The most pointless standardized tests ever. You have to pass them to graduate high school in New Jersey, but even the most retarded people in our school will pass them.

One of the questions from the math section [I'm not joking]:

Which of these is correctly rounded to 4 significant digits?

A: .0583
B: .05832
C: .058309
D: .05830008

:rolleyes:

Uh... that's a tough one I'll have to think about it...

I despise standardized tests. They need to have more versions (for different levels of knowledge).

It's mainly for students who live in in school districts that do not teach as highly as our school. But since they can't single out a certain city or anything, they give it to everyone.

We've got a similar test here in Maryland called the MSA (Maryland School Assessment). Coincidentally, we got our school's "report card" today. I find it shocking that 49% of our school's students received a "basic" score in math, which is the politically correct way to say a failing grade. What is even more shocking is that we improved 15% this year in that category and we're about par with the entire state of Maryland.

I remember that when I took the MSA for Geometry (before it was required to graduate), I got "advanced" which from what I know is barely anything missed. I took Geometry in Middle School. Needless to say, I received an "advanced" score in all of the Maryland state tests.

From what I know, the US is the only of the top 10 countries in the world for education with standardized tests. Testing has nothing to do with education as far as I am concerned. I hear way too much about how "we must get good scores on X test" all the time, and it seems that the focus no longer is on education. My school already gets less funding than every other school in the county, so obviously the best way to improve our school is to cut more funding because many students are idiots (not true). That's punishing good students as well as bad. And the last thing the bad students need is punishment. I don't understand how anyone could think NCLB was a good idea.

Our school tends to do very well, sending dozens of students to dozens of ivy-league colleges. We made it in the top 100 high schools in the nation, a list including private schools [Ridgewood High is obviously public]. The state test was really a joke for us.

I really hate standardized tests because they are a horrible indicator of your overall academic performance. Like the new SAT, only 25 minutes are provided for the essay. AKA, they are testing your speed, not your real writing ability. The one thing I don't have when taking tests like that is speed. :angry:

School in general is rediculous, and we know it is. College, is basically a mean of keeping the power to the rich. It prevents lower class citizens from advancing. The whole system is bull.

I personally know one of the people who grade the new SAT's writing parts. These are really easy to score on, at least in his opinion. They're mainly looking for people who can write at least somewhat effective arguments quickly. Just use the basic "thesis in three" strategy and you'll get a near perfect or better score each time. The thesis in three strategy, if you are unfamiliar with it, is to just choose three points and either outline in your head or make a small outline on paper. You usually will write a much better essay that way, and write faster as well. I make big outlines for all of the articles I write now, but admittedly they serve mostly as checklists.

Well, the HSPA results came in. Not surprisingly, I was "Advanced Proficient" on all of it. Since districts get penalized for students failing this test, they make it really easy so less people fail. :lol:

D?

It's pretty much the same here. The Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs), required in all public schools, are incredibly easy, though a decent number of students manage to fail them (though in the Honors classes, everybody passes). What's more, 100% is pass proficient, 83.33% is pass advanced, and 66.67% is passing. I ace about half the tests. In addition, as of this year, people got to exempt the high school final exams for whatever classes they passed the SOLs in (you don't take SOLs for every subject each year--they alternate), but I wouldn't dare touch those exams, as they would probably pull my grade down. I got to skip much of exams week due to this setup...

It really depends on how you look at it. In my mind, without public schools, only families that were already rich would be able to educate their children, and thus, they would stay on top. However, it is possible that college does what you say, even if public schooling does not.

In the U.S., as opposed to other countries, it is easy to get into colleges; but you have to pay a hefty sum. In most other nations, if you do happen to make it into colleges, it will probably be free.

Nice point, supersoaker...that's the worst rounding I've ever seen. 0.05830008 is not nearly the same as 0.058309; and for that matter, 0.058309 doesn't round to 0.05832. Strange...

Well, that's the exact question as it appeared on the test. Go figure.

I think about 99% of Ridgewood High School passes the HSPA. I know it is not 100%, since a few friends failed on purpose...

Well, here in Santa Clara County, CA, the standardized tests to graduate from high school require you to know 9th grade math and 10th grade English. And there was this huge hubbub about people not being able to pass, and lawsuits, and what not. I don't get it. If you're in 12th grade, shouldn't you know 10th grade English and 9th grade math? If I were in charge, I'd make people have to pass 12th grade math and English. <_<

Its D, eh? I would have said A. I always thought the point of rounding stuff up/down is to decrease the didgits. Man, I was even taught that generaly things are rounded up to 2 degits behind the comma. Then again, my bachelor university degree is in the humanities and not math. ( A university degree that opened the oportunity for me to be unemployed.)

Standardized tests are just there to "standardize" the tax payer. Ever wondered why you have to learn greek math but not greek philospohy? The second one might turn the tax payer into an individual who questions the status quo. Petagoras Triangle on the other hand won't afect the Tax payer on voting according to whatever news channel tells them to vote for.
Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet teaches the flaws of teenage romance. Goethe's Faust teaches that any knowledge is futile if it can not be applied with experience resulting to a mind dulled by trivia. Again guess which moral lesson is more usefull for a Highschool?

Then again, without a standardized social conciousness were everyone thinks prity much similar, it would be difficult to rule the mob or handle the economy.

Haven't been here in a while...

That's the other thing--here, we don't have 99% of the students passing the tests! Trust me, it's pathetically low, and everybody is worried about No Child Gets Ahead--I mean, No Child Left Behind. As I said, the Honors classes have everybody passing, so if the average is a little over 50% (depends on the subject; math, english, science, etc.), then you've really got to wonder what's really going on in the other classes.

I would have said the answer to that multiple choice question is A, too...strange. Somebody must be wrong...

Yeah, I think I typed it wrong. They were not smart enough to design a trick of that caliber. The answer was of course the one with 4 digits, I just messed up the 4th answer and didn't realize that.

The correct answer is B. While you people were so sure of yourselves, you never bothered to check. Significant figures are not decimal places nor total numbers. Sigificant figures to me means how many numbers you'll use if you put it into scientific notation. Answer B would be rewritten as 5.832*10^-2. 4 significant figures.

Anyway, if you don't believe me, type it into this: http://science.widener.edu/svb/tutorial/sigfigures.html

It did say "digits" and not "figures" though. Math says one thing and physics says another. I think the wording does matter. My physics teacher did teach significant digits in scientific notation, but my math teachers have taught significant digits as how many after the decimal.

Interesting, but I'm afraid that they're the same thing anyway. ;)

Read this if you don't believe me: http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/sig_fig/SIG_dig.htm

Well that's funny. Since I don't remember when, my math teachers haven't mentioned scientific notation and significant digits/figures in the same sentence. Oh well, since I'm not planning to enter any fields in math/science, it really deosn't matter to me. :rolleyes: