So now we come to the end (well… sort of)

Here I was, all set for the SAT to take its final bow  when, in a remarkable twist,  it was announced that hundreds of testing centers would be closed and the January test postponed until Feb. 20th  thanks to the blizzard about to descend on the east coast. Given that it was 60 degrees on Christmas Day in New York City and that this is the first real snowfall  of the year, I cant help but find this to be an bizarrely  coincidental  turn of events. It would seem that the SAT is not about to go quietly. That notwithstanding, tomorrow is still the last official SAT test date, and thus I feel obligated to post a few words in tribute to an exam thats had a disproportionately large impact on my life over these last few years. (Full disclosure: Im also posting this  now because Ive gone through the trouble of writing this post, and if I wait another month, I might get caught up in something and forget to post it.)    Ill do my best  not to get all mushy and sentimental.   From  time to time, various students used to  ask me hedgingly  whether I loved the SAT. It was a reasonable question. After all, who would spend quite so much time tutoring and writing about a test they didnt really, really like? I cant say, however, that I ever  loved the SAT in a conventional sense.  The test  was something I happened to be good at more or less naturally (well, the verbal portion at least), and tutoring it was something I just happened to fall  into. I didnt start out with any particular agenda or viewpoint about the test; it was simply a necessary hurdle to be dealt with on the path to college, and as I saw it, my job was to make that hurdle as straightforward and painless as possible.  To be sure, there were aspects of the tests that were genuinely interesting to discuss, and dont even get me started on the lets-use-Harry-Potter-examples-to-define-vocabulary-fests, but as I always told my students, You dont have to like it you just have to take it. What I will say, though, is something Ive heard from many tutors as well as from many students (and their parents), namely that after spending a certain amount of time grappling with the SAT, picking it apart and understanding its strengths as well as its shortcomings, you develop a sort of grudging respect for the test.  For a lot of students, the SAT is the first truly  challenging academic obstacle theyve faced the first test they couldnt  ace just by reading the Sparknotes version or programming their calculator with a bunch of formulas. For the students I tutored long-term, there was almost always a moment when it finally sank in: Oh. This test is  actually difficult. Im going to have to really work if I want to improve.  And usually they rose to the challenge.   But the interesting part is that what started  out as no more than a nuisance, another hoop to jump through on the way to college, could sometimes turn into a real  educational experience one that left  them noticeably more comfortable reading college-level material, whether or not  they got all the way to where they wanted to go.  And when they did improve, sometimes  to levels beyond what their parents had thought them capable of, their  sense of accomplishment was enormous.  They had  fought for those scores. Perhaps I lack imagination, but I just dont see  students having those types of experiences quite as often with the new test.   Thats a best-case scenario, of course; I think the worst-case scenarios have been sufficiently rehashed elsewhere to make it unnecessary for me to go into all that here. But regardless of what you happen to think of the SAT, theres a lot to be said for having the experience of wrestling with something just high enough above your level to be genuinely challenging but just close enough to be within reach.   This test has also  led me down roads  I never could have foreseen. While Ive also been primarily interested in the SATs role as a cultural flashpoint, in the way it sits right at the crux  of a whole host of social and educational issues, its also taught me more than I ever could have imagined about what constitutes effective teaching, how the reading process works, and about the gap between high school and college learning.  And Ive met a lot of (mostly) great people because of it, many of whom have become not only colleagues but also friends. I never thought Id say this, but I owe the SAT a lot. It wasnt a perfect test, but considered within the   narrow confines of what it could realistically be expected to demonstrate,  it did its job pretty well.   So on that note, Im going to say something that might sound odd: to those of you taking this last test, consider yourselves lucky. Consider yourselves lucky to have been given the opportunity to take a test that holds you to an actual standard; that gives you a snapshot of the type of vocabulary and reading that genuinely reflect what youll encounter in college; that isnt designed to pander to your ego by twisting the numbers until theyre all but meaningless.   And if youve been granted a reprieve for tomorrow,  enjoy the snow day and catch up on your sleep.