Archbob
Ancient CFC Guardian
I'm mainly talking about the SAT and PSAT. I know I took several when I was coming through grade school in the states but I don't remember those too well. I hear a lot of complaining about them and about how they favor people who perform well on tests and their not a good measure, blah, blah, blah, and really none of it really holds much water in my opinion.
I will admit that when I took the test, they still had that ridiculous analogies in the verbal section which is pretty much useless(I mean who really cares about 13 letter words for bread or soap), but the rest of the exam, I actually found fairly decent in testing for basic knowledge. I won't comment on the rest of the verbal section which I thought outside the analogies tested decently for reading comprehension. I will delve into the math part of the exam.
The only thing I thought that was bad about the math part of the exam was that it was too easy. The test did not have anything difficult that a graduating senior that actually paid attention in class should find challenging. It did not have any calculus or advanced algebra or Geometry. It was mostly basic operations, simple algebra, and simple Geometry. Testing your knowledge of the most basic concepts like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing along with fractions, basic geometry like knowing a triangle is 180 degree, what a right angle is, etc. Basic things that every graduating high school senior should have learned. There is nothing tricky about the questions on the test. So I don't see why its not fair. I mean having a college entrance exam testing for basic things like adding, subtracting, multiplying, diving, fractions, and basic geometry is not unfair and it is not asking for too much. If anything, the test is far too easy. How else are you going to see if the kids have enough knowledge to tackle basic college work. Extensive monitoring and one on one interviews with every child is not feasible by any extent. You have to have some kind of a bar(along with grades and such) to compare one kid to another as to which one is more qualified to go to a 4-year college. How else are you actually gonna do it?
As for the complaint that it is unfair to people who are bad at tests, tough. You will have to take tests in college, you will have to take exams in life. Test-taking is a useful skill(and not one that I'm particularly good at) and you will need it in life so if you don't have it coming out of high school, you'll need to develop it anyways. No being good at test-taking is not a valid excuse or argument to discredit standard college entrance exams.
So where's the actual logic or reason for complaints?
I will admit that when I took the test, they still had that ridiculous analogies in the verbal section which is pretty much useless(I mean who really cares about 13 letter words for bread or soap), but the rest of the exam, I actually found fairly decent in testing for basic knowledge. I won't comment on the rest of the verbal section which I thought outside the analogies tested decently for reading comprehension. I will delve into the math part of the exam.
The only thing I thought that was bad about the math part of the exam was that it was too easy. The test did not have anything difficult that a graduating senior that actually paid attention in class should find challenging. It did not have any calculus or advanced algebra or Geometry. It was mostly basic operations, simple algebra, and simple Geometry. Testing your knowledge of the most basic concepts like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing along with fractions, basic geometry like knowing a triangle is 180 degree, what a right angle is, etc. Basic things that every graduating high school senior should have learned. There is nothing tricky about the questions on the test. So I don't see why its not fair. I mean having a college entrance exam testing for basic things like adding, subtracting, multiplying, diving, fractions, and basic geometry is not unfair and it is not asking for too much. If anything, the test is far too easy. How else are you going to see if the kids have enough knowledge to tackle basic college work. Extensive monitoring and one on one interviews with every child is not feasible by any extent. You have to have some kind of a bar(along with grades and such) to compare one kid to another as to which one is more qualified to go to a 4-year college. How else are you actually gonna do it?
As for the complaint that it is unfair to people who are bad at tests, tough. You will have to take tests in college, you will have to take exams in life. Test-taking is a useful skill(and not one that I'm particularly good at) and you will need it in life so if you don't have it coming out of high school, you'll need to develop it anyways. No being good at test-taking is not a valid excuse or argument to discredit standard college entrance exams.
So where's the actual logic or reason for complaints?
