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[Phys-L] Re: student mathematical capability



|
| Why does the college admissions office require the incoming
| freshmen to have taken three years of high-school math, if
| the kids didn't learn anything worth knowing in those three
| years? Why bother to ask for a high-school transcript at all?
|
| Why does anybody care about SAT math scores, if kids can get
| good scores without understanding anything about math? Why
| should the kids take the test? Why does the admissions
| office ask to see the scores?
|
| Ditto for all the "standardized" statewide "proficiency"
| tests that the Feds require. What's the point?
|

I rather assume that most of these questions are rhetorical. I
appreciate the sentiment behind them, and I agree that there is a lot of
swindling going on. But we all know the answer.

Incidentally, part of the swindle is the horrific grade inflation that
is now present in colleges. Which is in part, part of the motivation
behind all of the testing that is going on (we have a rising junior
proficiency exam in our regential system, we appears to me, from hearsay
evidence, would actually make a reasonable entrance examination.) and
all of the extra-curricular assessment that is going on. Why, the
student's grades can't be trusted. I.e. in many instances they are at
least a bit of a swindle.
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