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This is the Official Blogger SAT Challenge web site. Here, you'll find the essays posted by the entrants in the challenge, with tools to allow you to rate them and see the "expert" scores.
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Acknowledgements
The Challenge is the work of Dave Munger and Chad Orzel, and grew out of discussions on ScienceBlogs.
Special thanks to Kate Nepveu and Jeremy Campbell for help setting up the site, and to our expert graders: David Bruggeman, Suzi, Elisa Davis, Natalie Hudson, Battlepanda and Lisa.
graded:
Category: graded
A struggle to succeed is similar to the honing of metal: it can leave a pitted and scared surface or it can leave a honed edge. Booker T Washington observes about life: 'I have learned that success is to be...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: graded
Competition is the life blood of every democratic society. The struggle to succeed in every walk of life is both encouraged and often rewarded. Accomplishment, earned or not is a visible measure of success, considered the end justifying the means...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • •
Category: graded
I believe that the struggle to achieve a goal provides context success but a final accomplishment of a goal is still the most important factor. Just trying isn't enough. A more nuanced thought would be that we should all try...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • •
Category: graded
It is comforting to imagine that the meek will inherit the earth. That the good life will be rewarded in heaven. That effort and struggle will be valued over result. But what life ought to be should not blind us...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • •
Category: graded
Struggle is clearly not a measure of accomplishment in any way. When struggling, you may or may not learn things or 'develop as a person'. If you do learn or develop, that is an accomplishment whether or not it was...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: graded
This position is one of the widely held cliche that permeate the modern world, cliches that receive wide lip service but are in fact, bunk. Most importantly this view ignores the fact most people struggle without any success at all....
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • •
Category: graded
While I understand the sentiment that motivates Washington's assertion, I do not believe that struggle is a more important measure of success than accomplishment. Washington's quote appeals to our notion of fair play: we are not all born equal, and...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • •
Category: graded
Accomplishment is nice when you can get it, but the better measure of a successful human life is readiness to engage in struggle. If the measure of success were the mere achievement of one's goals, it would be trivially easy...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • •
Category: graded
Does Struggle Enhance Achievement? Struggle is a meaningless component of success and accomplishment. 'That which we obtain too cheaply we do not value dearly.' That is facile grandiloquent hogwash. What is path compared to destination? Social advocates are purveyors of...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: graded
I completely disagree. He who dies with the most toys wins, as the license plate frames say on all those toy haulers that I see. Never let it be forgotten that Booker T. Washington lived in a different time and...
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Posted by ScienceBlogs Admin at 2:01 AM • 3 Comments •