Dobie wrote:
>> Jet <thatjetnospam at yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<3D351EFF.7D1B5C99 at yahoo.com>...
> > John Knight wrote:
> > >
> > > "Parse Tree" <parsetree at hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > > news:C9mY8.296$QY4.128034 at news20.bellglobal.com...> > >
> > > > > ALL this requires is a little bit of addition and subtraction. It
> > doesn't
> > > > > require you to resolve a million third order partial differential
> > equations.
> > > > > It doesn't require calculus. It doesn't even require algebra if you do
> > it
> > > > > right.
> > > >
> > > > Statistics very much requires algebra. Calculus too, in many cases.
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > Believe me, Parse, you don't need algebra or calculus to calculate the
> > > statistical average for American girls in TIMSS math. Even adjusting for
> > > guesses doesn't require anything but some very basic probability theory.
> > >
> > > It's as simple as this:
> > >
> > > If you're asked a question which has four multiple choice answers, and you
> > > haven't got a clue what the answer is, what is the probability of getting a
> > > correct answer? Since you have once chance in four of getting the right
> > > answer, your probability is 0.25. If you guess on two questions, your
> > > probability is .5, and three it's .75, and four, it's 1.0.
> > >
> > > In other words, over the long run, or over millions of test takers, guessing
> > > on such a question will yield 25% correct answers, or conversely, every
> > > fourth answer will be correct.
> > >
> > > No algebra. No calculus. A bit of probability theory, and you already know
> > > that 25% of all students will get the correct answer if they only *guess* on
> > > a four part multiple choice question.
> > >
> > > Now here's the hard part:
> > >
> > > Question H04 on TIMSS had four multiple choice answers, so you would think
> > > that no country or age group or race or sex would answer less than 25% of
> > > them correct, right? Wrong. http://christianparty.net/timssh04.htm shows
> > > that American girls answered only 22.8% of them correct.
> > >
> > > They scored 2.2% lower than if they'd just guessed.
> > >
> > > How do you think that's possible?
> > >
> > > You can probably figure this out with no knowledge of algebra or calculus,
> > > and you already know all the probability theory that might be needed, so
> > > what is your explanation?
> > >
> > > John Knight
> >
> > Oh, and one more thing, isn't interesting that these jerk offs attriutle
> > lower girls scores to their being female, but lower US scores to
> > education?
> >
> > J
>> They are blinded by hatred. Can't expect them to be consistent, can we? LOL
>> Good catch, Jet!
>> K
Thanks. Well, this idiot makes it so easy. Now that I've asked him to
answer the physics question, and give an explanation, we've probably
seen the last of him. :)
J
