Re: Assessment; evaluation of GRE scores

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 11:23 8/26/01 -0400, Jim Peters wrote:
> /snip/
> >     ... in most Chinese physics departments there are books ... about
> >     an 80-85% chance of having all the questions on the next exam to
> >     be given.
> /snip/
>
> Where do they get these questions?  They are not published and distributed
> by ETS.  They must be collected for previous test takers memory and
> compiled.
/snip/
> Jim

It is your background, even your duty, not to take assertions on trust.
 For example, how would you *know* what texts are in most Chinese physics
departments?   You might have been party to some conversations wherein
two or three Chinese physics graduates remark that they had access to back
year GRE exams.
Even that's hear-say.
And for my part, I opine that if you find numerous Asian masters and PhDs
at research institutions, it's pretty certain its not because they had
access to the CURRENT YEAR'S exams when they took them. You're likely to
find they are both smart, and steeped in years of heavy duty study, driven
initially by parental expectations and continued by an ambition of a
particular sort.

Brian

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>  Altus OK
                Eureka!