Should it be harder for Asians to get into good schools?

[Archbob]

Tests may not measure intelligence but they can determine if you have basic skills in reading,writing, and math, which you should have if you want to go to a University.

 

[JollyRoger]

Where can I get better knowledge of elite social culture?

If you have to ask, you can't.

 

[Camikaze]

Yes, but you can't look much better than you are at an 'Oxbridge' interview question no matter how hard you prepare, while coming from a great school and having a great teacher means that you can look very good in a history test without actually being anything special. Here's a couple of the questions in question, to illustrate the point:

So just to clarify, are you telling me that the best way to select people for university is to ask them whether or not they would prefer to be a seedless or non-seedless grapefruit?

A test on intelligence should be fairly irrelevant to an admissions process, really. You want a test that demonstrates your ability to perform college level work.

Not that I'm necessarily disagreeing, but why (or why would those two be opposed to each other)?

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

So just to clarify, are you telling me that the best way to select people for university is to ask them whether or not they would prefer to be a seedless or non-seedless grapefruit?

Some of them seem to want you to expound on knowledge in your field (talking about bark and biology). Some of them are rather strange. I have no idea what the composition of the lunar surface has to do with veterinary medicine.

 

[Shrinking_12]

I think it shouldn't matter if its Asian, Latin, African, European or anything! I mean... We all are people!

 

[Quintillus]

I won't play devil's advocate. I agree that it's unfair that Asians have to get much higher scores than other students simply because they're Asian. Scores shouldn't be the only determining factor, but something that someone has no control over such as their race shouldn't be a factor.

There was an interesting article in one of the major newspapers not too long ago about this subject. My Google skills haven't found it, but maybe someone else did - I haven't read all 180+ posts.

Random fact: Quintillus has no Asian ancestry.

 

[Flying Pig]

So just to clarify, are you telling me that the best way to select people for university is to ask them whether or not they would prefer to be a seedless or non-seedless grapefruit?

That's the best way to seperate the very top tiers of candidates. So, if you have 100 places, get 200 applicants with three As at A-Level, have them sit an exam, take the top 150, and give them an interview about grapefruits.

 

[Camikaze]

A-Levels don't offer a very good measurement, though. There's no difference between a high A and someone that's scraped an A. That's kinda silly, so it's no wonder Oxbridge has to look at other criteria. But opinions on grapefruit wouldn't be one of them, I'd think. Silly questions are silly.

 

[downtown]

Not that I'm necessarily disagreeing, but why (or why would those two be opposed to each other)?

Because, (depending on your major), your coursework and what the ACT/SAT look like are completely different. Its only very recently that US Uni exams had any kind of writing work, even though for anybody outside of the hard sciences, the majority of your coursework would be writing papers. I had maybe 5 multiple choice "bubble" exams in my entire university career. It doesn't matter how "smart" somebody is if they can't be counted on to come to class, and demonstrate what they've learned on a university assessment.

Different assessments measure different levels of knowledge and understanding. If we're looking to see if somebody can handle college-type work, then we shouldn't give them an exam format that they're less likely to see once they're actually enrolled. Whats the predictive power in that?

 

[Akkon888]

Should it be harder for Asians to get into good schools?

No, because the barrier is hypocritical, and therefore, undesirable.

 

[Yeekim]

But opinions on grapefruit wouldn't be one of them, I'd think. Silly questions are silly.

I don't think the question is silly at all. To offer a meaningful answer, one would have to know how seedless plants are cultivated and what are the hazards and benefits such plants enjoy.
This is discounting any other, potentially more imaginative approaches to answering that question.

 

[Flying Pig]

A-Levels don't offer a very good measurement, though. There's no difference between a high A and someone that's scraped an A.

No, but it does rule out people who got a B - it's good for seperating good candidates from bad ones

That's kinda silly, so it's no wonder Oxbridge has to look at other criteria. But opinions on grapefruit wouldn't be one of them, I'd think. Silly questions are silly.

It's not the actual answer that's being tested per se, but whether they can come up with something original and fairly clever on the spot - double marks if it's witty as well. It's to seperate people who are very clever with lots of preparation from people who are very clever without it.

 

[aelf]

I think asking silly questions at an interview is a lazy way of screening, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Quackers]

A-Levels don't offer a very good measurement, though. There's no difference between a high A and someone that's scraped an A. That's kinda silly, so it's no wonder Oxbridge has to look at other criteria. But opinions on grapefruit wouldn't be one of them, I'd think. Silly questions are silly.

It's possible in some modules to gain an A* now.