7y
Hi there,
I'm sorry that you feel that our application process was unfair and frustrating. We have made several improvements over the past 18 months to make our vetting process more efficient for both applicants and our internal team, such as reducing the sample edit to a single test (instead of three). We also invite every applicant to request personal feedback on their sample edit upon receipt of the notification. If you have not yet done so, I certainly encourage you to reach out to our team. I do regret that this is not populated in the email by default, which is something we'd love to implement in the future to make our decisions even more transparent.
You are correct that the test is difficult and that our standards are high. Unfortunately, there is no good substitute for seeing how an editor performs in a testing environment that mirrors our "live" editing platform. We provide the student's request and other details about the document (such as the style guide) to guide the editor's approach, in addition to the extensive tutorial/guidelines you mentioned.
In addition to technical correctness (spelling, grammar, formatting/style), we evaluate the quality and quantity of feedback and commentary. As professional editors, we realize that no paper is every truly "perfect" -- there's always something that can be improved -- so we take a holistic approach as we review the sample edit against these criteria and make the best determination we can about an editor's ability to consistently meet our standards and those of the students we serve.
We believe there is always room for improvement, though, so I thank you again for taking the time to share your feedback about the process.