Md. Teacher Finds Botched PSAT Question

WBALTV ^ | May 14, 2003 | WBAL

[ZinGirl]

Md. Teacher Finds Botched PSAT Question

Student Test Scores Increased Due To Erroneous Question

POSTED: 9:00 p.m. EDT May 14, 2003

The nation's largest testing company has increased the PSAT scores of nearly 500,000 high school juniors after the company concluded it was wrong about the correct answer to a grammar question posed on the exam last October.

Students were asked if anything was grammatically wrong with the following sentence: "Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

The correct choice on the multiple choice exam was originally listed as "no error" by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J., which administers the PSAT and SAT for the College Board. The PSAT is aimed at helping juniors prepare for the SAT college entrance exam in their senior year.

Maryland high school journalism teacher Kevin Keegan spotted the botched question in late January.

He informed ETS that the sentence was incorrect because the pronoun in the sentence -- "her" -- was used improperly. Keegan said pronouns should only refer to nouns and in this case Morrison's name is used as an adjective.

The ETS said a committee of experts signed off on the question, which was posed on the exam given Oct. 15 to 1.8 million juniors.

In letters and telephone calls, Keegan persevered.

From experience, he knew that the loss of one or two points on the PSAT could disqualify a junior from becoming a National Merit commended student or a National Merit semifinalist. National Merit academic honors are determined by PSAT scores.

"I have taught dozens of kids over the years who have missed those two cutoffs by one point or one question," he said.

Based on a review by three experts, ETS this month informed Keegan and the students that the sentence would not be counted in the scoring. As a result, the scores of 480,000 students will rise.

Lee Jones, a College Board vice president, said the National Merit Scholarship Program has also agreed to adjust its limits.

"He was persistent in his point and we appreciate that," Jones said of Keegan. "And, he turned out to be correct."

[ThinkDifferent]

Most freepers so far seem to have overlooked the brainwashing that's everywhere in our educational system.

Personally, I just recognized it as par for the course. (Uh oh, did I just make a politically incorrect reference to Augusta?)

[Right Wing Professor]

Sorry; I posted the same thing later, without reading the thread. Agree completely.

[Redcloak]

He's wrong.

Take the original sentence...

"Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

...and now pare it down to the subject, verb, and object...

"Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

Those three words are the guts of the sentence. "Her" is the proper pronoun to use because it is an objective pronoun and it refers to Toni Morrison, not to her alleged genius. No other objective pronoun makes sense here.

[ZinGirl]

Toni Morrison is a proper noun

doesn't sound to me like Toni Morrison was a proper ANYTHING. (see post #52)....sorry, can't come up with the Latin version!

[SAJ]

Grammatically, you could use either 'massive' or 'massively' -- but the meaning of the sentence changes. 'Massive' would ordinarily be parsed as a modifier of 'navel', where 'massively', being an adjective, would modify 'hairy', implying an exceptional amount of hair.

Factually, though, neither is correct. 'Massive', despite continuous misuse by news readers and alleged journalists, is not a synonym for 'huge' (or 'hugh' either :^) ). The word's principal meaning is 'weighty' or 'having great weight'. Therefore, the former usage would imply that you will have SERIOUS health problems in the future, and the latter that you probably are a candidate for inclusion in the Guiness Book of Records, under 'World's Heaviest Hair'.

[Cboldt]

"It enables her to write."

ostensible -ping-

LOL at the caller for F.Christian -- what an inside joke, no offense meant in any direction.

[visualops]

"Toni Morrison's" is an adjective describing and identifying "genius".
There are several posts which show correct alternative structures.
Basic rule:
"An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words. An adjective usually precedes the noun or the pronoun which it modifies.
The fact that in common usage grammer slides alot doesn't change what's grammatically correct. The grammer of most people is atrocious.
This teacher pressed on the issue because a student recognizing the grammatical error would have scored an incorrect answer.
The fact that most people would not notice the error is irrelevant. If you are going to have a grammar question on a PSAT test, you better make sure you are dead right.

[DaughterofEve]

Technically then, I think it should be:

"Toni Morrison's genius enables THE AUTHOR to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

But as a sentence, it seems initially poor anyway. Her genius would produce a brilliant expression of the injustices, but it would be her experience or knowledge that would allow the brilliantly-written novels to have risen from the topics mentioned.
I have never read any of her writings, so really can't comment otherwise.

[Right Wing Professor]

doesn't sound to me like Toni Morrison was a proper ANYTHING

A proper fraud. I tried once to read 'The bluest eyes' . I couldn't make it past the third page, which is a record for me; I can generally make it past the tenth page, no batter how awful the book.

[RightWhale]

'massively', being an adjective

Adverb, actually, and so it would modify the adjective as you said while the adjective modifies the noun. Can this single sentence be used to illustrate all the rules of grammar? Starting to look that way.

[TaxRelief]

Imagine being 16 years old and having such a ridiculous assertion forced on you. This would certainly disrupt my concentration. Would it sound paranoid to suggest that this is an attempt to brainwash, even in the middle of a test?

I'm dismayed that obsessive victimization is considered 'genius'.

[DownWithGreenspan]

"Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured."

The correct answer is "False". This is a true-false test, isn't it?

DWG

[SAJ]

Quite right -- most certainly an adverb modifying the adjective.

Amazing what proofreading might do for one, eh? Sigh.

[Right Wing Professor]

...except it doesn't dangle. If the PSAT sentence is incorrect, then 'My computer enables me to post to the internet' is incorrect. How would one correct that? My computer enables it to post to the internet? Well, it might be doing that, but I haven't caught it at it so far.

[ZinGirl]

A proper fraud.

I stand corrected.

speaking of Latin (yes you were!), I can't help but brag about my homeschooled nephew who is in his 3rd or 4th year of Latin (he'll be 13 next month) and doing great.

[ZinGirl]

LOL....good one.

[RightWhale]

a student recognizing the grammatical error would have scored an incorrect answer.

That is the problem the best students have faced since tests were first administered. Some amount of time is usually wasted at Mensa club general meetings on this very topic.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

A google of the sentance in question revealed the following from the College Board

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Explanation of the Problem

A problem with Writing Skills question 10, in Section 5 of the Tuesday edition of the 2002 PSAT/NMSQT, created the need to rescore the test without the question. The question and directions for answering it are reproduced below:

Directions: The following sentences test your knowledge of grammar, usage, diction (choice of words), and idiom. Some sentences are correct. No sentence contains more than one error. You will find that the error, if there is one, is underlined and lettered. Elements of the sentence that are not underlined will not be changed. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English. If there is an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer sheet. If there is no error, fill in answer oval E.

The Question:
10. Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustice
ABC
African Americans have endured. No error
DE

The intended answer was (E), "No error." Choice (A), however, could also be considered correct. Although it is clear that the pronoun "her" in choice (A) can only refer to Toni Morrison, some usage manuals advise against such a construction on the grounds that a pronoun should not refer to a noun in the possessive case ("Toni Morrison's") because the noun is functioning as a modifier. If this advice were to be followed here, choice (A) would have to be revised to read "Morrison to create."

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The question was thrown out because it had 2 potentially correct answers according to some usage manuals.

(If the formating doesn't reproduce properly here, click on the link to see the original.)