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Comment by sometimeshuman | Hacker News Reader

"sounds absurd, by the way".. that perhaps explains all the downvotes. One of the surprises about getting older is that stories from your youth sound more and more absurd with time. I didn't grow up with the Internet and the "MIT whiz kid" wasn't common in movies/shows until the mid 90's and ever after. What was a thing during my high school days were the relentless TV commercials for tech schools masquerading as advanced degree institutions. Who lies on HN about a personal story BTW ? What would be the point.

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> that perhaps explains all the downvotes

The downvotes are the aggressive reactionary tide through HN, that rises and falls. Your personal observation suggests that some 'progressive' action might be valuable, that there's a systemic problem, and therefore it is shut down.

Don't stop telling it please. We need more voices from the real world here.

It was hearsay, they didn’t need to lie about it to still be untrue and absurd.

Someone's personal story is not hearsay; it's the opposite.

> they didn’t need to lie about it to still be untrue and absurd

What basis do you have for saying it's untrue?

> As an ancedote, I was told

That is hearsay.

> What basis do you have for saying it's untrue?

I was pointing out that it could be untrue without needing to be a lie. As to the “basis” for my saying it is untrue, I’ve been over that.

Repeating what someone told you that shaped your behavior in the past is anecdote. The information given was incorrect but your conclusion that this anecdote is hearsay is in error.

I didn’t claim the anecdote was hearsay, I used the word “it” to refer to the hearsay, not the anecdote. The mistake is in the assumption of what it refers to, especially without asking me to clarify, or in not extending the principle of charity.

> The information given was incorrect

Why do you say that?

I was told by my low income peer group that you get 600 points just for filling out your name on the SAT and that 800 points could get you into a great school like MIT.

The minimum score for the SAT if you do nothing is 400, not 600.

Average SAT Score of admitted students: 1525

https://testive.com/mit-sat-scores-act-scores/

OK, but that doesn't mean they were told otherwise. That's part of the point of the story - they were negligently prepared.

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