SAT’s reality TV question stumps test-takers

Every year, the SAT reduces more than a few teenage test-takers to tears. But few questions on the so-called Big Test appear to have provoked more anxious chatter — at least in this era of texting and online comment streams and discussion threads — than an essay prompt in some versions of the SAT administered in which students were asked to opine on reality television.

Comments on the now-infamous prompt — which included the question, “How authentic can these shows be when producers design challenges for the participants and then editors alter filmed scenes?” — had stretched across nearly 40 pages on College Confidential. Media coverage added to the scrutiny. To learn more, read the full article by Jacques Steinberg in the Education section of The New York Times online.