I really have to hand it to the folks at College Board for managing to scare the living snot out of new generations of students year after year with the infamous SAT. When they announced they would be making the already well-feared SAT longer, more comprehensive and generally nastier than ever before, I could almost hear the collective squeaky-voiced cry of millions of terrified teens.
The hard thumping beats of techno music blare out as senior Luis Aguilera takes his place on the metallic floor. His feet begin to dart about with manic swiftness, appearing and reappearing on all sides of his body in time to the pulsing of lights embedded in the ground. He continues swinging his arms and legs with the precision of a veteran dancer until, suddenly, he stops, panting with effort—game over. Aguilera has just finished his last song of the afternoon in the popular arcade game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) at City Place Mall.
For any teen movie to be successful, it must first have a firm understanding of what it is and, more importantly, what it is not. Spend-happy teen theater-goers aren't looking for Oscar gold or a contrived public service announcement; they want to see young, hip characters who bumble, joke and sex their ways out of situations that most American kids can relate to. The Perfect Score, a movie about a group of teens who conspire to steal the answers to the SAT, must have only gotten half of the blueprint. It keeps its toes inside the lines of predictable teen comedy but occasionally stumbles along the edge of irritating moral erudition. The result is a flawed but entertaining little film that will leave you with at least a grin on your face; after all, what teen can't relate to the horrors of standardized testing?
The king of the futuristic racing circuit returns with all of the classic gameplay features of its predecessors but now sporting the snazzy bells and whistles of 128-bit power. F-Zero GX should be instantly familiar to longtime fans while offering the pick-up-and-play enjoyment that is a hallmark of the series.
When The Fast and the Furious was released two years ago, it burst into American pop culture like a turbocharged muscle car, attracting car connoisseurs and automobile amateurs alike. Perfectly epitomizing the average teenage mentality, the testosterone-pumped racing flick sported lots of stylish action but failed miserably at its attempts at character development and plot depth. The awkwardly named sequel continues this tradition but drops all pretenses of more meaningful subplots. And frankly, the franchise is much improved as a result.
The PSAT scores of almost 500,000 students will be increased because of the efforts of an MCPS teacher, according to College Board official Nancy Viggiano. The College Board decided to rescore last year's test after eliminating a flawed question from the writing section.
Three decades ago, institutionalized education was a boy's world. But no more, say education experts. Though long seen as the disadvantaged and dominated sex, girls now seem to rule the school system and many say at the expense of boys.
When Blazers face the prospect of sitting through class on an empty stomach, there's only one place to turn: the vending machines. These modern marvels of gluttony dispense all the energy needed for the day, or at least all the fat and sugar one can consume without keeling over. However, not all calorie-packed snacks are created equal. One Chips reporter braved the long lines, and here's how some items stacked up.
During World War II, the U.S. stood idly by as Adolf Hitler built up military power, invaded neighboring states and executed millions of innocent civilians. Now, as the U.S. faces a similar threat with Saddam Hussein in the Middle East, we must not repeat mistakes we made in the past. The U.S. should launch a preemptive campaign against Hussein's Iraq before Hussein amasses weapons of mass destruction and threatens international peace yet again.
It is early evening on the city streets. Senior Mahbubur Khan snatches a helpless citizen from his car and takes the wheel, zooming down the road with police on his tail. The pursuit soon ends with the bloody corpse of the police officer lying on the pavement.