September 13, 2002

I Can't Get No SATisfaction

By SUE WILLIAM SILVERMAN

I received the worst SAT scores in the history of the universe.

That Saturday in 1963 when I took the exam, I sat in a sunny high-school cafeteria with my classmates, staring at rows of multiple-choice questions. My head, resting on my palm, ached. All those questions. All those choices. All those possibilities.

I wanted to say, "Sure, I can see that Answer D isn't right. B looks good -- but I can make a strong case for C, too."

How, I wondered, could anyone claim to know