text: Oh Pepper?: SAT Deja Vu
  According to the College Board, "The SAT Reasoning Test is a measure of the critical thinking skills you'll need for academic success in college. The SAT assesses how well you analyze and solve problems—skills you learned in school that you'll need in college. The SAT is typically taken by high school juniors and seniors."
  So I decided to conduct an experiment. Would I score higher on the SAT after becoming fluent in another language, graduating from college, graduating from law school, and passing the bar exam, than I did before accomplishing all those things? The first time around back in 1995 I scored 1170--not great but somehow good enough to get into BYU. It must have been the fact that I was the captain of the football, basketball, and soccer teams in high school.
  To prepare I tried to recreate my original experience as best I could so, like in high school, I didn't really study for it. I started saying, "Like," "Um," and other one syllable words more often when people asked me questions. I bought some flannel shirts at Salvation Army. I shaved so there was no sign of my facial hair except for some stray neck whiskers. I carried around a Discman wherever I went. And I would have had my friend's mom drive me to the test and stop at Burger King for lunch afterwards, but I think she still lives in Virginia.
  Here I am before entering the school. Wish me luck!
  Some of the other kids stared a little but once I started texting on my phone like crazy and talking about my Myspace page they weren't suspicious any more. Anyway, here's how I did:
  So, I got 1320, a 150 point improvement! I guess the thousands of dollars I paid towards my college and graduate education and 13 extra years of life experience really did make a difference. Too bad you can't do those things before taking the SAT.
  So did you just spend like $45 for a blog post and conversation piece?
  There is a lot to be said for life experience. When I took the GRE to get into UVA grad school (16 years after college, no tests in between, no prep) I got way better than I needed to. Oddly I got better on math than verbal...?!
  I got in, despite the "department chair's" snooty comment that I should not expect to do well on the test without any preparation.
  Lack of life experience is why we don't consult high schoolers for life decisions. Unfortunately, that is the age they make them for themselves...
  The SAT was $45 when I was in high school......
  i think if i had been on time to take my SAT and remembered my calculator AND been 30 years old i would have done much better!