pencils get 25 minutes), it is over. You can choose to submit your essay or not once you are done.

Dave and Chad will score the results and have the essays graded by professionals (English teachers, hopefully some real-life SAT scorers), as well as blog-readers. Then, they will post the results (and essays) and we can all discuss them.

I have not done mine yet - waiting to have guaranteed 20 minutes of peace and quite - but I am afraid.

With blogging, we choose our prompts. If I want to react fast to some breaking news, I post a link, a quote and a one-liner.

Longer, more thoughtful essays sometimes go quick, but more often take days to write - thinking about it and writing it in my head first, then doing online research looking for additional info and appropriate links, then the actual writing (which usually does not take long), then quick spellchecking and editing, then posting. It takes more like 20 hours than 20 minutes. How about you?

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I think that quick style of writing is something that can be cultivated. I'm one of those people that works best under pressure, so I do everything right before deadline. The key for me is reading what I've written aloud if I don't have time to let it lie for a day or so.

I'm Australian so I never did the SATs, but maybe I'll give it a go.