7 ms·

The SAT thing is a pretty weird generalization. Some of us just took the test, got the score, and that was that. "1590...good enough." Your story demonstrates

by rdouble 15y ago

The SAT thing is a pretty weird generalization. Some of us just took the test, got the score, and that was that. "1590...good enough." Your story demonstrates precisely the "aspergers preschool" mood described by comment you are responding to: Google is a place where adults compare SAT scores 10 years after the fact...

nostrademons 15y ago
I told you not to take my post too seriously. :-P I'm using the generalization as a form of irony to illustrate the point. Notice that everything from the 3rd paragraph to the end is about how it really doesn't matter, and you shouldn't be defined by the score you got on some standardized test? (Meta-irony: notice how I also said that 1590s tend to say or do things that have their own internal logic that doesn't necessarily make sense to other people?)
- rdouble 15y ago
  The generalization is weird, but the odder part is that you know your co-worker's SAT scores. How does that even come up in conversation? It makes me miss the old silicon valley where every other person was a weirdo who never even went to college.
  - nostrademons 15y ago
    These aren't Googlers I'm talking about, except the boyfriend. Most of them are friends from college, along with a few online friends and a family member mixed in. As for how it comes up in conversation - look at this thread, it's got 3 people's SAT scores already. It's not like it's particularly taboo. Usually it starts with somebody mentioning how much they hate/miss high school over dinner or a few drinks, and then soon everybody's offhandedly mentioning their numbers. (Edit: Also, I hope that everyone reading this understands that the numbers, while inspired by real people, are completely arbitrary. I don't really care if the general HN community dislikes, misunderstands, or downvotes the post. I care that the people who would see themselves in the 1590 category, whether or not they actually scored a 1590 on some standardized test several years ago, understand the point.)
    - bane 15y ago
      No, it's really quite strange. This thread has got me thinking, until this thread, I can't even recall the last time somebody mentioned their SAT score. Probably more than 15 years ago? I've heard more IQ scores, GRE scores and even TOEFL scores than SAT scores. A fascinating circle you run in indeed.
      - count 15y ago
        You're probably significantly older, and have a ton of life experience and achievement under your belt. He's probably early-20s, fresh out of school, and that's still a huge part of his life experience.
        nostrademons 15y ago
        I'm 30. Though remember that most of these conversations happened when I was actually in college (a few even before then, while applying to schools), and I just have a really long memory. (The conversation with the friend that sparked this musing was last night, but I've been friends with her since she was 14, and so our conversation topics include anything that was fair game back then, which is basically everything.)
        bane 15y ago
        "conversations happened when I was actually in college" Oh then...that makes sense. From the sounds of it I thought you were talking about say...a month ago over lunch in the cafeteria. "Mmm...this Bruschetta is pretty good" "Could use more diced tomatoes. BTW, I got 1573 on my SATs, you?" "oh...1590, ain't that weird?" "pass the pepper please?"
  - matwood 15y ago
    The generalization is weird, but the odder part is that you know your co-worker's SAT scores. That's what I was also thinking. I don't think I've talked about SAT scores since I was a sophomore/junior in HS and was taking the SAT. My friends and I have occasionally talked about GRE scores, but that's only because one of my friends tutors/preps people to take it.
  - kubrickslair 15y ago
    I don't mean to cause offense, but I find people who never went to college or did not major or focus heavily on CS or engineering generally more interesting to both work with and as people. Somehow college grads (especially in math heavy fields) seem to believe that their scores or grades are a reflection of their intelligence, drive or even personality. Not to say there are huge exceptions; both among people I know, and among famous thinkers- I find Poincare, or Mandelbrot to be great 'broad' thinkers who totally understand the fallacy of such numbers in both life and science. -Said as someone who went to a big name CS place
    - jes5199 15y ago
      Thanks!
    - kafkaesque 15y ago
      Yes, I also thank you. A digression coming up! You've been warned! I have a BA from a pretty highly ranked university in Canada, and excelled in academics. However, I always thought it was a breeze for anybody to do really well in. I always thought the Arts were stupidly easy compared to the Sciences. So, I always down-played my performance, because I always knew that, in the end, I had accomplished something very insignificant, despite being in the top 5%; and even despite various professors suggesting I could do really great things and one going as far as telling me I shouldn't be in university "since I already knew all the material". Long story short, I graduated and, basically, failed in every other aspect of my life, including landing a good career and was getting paid minimum wage for the 2 years after graduating. I left the country, am doing OK now, but learning to program and interested in more of the sciences (lo and behold, right?). But it is funny how now that I am surrounding myself more with science people and CS/IT people, I feel I have strong proof of how excelling in one subject or area can get to someone's head. I'm glad I never let it get to me. And I think back at the times I wasn't humble when trying to explain some esoteric concept to someone, or when someone didn't explain something properly or simply did not have the knowledge to fully make an adequate generalization of a given concept, and I was very indifferent and critical; I think back and feel bad and hope never to be like that. I'm much more of a humanitarian now, though, and feel a lot more compassion for humanity; for those who act in both bad and good faith. I apologize for the long rambling post! Thank you, again.
  - temphn 15y ago
    Your undergrad degree is just a noisy and expensive proxy for your SAT score anyway. And that's not taboo to discuss. Paradoxically, it's less declasse to mention the subjective measure that takes four years and costs a quarter million bucks than the objective measure which takes two hours and a number two pencil.
    - lurker17 15y ago
      Less declasse to mention your degree? http://www.grumblemagazine.com/articles/crack/harvard/index.html http://www.grumblemagazine.com/articles/crack/harvard/index....
- bane 15y ago
  I always find this kind of self-analysis via comparisons with others interesting, having done it many times myself. of course I didn't bother with the SATs at all, and have never even thought to ask another person what they scored on a standardized test they probably took 10-20 years ago, so I think I find all this fretting over these sort of meaningless academic MacGuffins absolutely fascinating...it reminds me of how many people who went to Tier-1 schools manage to slip in what school they went to in conversation several times a day instead of just saying "when I went to college". It's a weird verbal tick that becomes supremely fascinating (and annoying) once you become attuned to it.
  - georgieporgie 15y ago
    When I first moved to the Bay Area, I was surprised by the number of people who would ask what school I went to, or casually drop their school name (I was in my mid/late 20's). When asked what school I went to, I took to responding, "STF U". It seemed like the type to name-drop their Alma mater were least likely to catch on.
    - bane 15y ago
      I've been reminded of this bizarre habit half a dozen times in the last week, most recently with an accountant, who's nearing his second retirement, who manages to slip in "when I was at MIT" at least twice a day - like nothing else in his entire life gives him the cachet he needs to validate himself. And then it came up again here yesteday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APV_caBjO60 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APV_caBjO60 where Paul Reiche (the guy on the left) manages to slip in that he went to Berkeley every time he talks about his college experience probably 30 years prior. Even weirder, during his time in high school, he spent some time at LHS (Lawrence Hall of Science) and manages to turn that into a Berkely education credit. Here's a guy who's incredibly accomplished in his own right, I mean he did Star Control and Star control II for goodness sake, and has to turn his time at a k-12 student resource center into a Berkely reference. It's like a weird form of academic credit Tourettes. By way of comparison, the guy on the right, Fred Ford, manages to not do this and instead actually says "college". On the flip side, if I ever move out to the Bay Area I'll have to start slipping in random institutes I've been at. "When I was at the Louvre" (I've walked two of the three wings" instead of "some art museums", and "when I studied music at the Music School No. 1 in Yekaterinburg" instead of "listened to a student performance while on vacation", and I'll save my trump card "when I was at Princeton" (I had a business meeting on campus once). Come to think of it I could mine this sort of pseudo-academic inflation for weeks. Who knew going to the Ontario Science Center when I was 14 could give me so much street cred! sigh
- vidarh 15y ago
  But the fact that you even know the SAT scores of people around you is weird. I'm not in the US, so I haven't done SAT's, but I couldn't tell you a single test score or grade average of anyone I know or went to school with. Why? Because it's just not interesting.
  - bbrizzi 15y ago
    That's especially true as the SATs are not very challenging... Anyone with a decent math knowledge can get a 800 on that part. There's no way to discriminate the very good students from the truly exceptional ones. Also your high school level isn't very representative of your overall intelligence.
    - mostlyListening 15y ago
      Sorry but that is flat out wrong. The SAT math and verbal sections are not about knowledge but about reasoning abilities. In fact, the "knowledge" (rules etc.) is given right along with the questions. Not anyone can get 800, only 1% of all test takers manage to get 770 or higher on the Math section. The reading section is even more difficult, the scores of the top 1% start at 760 there. http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/SAT-Percentile_Ranks_2011.pdf http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/SAT-Percen...
michaelochurch 15y ago
Same here. Took it once. Got 1510. Didn't take it again. If I'd been 20 points lower, I probably would have gunned SAT-V hard like the AMC tests and scored a lot higher, maybe making it into one of those silly categories (oh, and is 800m/770v different from 770m/800v?). But I didn't. 1500+ was my stop-worrying cutoff. I don't think it reflects on my personality; I was just interested in other things.

by rdouble 15y ago

nostrademons 15y ago

I told you not to take my post too seriously. :-P I'm using the generalization as a form of irony to illustrate the point. Notice that everything from the 3rd paragraph to the end is about how it really doesn't matter, and you shouldn't be defined by the score you got on some standardized test? (Meta-irony: notice how I also said that 1590s tend to say or do things that have their own internal logic that doesn't necessarily make sense to other people?)

rdouble 15y ago
The generalization is weird, but the odder part is that you know your co-worker's SAT scores. How does that even come up in conversation? It makes me miss the old silicon valley where every other person was a weirdo who never even went to college.
- nostrademons 15y ago
  These aren't Googlers I'm talking about, except the boyfriend. Most of them are friends from college, along with a few online friends and a family member mixed in. As for how it comes up in conversation - look at this thread, it's got 3 people's SAT scores already. It's not like it's particularly taboo. Usually it starts with somebody mentioning how much they hate/miss high school over dinner or a few drinks, and then soon everybody's offhandedly mentioning their numbers. (Edit: Also, I hope that everyone reading this understands that the numbers, while inspired by real people, are completely arbitrary. I don't really care if the general HN community dislikes, misunderstands, or downvotes the post. I care that the people who would see themselves in the 1590 category, whether or not they actually scored a 1590 on some standardized test several years ago, understand the point.)
  - bane 15y ago
    No, it's really quite strange. This thread has got me thinking, until this thread, I can't even recall the last time somebody mentioned their SAT score. Probably more than 15 years ago? I've heard more IQ scores, GRE scores and even TOEFL scores than SAT scores. A fascinating circle you run in indeed.
    - count 15y ago
      You're probably significantly older, and have a ton of life experience and achievement under your belt. He's probably early-20s, fresh out of school, and that's still a huge part of his life experience.
      - nostrademons 15y ago
        I'm 30. Though remember that most of these conversations happened when I was actually in college (a few even before then, while applying to schools), and I just have a really long memory. (The conversation with the friend that sparked this musing was last night, but I've been friends with her since she was 14, and so our conversation topics include anything that was fair game back then, which is basically everything.)
        bane 15y ago
        "conversations happened when I was actually in college" Oh then...that makes sense. From the sounds of it I thought you were talking about say...a month ago over lunch in the cafeteria. "Mmm...this Bruschetta is pretty good" "Could use more diced tomatoes. BTW, I got 1573 on my SATs, you?" "oh...1590, ain't that weird?" "pass the pepper please?"
- matwood 15y ago
  The generalization is weird, but the odder part is that you know your co-worker's SAT scores. That's what I was also thinking. I don't think I've talked about SAT scores since I was a sophomore/junior in HS and was taking the SAT. My friends and I have occasionally talked about GRE scores, but that's only because one of my friends tutors/preps people to take it.
- kubrickslair 15y ago
  I don't mean to cause offense, but I find people who never went to college or did not major or focus heavily on CS or engineering generally more interesting to both work with and as people. Somehow college grads (especially in math heavy fields) seem to believe that their scores or grades are a reflection of their intelligence, drive or even personality. Not to say there are huge exceptions; both among people I know, and among famous thinkers- I find Poincare, or Mandelbrot to be great 'broad' thinkers who totally understand the fallacy of such numbers in both life and science. -Said as someone who went to a big name CS place
  - jes5199 15y ago
    Thanks!
  - kafkaesque 15y ago
    Yes, I also thank you. A digression coming up! You've been warned! I have a BA from a pretty highly ranked university in Canada, and excelled in academics. However, I always thought it was a breeze for anybody to do really well in. I always thought the Arts were stupidly easy compared to the Sciences. So, I always down-played my performance, because I always knew that, in the end, I had accomplished something very insignificant, despite being in the top 5%; and even despite various professors suggesting I could do really great things and one going as far as telling me I shouldn't be in university "since I already knew all the material". Long story short, I graduated and, basically, failed in every other aspect of my life, including landing a good career and was getting paid minimum wage for the 2 years after graduating. I left the country, am doing OK now, but learning to program and interested in more of the sciences (lo and behold, right?). But it is funny how now that I am surrounding myself more with science people and CS/IT people, I feel I have strong proof of how excelling in one subject or area can get to someone's head. I'm glad I never let it get to me. And I think back at the times I wasn't humble when trying to explain some esoteric concept to someone, or when someone didn't explain something properly or simply did not have the knowledge to fully make an adequate generalization of a given concept, and I was very indifferent and critical; I think back and feel bad and hope never to be like that. I'm much more of a humanitarian now, though, and feel a lot more compassion for humanity; for those who act in both bad and good faith. I apologize for the long rambling post! Thank you, again.
- temphn 15y ago
  Your undergrad degree is just a noisy and expensive proxy for your SAT score anyway. And that's not taboo to discuss. Paradoxically, it's less declasse to mention the subjective measure that takes four years and costs a quarter million bucks than the objective measure which takes two hours and a number two pencil.
  - lurker17 15y ago
    Less declasse to mention your degree? http://www.grumblemagazine.com/articles/crack/harvard/index.html http://www.grumblemagazine.com/articles/crack/harvard/index....
bane 15y ago
I always find this kind of self-analysis via comparisons with others interesting, having done it many times myself. of course I didn't bother with the SATs at all, and have never even thought to ask another person what they scored on a standardized test they probably took 10-20 years ago, so I think I find all this fretting over these sort of meaningless academic MacGuffins absolutely fascinating...it reminds me of how many people who went to Tier-1 schools manage to slip in what school they went to in conversation several times a day instead of just saying "when I went to college". It's a weird verbal tick that becomes supremely fascinating (and annoying) once you become attuned to it.
- georgieporgie 15y ago
  When I first moved to the Bay Area, I was surprised by the number of people who would ask what school I went to, or casually drop their school name (I was in my mid/late 20's). When asked what school I went to, I took to responding, "STF U". It seemed like the type to name-drop their Alma mater were least likely to catch on.
  - bane 15y ago
    I've been reminded of this bizarre habit half a dozen times in the last week, most recently with an accountant, who's nearing his second retirement, who manages to slip in "when I was at MIT" at least twice a day - like nothing else in his entire life gives him the cachet he needs to validate himself. And then it came up again here yesteday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APV_caBjO60 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APV_caBjO60 where Paul Reiche (the guy on the left) manages to slip in that he went to Berkeley every time he talks about his college experience probably 30 years prior. Even weirder, during his time in high school, he spent some time at LHS (Lawrence Hall of Science) and manages to turn that into a Berkely education credit. Here's a guy who's incredibly accomplished in his own right, I mean he did Star Control and Star control II for goodness sake, and has to turn his time at a k-12 student resource center into a Berkely reference. It's like a weird form of academic credit Tourettes. By way of comparison, the guy on the right, Fred Ford, manages to not do this and instead actually says "college". On the flip side, if I ever move out to the Bay Area I'll have to start slipping in random institutes I've been at. "When I was at the Louvre" (I've walked two of the three wings" instead of "some art museums", and "when I studied music at the Music School No. 1 in Yekaterinburg" instead of "listened to a student performance while on vacation", and I'll save my trump card "when I was at Princeton" (I had a business meeting on campus once). Come to think of it I could mine this sort of pseudo-academic inflation for weeks. Who knew going to the Ontario Science Center when I was 14 could give me so much street cred! sigh
vidarh 15y ago
But the fact that you even know the SAT scores of people around you is weird. I'm not in the US, so I haven't done SAT's, but I couldn't tell you a single test score or grade average of anyone I know or went to school with. Why? Because it's just not interesting.
- bbrizzi 15y ago
  That's especially true as the SATs are not very challenging... Anyone with a decent math knowledge can get a 800 on that part. There's no way to discriminate the very good students from the truly exceptional ones. Also your high school level isn't very representative of your overall intelligence.
  - mostlyListening 15y ago
    Sorry but that is flat out wrong. The SAT math and verbal sections are not about knowledge but about reasoning abilities. In fact, the "knowledge" (rules etc.) is given right along with the questions. Not anyone can get 800, only 1% of all test takers manage to get 770 or higher on the Math section. The reading section is even more difficult, the scores of the top 1% start at 760 there. http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/SAT-Percentile_Ranks_2011.pdf http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/SAT-Percen...

michaelochurch 15y ago

Same here. Took it once. Got 1510. Didn't take it again. If I'd been 20 points lower, I probably would have gunned SAT-V hard like the AMC tests and scored a lot higher, maybe making it into one of those silly categories (oh, and is 800m/770v different from 770m/800v?). But I didn't. 1500+ was my stop-worrying cutoff. I don't think it reflects on my personality; I was just interested in other things.