Gargantuan words are indemnified because e-Rater interprets them as a sign of lexical complexity. However, he said, e-Rater likes connectors, like “however,” which serve as programming proxies for complex thinking. Or sentences that begin with “or.” And sentences that start with “and.” Nor sentence fragments. “Once you understand e-Rater’s biases,” he said, “it’s not hard to raise your test score.”Į-Rater, he said, does not like short sentences. A 716-word essay he wrote that was padded with more than a dozen nonsensical sentences received a top score of 6 a well-argued, well-written essay of 567 words was scored a 5.Īn automated reader can count, he said, so it can set parameters for the number of words in a good sentence and the number of sentences in a good paragraph. Perelman found that e-Rater prefers long essays. “E-Rater doesn’t care if you say the War of 1812 started in 1945,” he said. He tells students not to waste time worrying about whether their facts are accurate, since pretty much any fact will do as long as it is incorporated into a well-structured sentence. The e-Rater’s biggest problem, he says, is that it can’t identify truth. is the only organization that has permitted him to test its product, he says the automated reader can be easily gamed, is vulnerable to test prep, sets a very limited and rigid standard for what good writing is, and will pressure teachers to dumb down writing instruction. While his research is limited, because E.T.S. This has taught him to think like e-Rater. research papers when he is not teaching undergraduates. Perelman enjoys studying algorithms from E.T.S. Les Perelman, a director of writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says no. Is this the end? Are Robo-Readers destined to inherit the earth? The automated reader developed by the Educational Testing Service, e-Rater, can grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds, according to David Williamson, a research director for E.T.S., which develops and administers 50 million tests a year, including the SAT.
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