Weekly Spartan and WAC football review and picks

October 8: Brigham Young beat San Jose State 29-16 in a game televised on ESPNU. The factors? (Sources: Box score, play by play)

• SJSU gets the ball after Keith Smith recovered a Riley Nelson fumble at SJSU's 3 yard line, pre-empting BYU's first scoring attempt. However, a bad snap sent the ball flying to the end zone and a safety for BYU. BYU then gets the ball and scores a TD and goes up 9-0. On his weekly radio show on KLIV-AM, coach Mike MacIntyre explained that the BYU fans sitting behind end zone were so loud that the snapper misheard directions and promised that this would never happen again.
  
• However, SJSU did get a field goal and TD off both times when BYU's Nelson threw interceptions.
• An inept Spartan defense let BYU's punter get a rest: Never in the game did BYU ever have to punt on 4th down! It was either scoring or turnovers for the BYU offense.
  
• Furthermore, SJSU's leading rusher Brandon Rutley sat out the game due to ankle injury but will return on Friday night v. Hawaii. Without Rutley, SJSU was outrushed 70-224. In contrast, in the past 2 wins with Rutley, SJSU ran for 230 yards (against New Mexico St) and 137 yards (Colorado State).

However, Rutley's fellow backup running backs Jason Simpson and Tyler Ervin did provide the backbone for the SJSU scoring drives that did exist. Simpson ran 39 yards; the freshman Ervin 40. Tight end Ryan Otten continued to be a reliable receiver having caught for a total of 108 yards; regular WR Noel Grigsby caught for 88.

Furthermore, SJSU will have to put up against a powerful defense much more cunning and intimidating than BYU's. According to USAToday.com:

• Hawaii's defense is ranked 27th of all FBS teams and has allowed an average 327 yards per game, 5.14 yards per play, and throughout the year 18 touchdowns.
• Colorado State: 33rd, 344.00 yards/game, 5.18 yards/play, 17 TDs.
  
• BYU: 43rd, 351.33 yards/game, 5.58 yards/play, 16 TDs.
• SJSU: 92nd, 414.50 yards/game, 5.98 yards/play, 22 TDs.

Bryant Moniz, the starting QB for the Hawaii Warriors, currently has a greater quarterback rating (150.7) than SJSU's Matt Faulkner (126.4) and slightly edges Faulkner with a 64.6% completion rate in contrast with Faulkner's 62.8%. And Moniz has thrown 15 TDs in contrast with 1 INT; Faulkner has 4 each of both TDs and INTs. SJSU defense will have to scare and pressure Moniz...and should he get injured, Moniz' backup David Graves has been pretty reliable so far with a 70% completion rate of 20 passes over 111 yards.

Hawaii's running unit has generated much production: 8 TDs over 435 yards, while SJSU took 804 yards to score 9 TDs.

Many in the SJSU community are hyping this game as it will be ESPN's Friday night game of the week; kickoff will be 6PM Pacific. Other outlets broadcasting the game will be ESPN3.com (the live streaming arm of ESPN) and local radio stations KSJS-FM 90.5 (pregame 5:30PM followed by the game in entirety) and joining in progress at 7PM KLIV-AM 1590. (KLIV is a news station, I guess they insisted on playing the news at six in the evening in competition with the TV stations.)

If Hawaii in Ruston, La. could beat Louisiana Tech , ranked higher than SJSU in both passing and rushing, 44-26 on Oct. 1, it will take a strong-willed defense for the Spartans even to get close to beating Hawaii. In fact, in September, Hawaii lost 40-20 on the road to UNLV, whose statistics and overall record are even worse than SJSU. UNLV choked Hawaii to only 6 yards of rushing that game and forced 4 turnovers! Indeed, Hawaii has specialized its game in passing instead of run plays. So with hopes that the Spartan defense can stop Hawaii at its tracks at times with interceptions and forced loss fumbles, I regretfully must pick Hawaii to win by 15 on Friday night. Still I will be watching on ESPN3.com to see how SJSU fares on national TV, should be an extra motivation.

Other picks:
New Mexico (Mountain West Conf., 0-5...when will they ever win?) at Nevada (2-3): Nevada by 21. Nevada last week blew out its in-state MWC rival UNLV 37-0, that game was in Reno. This is an offensively well-rounded Wolf Pack team vs. a New Mexico team leaning towards pass/receive. Nevada's runners have average 4.8 yards per carry, NM 3.5, and Nevada's Mike Ball 4.7 vs. NM (freshman) Crusoe Gongbay 4.0.

Idaho (1-5, 0-2 WAC) at New Mexico State (2-3, 0-1 WAC): NMSU by 13. In completing passes, NMSU Aggies QB Andrew Manley finishes 56.9% with 6 TDs and 3 INTs, Idaho's Brian Reader 51.1% with 9 TDs and 6 INTs. NMSU offense also has the edge (Rushing TDs: 5-3, Received TDs: 11-9). Will be on ESPN3.

Utah State (2-3) at Fresno State (2-4, 1-0 WAC): Another ESPN3 game. Utah State by 7. With a 64.8% completion rating and 157.0 overall QB rating, Chuckie Keeton can definitely create a fast edge in offense in contrast to Fresno State's Derek Carr, who has completed just 60.5%. Keeton has yet to throw an interception this season, while Carr has thrown 6. Both teams have very similar reception averages around 12 yards each, but Utah State again has another offensive edge in rushing: 6.4 yards per carry vs. Fresno State's 4.0 yards/carry.

My WAC football picks for Saturday

Nevada at San Jose State: SJSU by 7. SJSU has gone 8-2 in its past 10 home openers including last year a barely won contest against the FCS Southern Utah 16-11. As of now on ESPN.com, SJSU QB Matt Faulkner, a jr. college transfer who went to high school in Texas, has a passer rating of 113.3 compared to Nevada's starter Tyler Lantrip with 110.6. SJSU's backup Dasmen Stewart showed much promise last week against UCLA (15 of 31 completions, 111 yards) and has a rating of 72.4 vs. Nevada's backup Cody Fajardo (29.4). Both are redshirt freshmen! Brandon Rutley's 65-yard touchdown carry from last week notwithstanding, Nevada has an edge in rushing (average 5.5 yards per carry vs. SJSU's 3.8). Same with receiving, but no one in Nevada has outdone Noel Grigsby (with a high of 24 yards) or Jabari Carr (high 64 yards).

Idaho at #9 Texas A&M (Big 12): TAM by 28. Too easy to predict a regular national powerhouse is going to run over a mediocre mid-major conference team. Just like all those lopsided SJSU games vs. Stanford (lost 57-3) this year or last year v. Alabama (56-3).

Houston (Conference USA) at Louisiana Tech: Houston by 7. The C-USA Houston Cougars are coming off an abnormally mediocre 2010 season after being in bowls from 2005 to 2009. This game should come off similar to last week's UCLA/SJSU game where SJSU, coming off two very poor seasons, showed much potential against UCLA, whose 2010 season was also mediocre despite many bowl appearances in recent past seasons. In its opener, La. Tech faced another C-USA team, Southern Mississippi, and lost 19-17 following a 49-yard field goal by Southern Miss' Danny Hrapmann with 2.5 minutes remaining. Southern Miss is another routine bowl school like Houston...and Brett Favre went to USM!

UTEP (C-USA) at New Mexico State: NMSU by 3. UTEP used to be in the WAC but joined C-USA in 2005. Last time these two teams met (Sept. 3, 2005), UTEP won 34-17 in Las Cruces, N.M. However, UTEP has struggled in C-USA and made runner up bowl appearances in 2005 and 2010 and otherwise had below-.500 seasons the other times. In rushing, NMSU has the edge (2.3 vs. 1.3) and same in receiving (15.5 vs. 13.4).

North Dakota (Great West, FCS) at Fresno State: Fresno State by 21. What's more to say about a Division I newcomer and unimpressive FCS team that lost to the WAC's Idaho 44-14?

Hawaii at UNLV (Mountain West): Hawaii by 17. The U of Nevada Las Vegas team has had a HORRENDOUS several seasons recently compared with the WAC's U of Nevada RENO. And Hawaii has also been a regular WAC hotshot. To the bookies and gamblers in Sin City, it's obviously stupid to bet on the home team just because.

Something I'd like to say re Domestic Violence Awareness Month

More info about that month here on the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.

As a college student I'd like to get something out. This is some real talk regarding college students (not all my friends or others on my campus, but some) who use sex as a status symbol or method of control.

Ladies, you don't exist solely to be sex toys, maids, or eye candy. You're human. Stop taking your freedoms for granted and find something that defines you besides partying, Thirsty Thursday, or opening your legs and mouth for every frat hunk. If your man is hurting you, leave him and seek help. Did Susan B. Anthony march on the streets only for you to be a suckup to an oppressive patriarchy? Think about it. The women's rights activists of the 19th and 20th centuries roll in their graves for every woman who perceives herself as a mere slave to her boyfriend/husband. Just like how Martin Luther King, Jr. would be disgusted if he could listen to any modern rap musician (like Waka Flocka Flame).

Gentlemen, if you've slept with the entire cheerleading squad and have given blowjobs to every bleached blonde sorority chick with breast implants but have yet to find a working job or (if you're in college for 2 years or more) a meaningful internship, then you're just plain worthless. You ain't that strong if you can hook up with everyone yet have little real characteristics like intelligence or sociability. When you're in a relationship, be respectful and have basic human dignity: do not resort to violence to get your point across or to take out your anger. Your girlfriend is a human being just like you, not a punching bag or chattel.

My good friend Rishabh has this classic Tumblr quotable:

I believe girls that tie themselves up in “drama” need to feel like their life is worth something. It’s just sad that they don’t realize that filling up their days gossiping about others doesn’t make THEIR lives any better. You just come off as a shitty person. Girls who spend their days gossiping and revolve their lives around petty bullshit are not worth knowing. Also, girls who center their lives around “Thirsty Thursdays” and partying are not worth knowing either.

That's right. If your life revolves around "scoring" every shallow one around you who looks cute or getting drunk and dancing in a club whose speakers are blasting out your eardrums, I don't desire to know you. F-word off.

Bottom line: while sex may be good, do not let it define who you are. Let your character define you. There's much much much much^(infinity) more to life than fooling around in bed and stimulating each other, so if your partner says "no", find something else to do.

An interesting conversation with KOFY TV about broadcasting "widescreen standard definition" football

Tomorrow, KOFY-TV 20 in the San Francisco Bay Area will broadcast the San Jose State vs. Boise State football game. Currently, SJSU is 1-4 on the season and 0-1 in the Western Athletic Conference, while Boise State is undefeated 5-0 and 1-0 and is predicted to top Bowl Championship Series ratings. Although this is a home game, I'd like to stay home and just watch both the San Francisco Giants vs. Philadelphia Phillies opening game of the National League Championship Series in baseball on KTVU-TV and the SJSU game on KOFY. Given that the Boise State Broncos is the 4th ranked team that the lowly SJSU Spartans has played this season, and that SJSU fell to the national champions 48-3 and even lost to a Football Championship Subdivision (lower division than where SJSU is, the Football Bowl Subdivision) team UC Davis Aggies during the SJSU Homecoming game, 14-13 on 2 Oct., tomorrow night's score should be quite obvious.

I happened to catch the Boise State vs. Toledo football game last Saturday on KOFY, which is one of the Western Athletic Conference TV affiliates. While Boise State is undeniably a great football team, the broadcast format isn't. KOFY broadcast the match in 4:3 format as it does for all its programmes other than ABC7 News at 9. However, KOFY compressed a 16:9 picture into 4:3, thus making everything seem thinner than proportional. Thus, today I decided to ring up the KOFY switchboard over the phone, (415) 821-2020 pressing 4 for technical services, to ask the tech guy why. I left a message and promptly got a call back about 15 minutes later. The technical worker explained that Learfield distributed the football game in a widescreen standard definition picture format, and standard definition programmes must be broadcast in 4:3 format. In this case, as widescreen is the new normal format for television sets and broadcasting, the only realistic broadcasting choices that'd preserve the picture quality would either be: scrunching the picture (as I mentioned earlier) and leaving black pillars to the left and right of the screen, or letterboxing the picture within the 4:3 area and leaving the image proportional. The tech worker explained that "blowing up" the widescreen SD image just because KOFY does have widescreen capability would drastically reduce picture quality and defeat the purpose of high definition television.

So there you have it, if you're wondering why KOFY or any other WAC television affiliate is showing the football games in such a weird format. I'd suggest contacting Learfield Sports, which distributes TV/radio broadcasts of the WAC, and persuading them to start televising games in HD. I mean c'mon. If CBS could start broadcasting soap opera The Young and the Restless back in summer 2001, then why does Learfield have to broadcast football games in standard definition widescreen in 2010?

If anything: GO SPARTANS! GO GIANTS!

PS: At the SJSU student newspaper The Spartan Daily, one columnist opines that the Giants need a better offense to beat Philadelphia.

Oddities of the day

- Today was the first day of my second semester of college, but during the one class I had--Chemistry 1A lab--the instructor just took attendance and let us go. So I stayed on campus just to inquire about fraternities and eat lunch.
- On the bus on the way home, a man slipped and fell hard on the floor as he was finding a seat while the bus was moving. It had been raining today, and consequentially the floor was wet. He was carrying some drink he bought from Target, and it spilled and added more wetness to the floor. The man said he didn't feel hurt, but the driver stopped to report the incident as mandated. Driver and passenger exchange words a bit, then the driver dismisses all passengers. I left the scene via another route, but a friend of mine who stayed said that the fire department/paramedics came and took the man to the hospital. Of my experience riding VTA to and from San Jose State, this is the most unusual moment ever.
- PS: Last week, the San Jose State men's basketball team defeated two top-ranked Western Athletic Conference teams: Louisiana Tech (the best of the league!) and New Mexico State.

So what happened in my month sans any blogging?

- Finals. Out of my 5 classes of fall semester, 4 of the classes' grades were released. Those were all A's. Still pending is my calculus grade.
- On the Saturday before Christmas, I got my wisdom teeth removed and was nearly malnourished the next few days.
- Now that finals are out of the way and I get to fool around and do nothing really until January 26 (when spring semester begins) I've started cleaning out my DVR, which has shrunken from nearly 95 shows around finals time (Dec. 11-14) to just 65 today.
- Hopefully I can find old high school friends when they've still got winter break.
- On Christmas Day, I took a hike with family in Hellyer Park.

College gets busier, life gets harder...

My DVR is getting overcrowded like California prisons as I'm focusing so much more on work.

Class overviews:

Calculus III (MATH 32) - currently learning double integrals, test Monday on multivariable differentiation and integration.

Chemical Calculations and Concepts (CHEM 10) - learning gas laws. My teacher has this great online program (Online Web Learning, or OWL for short) that lets me self-learn from home in addition to the lecture. For my class, which is a remedial one I'll take before taking General Chem next semester, I take both activity and lecture sections. The lecture professor is a pretty humble person who just, well, either teaches from powerpoints or gives tests. She's very straightforward and helpful. On the other hand, right after my lecture sections I have my activity session where the teacher demonstrates problems on the board (in contrast, in lecture the professor just teaches us what the concepts are) and has question-and-answer sessions. Activity professor has a much louder and energetic personality than my lecture professor. He's a former Army captain who tells a lot of funny stories and jokes in between problems. But yes, he also gives us homework for each unit.

Introduction to Engineering (ENGR 10) - scrambling to get robot project done by next Tuesday for the test run. It's fun and overwhelming at the same time. Teams in my lab class were given kits to assemble a robot that would simulate a search-and-rescue operation, with beacons acting as a human and a hazard. It moves based on a programme written in C language. We've had all month to do it, and given that we meet 3 hours one session every week it ain't easy. Although we've built it we've suffered technical difficulties all along.

Meanwhile, the lectures are given in an auditorium. We've learned everything from wind turbines to circuits to Excel to C programming to solar cells to CAD. And right now to wrap up the course we're learning about ethics.

MUSE Class: Secrets of Success (PSYCH 96NQ) - a small, 15-person seminar that discusses the ideas of success that Stephen R. Covey put forward in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It's creatively structured, with many teacher/student interactions and flexible assigning and grading. I met some great people in this class!

Yoga: This is my last class every Monday, and although it's supposed to go from 3:30-5:20, my instructor always ends 30 mins. early. Great way to relax after a long day. Instructor is a Santa Claus-faced hippie who's had a lot of experience with yoga. In my first class he narrated about discovering yoga in the 1960s while growing up in San Francisco and how he got busted in the Grand Canyon back in 1968 for smoking pot. He also published a short yoga instructional book that we use in class!

On Sunday night, I signed up for the classes I'll take next semester:
- General Chemistry (CHEM 1A)
- Programming Concepts and Methodology (CMPE 30) (CMPE is short for Computer Engineering, my major)
- Discrete Mathematics (MATH 42)
- English Composition 2 (ENGL 1B) (Because I took AP English Literature in high school, I can skip English 1A in college)

At first I didn't really think I'd enjoy it too much at SJSU given that San Jose has been my hometown since 1998, and I wanted to go to a UC (I applied to Davis, Irvine, and San Diego, but because I slacked off too much during high school I got rejected). However, SJSU has been good to me despite all the hardships. It has a diverse student body; I see all types of people round here. Compare that with a UC, which I hear is dominated by nerdy Asians. I see people dressed in all sorts of styles. People from all over the world and of all ethnicities come here. When I walk down campus I can hear people conversing in Chinese, Hindi or any language of India, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, French, German, whatever!

The downsides, however, is that the campus is pretty small and gets a bit boring after a while, but at least i can navigate it. Its football team has been near-winless this season, so I've spent my weekends watching other schools (like USC, Michigan, Cal) instead. Haha, way to lack school spirit. But today the men's basketball team won its home opener. And our soccer teams have high standings in the Western Athletic Conference.

College so far

It's been a while since I've blogged about anything lately, so I should write about school so far.
- SJSU's football team sucks...so far recently lost 62-7 to Nevada and currently winless in WAC division. Only win was against Cal Poly in September. That's why I watch ABC college football coverage, usually USC, UCLA, Cal, Michigan, or whoever's game is being shown.
- However, according to the student newspaper The Spartan Daily, both men's and women's soccer teams have winning seasons.
- Currently building a robot for engineering class. The robot is programmed to simulate a search-and-rescue mission.
- Hardest classes=Engineering and calculus, chemistry and psychology in between, yoga easiest.
- In winter session I'm thinking about taking General Psychology to fulfill the Human Behaviour category of the General Education requirements.
- After consulting with the Computer Engineering major adviser tomorrow, I'll know what I'll take next semester. Right now I'm definitely aiming to take in the spring: CHEM 1A, ENGL 1B, CMPE 30, and MATH 42.
- Finals are nearly in a month. Gotta get my study on!
- Campus: Met some really cool people, overall a diverse student body.
- Joined the Democratic Caucus organization and will volunteer at setting up tomorrow's Health Care Forum. Tuesday, 5PM-6PM, Pacifica Room. Be there!
- I also got a job through that organization and will consult Career Centre to find others.
- Once I raise enough money for pledge fees I might join Alpha Phi Omega.

14 raucous protestors arrested at UC Regents meeting

Previously, I blogged about the heckling incidents of the year: at Congress members' town halls, the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, and the MTV Video Music Awards. Today, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that University of California police arrested 14 protesters - students, alumni, faculty, and staff of the UC - for disrupting a regents meeting. The protesters' grievances were over the ongoing budget crisis.

College so far

I started college on August 25 and am loving it! With the flexible schedule, variety of class environments, and longer breaks between classes, it's so much freer than high school now. San Jose State has a very diverse student body. Apparently, some "quizzes" are given online rather than in class, and tests are the only exams taken in class. It seems that classes are just for the lectures, putting the burden on the student to come to class and work to succeed. I'm looking forward to learning much more in class and going to more events in the future!

What if instead of the SAT...

...colleges instead relied on one's IQ score, the more definitive measure of intelligence and college readiness? Given the achivement gaps and flawed essay, I feel that the SAT is more of a money-making scheme for the College Board bigwigs to take weekend vacations to Atlantic City sipping on French wine than any reasonable measure of merit.

And yes, I've heard of Christopher Langan.

Quick follow-ups

- I sincerely apologise for my previous smear article about school. That's what happens when I get mad. I just go on my computer and damage a small portion of the Internet. Because honestly, I don't want to damage the real world and become the next Seung-Hui Cho.
- And my parents decided against taking the ACT since I'm already way too familiar with the SAT and I need to focus on real stuff like growing up and the personal statement. I hope that Mr West goes over 'em tomorrow in addition to reviewing George Orwell's 1984 - a pretty damn good novel right there!

Goodbye SAT, hello ACT!

Well I did worse on the SAT than my previous time - a 1950 in Oct. 2008, compared to a 1990 back in May. I got the same score on the writing section (690) as last time but 20 points down on math (710 --> 690) and reading (590 --> 570). How could this happen, when I've gotten a 770 on the SAT Math level 2 subject test??!? Oh well it could be because of those pesky free-response questions or my inability to read the fine print. As for the reading section, often the reading passage questions tend to be so deceptive that only Valerie Plame could solve them...I kid you not, just ask anyone who's studied hard for the SAT (and eventually got a good or bad score).

Thus I have officially parted ways with the SAT starting today and will begin preparation for the much better and supposedly easier & more honest ACT. I picked up ACT registration materials at a college night held by my local school district and after finding my disappointing SAT score online I looked through the overview, and the ACT I think I can handle better. The ACT website (ACT.org) provides outline of the test, which goes in this order:
1. English (75 questions, 45 minutes) - questions cover both grammar and rhetoric. None of those pesky SAT "fill-in-the-blank" vocabulary questions! :D
2. Mathematics (60 questions, 1 hour) - covers most of everything from pre-Algebra to Trigonometry, similar to the SAT Subject Test in Math Level 2, again which I got a 770 score (on the 800 SAT scale)
3. Reading (40 questions, 35 minutes) - five passages organised into specific topics (i.e. humanities, sciences, literature) and multiple-choice questions. The ACT's description of this section makes it similar to the SAT reading passages section or any other reading comprehension test in general. But I hope that there are no "SAT Trick Questions" here with ambiguous answer choices
4. Science (40 questions, 35 minutes)- Unlike the SAT Subject Tests in Science, which test on the facts, the ACT Science section is more like a "scientific" version of section 3, with the main task to interpret graphs and other data based on basic scientific knowledge and reasoning.
5. Writing (optional) (1 essay, 30 minutes) - the optional and very last section of the SAT. It's a good thing that this is 5 minutes longer than the SAT essay, so I get more time to develop my ideas, something that 25 minutes hasn't given me an opportunity to do. Scholars have criticized the SAT essay section for not being reflective enough on real writing prompts that teachers normally assign.

And off to ACT prep I go! I will take the test 13 December, the last chance for me to take any SAT/ACT type test for college; deadline is 7 November (3 days after Election Day, to be easier). As I pointed out earlier, there requires extensive tutouring and "gaming the system" just to get above 2000 on the SAT! But the ACT seems more based on the facts rather than unnecessary junk "reasoning", so I hope to have a better chance there.

The Option of Standardised Testing

As Sunday draws this weekend to a close, I decided to spend it happily and wisely. For those of you who were terrified by my previous diatribe against the symphonic band, I apologise for being so gratuitously angry. Me, you, and Barnhill will forget about that and just move on as a great group of students; I know it.

I woke up around 8 this morning, unlike most Sundays, to watch ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos to watch Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson discuss the government's bank rescue plan. Since August I've been watching the Sunday morning news talk shows regularly to keep up with the latest developments in the White House and the election. Later today I took a practice SAT exam, and I received a 2010 on that, by my own reasonable estimations. My actual SAT score, from May 2008, was 1990, and I think I'll be on the Improvement Road as I keep on trying. For now, I feel that I need to improve on following directions on some of the more deceptive, pesky questions - it's true, all 3 sections (Readin', Ritin', and 'Rithmetic Reading, Writing, and Math) contain "trap answers" to certainly worded questions in order to test our attention span. The most difficult section there is Critical Reading (the full name of the Reading section) due to its testing of obscure English words and the tendency for me to imagine "hidden" elements of the reading passages.

And just now I came upon this New York Times education section article "College Panel Calls for Less Focus on SATs" by Sara Rimer, who reported on a report led by William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions/financial aid at Harvard University. Fitzsimmons's report argued that the SAT/ACT standardised testing is screwing up secondary education and is out of touch with what students need to prepare for life college & beyond. The article page links to the report, titled "Report of the Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission" and published by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling. Arguments in the report included:
- Colleges should make the SAT/ACT optional if their admissions directors have good reason to believe that the SAT will be useless in determining student merit.
- "Cutscores", minimum SAT scores required for admission, should end; the more advantaged students would have a nearly unfair advantage over others who probably cannot afford tutouring. (Personal note: For the earlier part of 2008 I had tutouring for the SAT Writing Section and AP Calculus AB Exam; the California State University system currently uses "cutscores" system)
- The PSAT seems to be a less-than-reliable way to determine National Merit Scholarships
- SAT/ACT scores should not and cannot be seen to correlate with college's financial resources.
- Such scores can under- or over-predict first-year GPA's, especially for English learners/women/minorities, or "calcify" racial, ethnic, or parental educational gaps.
- It's a better idea to emphasize the SAT Subject Tests/Advanced Placement (AP) Exams/High School Exit Exams instead, since those products will further motivate state educational boards. (Regional note: In my state the public school students get "Early Assessment Program" exams from the CSU system to determine college readiness)
After having read through the 56 pages of the report, I almost have to agree. Even the SAT prep book that I own, Cracking the SAT, admits that the way the SAT evaluates - among other anamolies! - is different from how teachers instruct in the classroom. I really think that this "unfair advantage" system of getting better score on college admission test needs to stop - trust me, I've had coaching, and I still haven't done the best job I thought that I could. As Fitzsimmons's report states, students should be able to prepare for the SAT/college in general through the high school curriculum, not through extra coaching. It's no wonder public schools get so much heat these days.

Surviving senior year and the real world so far!

Time is moving along from Week 3 to Week 4 of school, and the countdown to probably the golden age of my life is coming up!
- Oct. 4 - SAT (I will got above 2100; I KNOW it; the UC/CSU systems require finishing the SAT by December)
- Sometime later in October: Training for poll working! I shalt riggeth thee election in favour of Barack Hussein Obama serveth the publick voters and earneth $120 - just on time for the holidays!
- Nov. 4 - ELECTION DAY! G0BAMA!!!!
- Various dates between October and November - writing up college apps & essays & all that business. So far SJSU, San Francisco State, and University of Washington (Seattle) are on my mind, although I as of late have been receiving invitations to attend local admissions presentations by Boston University and Washington University (St. Louis). Given my disappointingly scarce GPA and extracurricular record, I think I'll more likely be admitted to a public university (UoW is public too) or probably a private one - not all private universities equal Stanford given that they can set all their own standards whatever they please.

Today I had cross country tryouts up at the hill near my neighbourhood; it's my first year trying athletics at high school, and this is my attempt to pump up my transcript for the admissions officers. Given that I've never been a hardcore athlete in my life, the uphill runs were torturous. Although I finished at last place among all runners, chances are that I could still make the team by lucky chance given that the coaches count other factors like attendance & behavior - I've kept my attitude clean and attended all but one day of practice since they began back around late June of this year.

After cross country I sat down to watch the last of Charles Gibson's interview with Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin. Not just ABC, but ALL the news networks have been hyping the Gibson/Palin interview - it's been "Palinmania" ever since the surprise dark horse entrance of Palin, gov. of Alaska, as John McCain's running mate. Gibson did have some tough questions for Palin in the beginning but later became easier on her as he got to know more about her, as issues like the "Bridge to Nowhere" and Troopergate were brought up. Is this media bias? Maybe not, as when Joe Biden was confirmed as Barack Obama's running mate, the media was quick to point out Biden's 1987 plagiarism and more recent criticisms of Obama, such as the "first articulate African-American" comment and general claims that Obama didn't have enough experience. Oh well, but I'm in favor of Obama/Biden since they have shown the best potential to reunite the nation and help those who have been betrayed by 8 years of a less-than-stellar Bush administration. Still, I'm pretty open-minded and keeping watch at the McCain/Palin ticket and exploring the election from both the Democratic and Republican sides.