[PREV - EXPERIMENT_FAIL]    [TOP]

TEST_FLAIL

                                                       November 16, 2013
I'm one of many people a bit annoyed with our
"standardized" tests.  My gripe has to do with
taking the general GRE test: I took it twice, and    AGAINST_STUPIDITY
the first time they had just added a new
"experimental" section they called the "Analytic"
test. That year they had just appended it after
the Verbal and Numeric tests.

I did okay on the first two sections, but
I could feel myself fading on the last
part, and I ended up in the low 500s on          The next time I took it,
the quote Analytic section-- and they may        I brought in a large
have told us it was "experimental", but          bag of M&Ms with me:
they said nothing about it on the                my score jumped 200 points.
reported scores, where it was included           I had obviously become
right alongside the other two.                   much more analytic.

And these questions intended to measure our         (I suspect that eating
Analytic ability were all really similar,           during the test is
they were all minor variations of                   against the rules, but
sequencing-according-to-rules:                      it was clearly not
                                                    enforced.)
   "Ralph can't stand to sit next to Alice,
   and Mary needs to sit between her two                      MENTAL_ENERGY
   best friends Kathy and Adam, but Kathy
   needs to sit at least two seats from
   Ralph or else they'll fire spitballs at
   each other, and Joe had better be left      EXPERIMENT_FAIL
   out of this question or he'll shoot the
   test designer."

   Doing one or two of these might
   make sense as a test of analytic     As you might imagine, the uniformity
   ability, doing dozens of them is     of the questions makes this section
   incredibly tedious.                  fairly easy to study for-- if this
                                        is supposed to measure an "innate"
   So this "Analytics" score            ability, that's ridiculous: it may
   might have been better               just measure whether you were
   labeled "Endurance".                 motivated to study for it, or worse,
                                        had the cash to take a prep class.
     (The second time I took the
     GRE, they had rearranged              I would say the Numeric section
     these three sections into             has similar problems: the math
     interleaved sub-sections,             can't be very complicated, so
     so just getting tired                 it's pretty easy to learn (or
     wouldn't throw off one of             re-learn) it just for the test,
     the scores.)                          presuming you've got time (and/or
                                           cash?) to study for it.

                                                  TEACHING_THE_TEST

       None of which adds up to a claim that
       one's test scores on the GRE are
       completely meaningless, either... but
       reporting them with three significant
       figures seems a bit much.


--------
[NEXT - MENTAL_ENERGY]