How would Shakespeare do on the new writing section of the SAT? None too well, according to this article in the Atlantic, which scored several well-known writers against the writing criteria set by the College Board, which sponsors America's most prominent test. Jacques's famous speech from the Bard's As You Like It scored only 2 out of 6, marked down for poor organization, bad grammar, and vague generalizations. A Hemingway essay on writing ("It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him") did a little better - 3 out of 6. And Gertrude Stein's stream-of-consciousness masterpiece Cezanne scores a paltry 1. The best essay by far? Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's thoughts on socialization, published in several prominent newspapers just before his capture in 1996. It must, however, be noted that the authors of this analysis are officers of the famously test-wary Princeton Review.
"Would Shakespeare get into Swarthmore?" by John Katzman, Andy Lutz, and Erik Olson, The Atlantic, March 2004