"Bob LeChevalier" <lojbab at lojban.org> wrote in message
news:bs88jusrrcsdpsd0akq414c1ba0ui3q7sb at 4ax.com...
> "Parse Tree" <parsetree at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >The SATs are not well constructed. Generally, guessing penalties don't
> >work, and there are numerous reasons for this. Firstly, guessing
penalties
> >rely on a completely random selection, which is rarely the case.
>> Any improvement you can make on random selection reflects some sort of
> knowledge or logic.
Yes. But not necessarily good knowledge.
> >You know, many teachers teach things incorrectly, because
> >they are not qualified in the subject they are lecturing on.
>> Even if this were true (I don't believe you), that is not the fault of the
> SAT, which is trying to measure your preparation for college. Learning
the
> wrong stuff is not good preparation for college.
Let's see. I've had it happen in History, Calculus and Physics. And some
generic math courses too. Oh, and computer programming/science. But that's
really a common occurence.
It may not be the fault of the SAT, but it is the fault of the education
system which is the promoter of the test.
<Snipped examples>
I notice that they have multiple things that may exist when someone has the
correct answer. Does every solution with work given result in the same
mark? What mark is a solution without work given?
Note, for the translation question I would have simply written the answer.
The question is quite trivial, and simple arithmetic should never have to be
shown.
> >> TIMSS also included many problems that were NOT multiple choice, BTW,
and you
> >> could not get full credit unless your work was shown and contained the
key
> >> steps expected in the solution.
> >
> >This is also bad. While better than multiple choice, it still allows a
> >large quantity of discretion. In many disciplines there are numerous
ways
> >to come up with a solution to a problem. Statistics itself has this.
> >
> >Also, key steps implies a great deal of cultural and related bias.
>> Not in mathematics and science, which is culture-free (in theory). But
see
> the answers and codings above.
Science is not culture free. The questions use metric for one, which as far
as I know is not taught in the US.
> >The
> >amount of work shown by someone confident and familiar with type of
question
> >is quite a bit different from that shown by someone not confident.
>> If they get the wrong answer and don't show their work, then they were
> falsely overconfident.
Not if the mistake is in work that they do show.
> >Seems to be quite a bit of memorization for these tests.
>> Actually there is a couple of pages of formulas at the beginning of the
> tests. But you do have to know how to solve problems.
Oh, then I don't understand why more people didn't get 100%. I guess the
physics questions were a bit much.
> More importantly, to the extent that memorization is required, it is
required
> equally of all kids, so this does not invalidate the international
> comparison. Cultural differences may affect the scores, but that is
> precisely the sort of thing that TIMSS was intended to detect - is that
> something about American (or whatever) culture or education that aids or
> harms ability to solve the problems.
>> We came up short, but the nincompoop's explanations have nothing to do
with
> the problem.
The problem is that memorization does not necessarily correlate with
intelligence.
