The SATs/GREs went from any last digit to multiples of ten in the early 70s.
I think these are the SATs of a person who is not only fairly dumb SAT-scorewise, but also too dumb to make a good fake.
(I’d still like to see the candidates’ real SATs though.)
I don’t doubt that it’s Photoshopped, and I’m no fan of Palin. However, a commenter on that site mentions the possiblility that “SAT” stands for Stanford Achievement Test ( is a standardized battery of tests designed to measure school achievement from Kindergarten through Grade 12). It was formerly known as the SAT, but is now more commonly referred to as either the Stanford or the SAT followed by the edition number, for example Stanford 10 or SAT 10 because it was often confused with the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
Anyone know whether Alaska used the Stanford Achievement Test, or how the scoring worked on it back then?
When was the SAT implemented? Aren’t Biden and McCain too old to have taken it?
I’m roughly the same age as Palin (40s) and I took the SAT three times. Each time the score ended in 0.
I think I found the original.
Look at this entry from a woman’s blog, dated 2004: High School Confidential. Read down a bit, and you’ll see that she posted a scan of her old SAT results; click the image or here for the bigger picture.
Now, compare that picture with the supposed “Palin results”. Interesting, eh? First, the scanned copies are at exactly the same angle, not perfectly square with the scanner’s edge. The “blocked out” bits for both copies are identical: look at the “telephone number” space, for example. The remaining dot clutter is absolutely identical in both images. The dates are identical, except that “85” was changed to “82”. Interesting that the “report date” of both tests would be March 23rd; in 1985, the date on the real results form, that was a Saturday, which is a typical day for SAT testing. In 1982, the date on Palin’s photoshopped form, March 23rd was a Tuesday. And the real form has the same 5-3-3-1-2-3 that appears on the altered form, in precisely the same spots in the boxes.
A few things are covered over and the form in general is blurred up some to make it look “authentic” or something, but seriously, I think this is the original scan that someone altered. Take a closer look, see if you agree. And I say all of this as someone who couldn’t possibly dislike Sarah Palin any more than I already do.
Damn good detective work. I agree with your findings, Inspector Torque!
And if further proof were needed…
The faker obviously sought to portray Palin as an idiot, and so her “self-reported” grades were low: B, C, D, B, C, and C for a GPA of 2.2 – pretty mediocre.
But that couldn’t have been Palin’s GPA, because she was a member of the National Honor Society, which required at the time (and still does, I imagine) a 3.5 minimum GPA.
I just pulled out my form. I took the SAT twice, in January and May, 1981. Sarah and I graduated from HS in the same year she probably would have also taken her SAT the year before. The form at least is correct. Mine is exactly the same.
As for the “self reporting,” the whole bottom part of the form isn’t shown in the link. We were asked to rank ourselves for all sorts of things like math, scientific, sales, acting and writing.
So true. Until I saw my old scores last week for the first time in 25 years, I couldn’t have told you what my scores were on a bet. There are all kinds of middle aged losers who still put National Merit Scholar (top 1% or something on the SAT) on their resumes. It’s the equivalent of bragging about your High School football performance.
BooKid got 9 CXE at age 16 - these are the old ‘O’ (ordinary) levels - after this you leave school. She did a year of sixth form college completed one CAPE (A levels) and did the first year of three others. These are Caribbean qualifications, but based on the English system. Last Saturday she did the SAT. It seems to be equivalent to the CXE to me, but there are only maths & english - two parts english for 800 each and one part maths for 800. I would expect her to get between 1200 and 1500 (she’s crap at maths). Although it is a requirement for college entrance in the US, they also requested her CAPE transcripts and CXE results. I’m gonna warn her, if her score is low she’s going to end up being governor of Alaska and will have to put lipstick on the dog or something…
There’s a lot of multiple choice in it and she said it’s fairly fast paced. It’s one exam with several papers totalling about 4 hours. I think it’s a fair test for people who are good at taking exams. I was good at taking exams in my day and got much better results than some of the real brains of the class.
On the other hand, I don’t think a ‘just average’ math score is a serious impediment in getting into a decent university. It just means you’re not going be majoring in math or science, or engineering and so on. Liberal arts majors will generally not need any math beyond a first-year calculus course that allows them to breeze through the subject on in intuitive level without having to rigorously understand the derivation of the standard formulas. I know, because I went through that. On the other hand, when in after years I got my math-foo up and running a little better, I went back over some of the rudimentary proofs of calculus, because I now knew enough algebra to do so. I was sorry to have missed out on it before. It is a beautiful subject.
As it happens, I have displeased the math gods and am taking calculus for the first time ever right now. (I’m back in school doing a masters degree.)
I am NOT enjoying it.
As it happens, I have displeased the math gods and am taking calculus for the first time ever right now. (I’m back in school doing a masters degree.)
I am NOT enjoying it.
As it happens, I have displeased the math gods and am taking calculus for the first time ever right now. (I’m back in school doing a masters degree.)
I am NOT enjoying it.
It also looks like you displeased the multi-post gods somewhere along the line…
This post is as good as any of the three, to answer.
To be honest, I found the memorization part hard. A lot of it does make sense once you know the algebra behind it, and then seems like simple logic. On the other hand, I had a great deal of trouble with all the details like critical points, and remembering why transcendentals differentiate and integrate the way they do. As a result, I would often flub problems on tests, for example by misremembering the formula for differentiating a composite trigonometric function. I could read through and understand the proofs of many of these things, but would then have to read it again an hour later.
I don’t think I ever understood when you would need to use Newton’s method.
What is your master’s degree going to be in?
I highly doubt that this is real. Even if it was…
To use my wife as an example- she did poorly on her SAT’s and college out of High School. Ten years later- she is back at college and doing very well. Some people just need some time to grow. So, I don’t read too much into it.
To me SAT’s only had the purpose of attempting to get into college. Beyond that, they are pretty worthless- unless you did well then you got to be a jerk about it.
I recall 1000 being the goal score to get into a “good” school. For the record, I got 1200. I don’t remember the breakdown, but they were both really close with my math score being slightly higher. Like 570, 630 or something really close to that.
I don’t like Sarah Palin at all. Most of her policy positions are diametrically opposed to mine, and I don’t think she’s remotely qualified for the office of Vice President.
That said, even if this were accurate, and Max Torque has provided convincing evidence that it’s fraudulent, SATs measure how well you do on standardized tests and very little more.
I don’t know if this is genuine or not, but I just want to say that I completely reject the canard that SAT scores are not a fairly reliable indicator of base intelligence.Smart people do fine on them and stupid people don’t. That’s just a fact. It’s true that average or dull people can be taught to do better, but I don’t buy for a second that bright people will bomb out on them. Smart people already intuitively understand all those tips thay are used to coach stupid people.
So you’re saying that the McCain campaign faked Sarah’s academic records? 
Public policy. People keep asking me why I have to take calculus for public policy, but policy analysts need to know about math. And Michigan Public Policy is famous (well, in policy circles) for its strong quantitative component. (It’s the #1 ranked policy analysis school in the country.) Which I knew I needed work on. But it’s HARD. And I haven’t taken a math class in forever and keep making stupid algebra mistakes.
BTW, I knew about all those multiposts, but the board kept timing out when I tried to edit them. Gah. Thanks to whoever cleaned that up.
