Pinch me; I’m happy!
I love it when I hear from students who take those pesky English placement tests for college and ace them. I had one student a few years ago write to tell me that his essay was chosen as the new standard model for proper essay format for the college he attended. The examiners had to ask his permission to use it. They said his form was fantastic. 🙂
Today, I heard from a mother of another student:
[M]y oldest, Sarah, who took most of your courses, placed out of freshman English at West Virginia University based on her ACT score. Her astonished advisor asked her if she had been an AP student. No, but homeschooled! And that’s with the writing portions not counting yet, on which she scored even higher. I hope I can continue in my homeschool group the writing philosophy you helped develop in my family. We will still take Bravewriter courses, but are taking a breather from subscriptions this year, filling in with yet-to-be-used back issues. Thanks again.
I like it!
I had some fun with my own son who has always struggled to enjoy writing. He loves to read it, keeps an online journal faithfully, attempted to write a novel in a month last year, but still finds the generative process of writing daunting. He took his English placement exam this week for the University of Cincinnati.
“How did it go?” I asked.
“Surprisingly well. The topic was music censorship, something I care about. I started with an anecdote that came to mind and then outlined three points, included transitions and then concluded. It was easy.”
(I should mention that the anecdote in question was supplied by our overly-controlling—censoring—behavior toward his musical tastes when he was 13, which included something about no computers for six months and lots of haranguing, shaming and pleading… So glad that bit of bad parenting came to serve him in the end!)
I pressed, “So you remembered the format and didn’t have a hard time thinking of what to write?
“No. You know, the essay format is pretty easy, like you always said. Once I had the anecdote, the whole thing just flowed.”
We both smiled at this point–that knowing mother-son smile that says, “I-told-you-so but I promise I won’t say I-told-you-so now because I’m so proud of you.”
