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[piecewise]

So what they were basically asking you to do was to give a logical conclusion as to what the paragraph itself was saying.  In other words, "Read this sentence. What did that sentence say?"

It's literally so dumb and easy that you get it wrong!

It's an important skill for any person to answer dumb questions correctly. How else are they going to work with actual people?

I wouldn't mind if they just said to summarize the paragraph, because thats what they're actually asking for.  But you say "Logical conclusion" and throw in nice, neutral, scientific answers  along with tin foil hat ones and I assume you want logical from the view point of the world as a whole.

[DoctorMcTaalik]

So apparently, they're weeding out UFO-deniers from nursing programs. It's a conspiracy, man.

[renegadelobster]

@Beirus Anthony would be willing to help with testing out Amiable Amber if you want someone to take some of the vials

[Parisbre56]

When I took the Michigan ECPE, that's what my English teacher used to tell me: "Imagine you know nothing about the world. You only know what the text tells you and you believe that everything it tells you is absolutely true. Never judge the text and never come to conclusions if you can help it." Which I guess is a good skill to have if all you want are people blindly memorizing texts instead of judging them. And, imagine if it was the other way around, language tests needing logic and common knowledge. You'd start having complaints from people saying "Oh, the test didn't give me that info that almost everyone with half a mind would know, how could I know it?"

At least it's not Standardized Testing.

[Beirus]

I hate standardized tests with a passion.

[Harry Baldman]

The trouble with making assumptions about people's capabilities in tests is that it introduces a certain level of prejudice. It's rare for knowledge to be genuinely ubiquitous, and by introducing unspoken assumptions about your general knowledge you make the test be favorable toward people like yourself, and some of that tendency is bound to be irrelevant to competence.

And since tests require you to answer in a machine-like fashion to offset this (because who wants to take a test that requires knowledge of trivia that one guy deemed essential for poorly-understood reasons), it's tempting to try and outsmart them. It's a low-hanging fruit, and reaching for it will never earn you any points.

I think an example of a language test needing actual logic and understanding would be something like this, much-maligned (and also examined on that very LWT episode Paris linked) as it is. It's actually an interesting exercise as far as any language test can be an interesting exercise, in that you do need to apply a smidgen (no more than that, however) of logic to deduce some of the answers required.

Though on language tests as a whole, I am of the opinion that the best test for it would be to just write an essay and be done with it, since it tests all the relevant skills. Maybe add a listening part in the beginning related to the subject of the essay as well so that absolutely everything's covered. Or for foreign language tests, an additional verbal component that tests both listening and speaking.

[Nikitian]

Oh well. Hit and miss. Maybe the thing they are training with those tests is minor telepathy?

[Sean Mirrsen]

Oh well. Hit and miss. Maybe the thing they are training with those tests is minor telepathy?

They may as well be testing for minor pyromancy. First one to burn the test paper with the power of his mind gets full score!

[Devastator]

The only thing less effective than standardized tests (and I think there's too many of them) is no standardized testing.  Using something entirely subjective to replace something partly subjective in an attempt to avoid bias is a pretty illogical procedure.

[Parisbre56]

@HB: True. The problem is that you need to have someone to teach you to enter that state of mind that is unnatural to most humans, where you have to do something you consider to be stupid and consider one thing to be true while disregarding other things you know to be true (and possibly your desire to prove how much you know). It's like training someone to doublethink, in the 1984 sense.

Oh, semi relevant: I've recently seen they've started to use those sorts of tests in pre-job-interview grading tests, both in the UK and in other countries. (Along with logic tests and statistics tests.) So my advice is, if you ever do one of those pre-job-interview test things, try to remember how those sorts of English language understanding tests are supposed to be answered, it might help you score some extra points.

[Ozarck]

The TEAS exam is driving me insane.

Science and math are easy because they're objective (Though the phrasing of some of these questions is really bad. "What drives enzyme activity: Protein configuration, PH, Temp, or substrate concentration?" ALL OF THOSE THINGS CONTRIBUTE TO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A ENZYME YOU SONOFABITCH. Do you mean what the basic mechanical reason enzymes work is? Turns out yes, that is it, but goddamn, drives is way to fucking vague. "Allows Enzymes to function" is better. ) but the reading section is terrible. Here, look at this and tell me what you think the right answers are:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Based exclusively on the content of the essay, A and C are logical conclusions. the essay reports these events as factual. Therefore, if you were basing conclusions on the essay, you would conclude that the events were factual as described.

So what they were basically asking you to do was to give a logical conclusion as to what the paragraph itself was saying.  In other words, "Read this sentence. What did that sentence say?"

It's literally so dumb and easy that you get it wrong!

It's an important skill for any person to answer dumb questions correctly. How else are they going to work with actual people?

I wouldn't mind if they just said to summarize the paragraph, because thats what they're actually asking for.  But you say "Logical conclusion" and throw in nice, neutral, scientific answers  along with tin foil hat ones and I assume you want logical from the view point of the world as a whole.

When they say something like "what drives this function" they mean "what is the most important factor in causing this to work," and when they say "based on this" they often mean "if this were the only information you had, and excluding any "real life" contraindicators, what conclusion would you draw?" It's a logic test. You have your presuppositions A) paragraph a and b. A is true, b is true, a and b are true, therefore ..." They are not asking you "based on what we know is real" but "based on the facts as presented.

It's useful to be able to see what someone is trying to say, how they say it, and what the presuppositions are behind it. I read an article once in which this father played a game with his kids while watching televission. The game was called "spot the lie." they played during commercials, and he taught his kids critical thinking as a result. I would play "what does this sit-com/cartoon/movie say about (the role of parents/sexuality/work ethic/values and ethics/truth/ blah blah blah)." I do that all the time anyway though

[NJW2000]

Oh well. Hit and miss. Maybe the thing they are training with those tests is minor telepathy?

"Minor telepathy". Yep

Also known as "initiative", "thinking outside the box", or "second sight".

Buy watches with reflective backplates, is all I can say, if you want to succeed in tests like these.

[Parisbre56]

Uh oh. Guess it's time to fire everything...
EDIT: I could ask Steve to try and laser part of the rock away in a section further from us, but the EMP could potentially leave us grounded and damage the shuttle... Only as a last resort probably.

[Lenglon]

((Paris, have Flint text Lyra's brain to microwave the rock if you need me to do so. Include locations since she has no sensory organs right now.))

[Xantalos]

If only I had an amp or something right now. I wonder if Steve's speak was to everyone or just Flint?