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The author says that UW students taking Atmospheric Sciences s101 "should be the creme of the crop of our high school graduates with high GPAs". 1) Atmospheric

The author says that UW students taking Atmospheric Sciences s101 "should be the creme of the crop of our high school graduates with high GPAs". 1) Atmospheric Sciences 101 sounds like a "blowoff" class that liberal arts students would take only to fulfill a science requirement. In other words, the students are likely self-selected for lack of math/science ability. 2) UW is a public university. It may very well be the best public university in Washington, but I'd bet the best students have a nontrivial rate of private school attendance. (So as to dispel any illusions of elitism, I attended the University of Michigan, which is also a public research university.)

maximilian 17y ago
Yes, but the questions were really easy. Even a liberal arts major should've been able to answer them. They would have seen problems like these in the first 2-3 years in high school many, many times.
- bugs 17y ago
  In all reality most high school students don't pay attention in their math courses and only do minimal effort for what grade they required. To be honest I was taught how to do scientific notation in one day in high school and if you asked me the rules for how many places to keep through operations I could guess but I truthfully wouldn't know. I have taken 2 chemistry courses and many other high level lab courses in college and have only heard that scientific notation was preferred not required (for the chem courses) and given no refresher course. From personal experience I have met people who made it through AP Calculus in high school (passing grade in class not test) who really have difficulty understanding and passing a basic college algebra course. Summary: just because people are introduced to problems in high school doesn't mean they can do them.
timr 17y ago
"UW is a public university. It may very well be the best public university in Washington, but I'd bet the best students have a nontrivial rate of private school attendance." Don't kid yourself. This is an epidemic problem at all schools, public and private. I have friends who teach at both public and private universities, and they all have the same horror stories. My own personal experience (private undergrad / PhD at UW) bears out their anecdotes. With certain institutional exceptions, private school kids are richer, not smarter. Also, the GPA and SAT scores of incoming UW freshman are astonishingly high right now (IQR of 3.60-3.91 GPA, 570-680 SAT math, according to http://admit.washington.edu/Numbers http://admit.washington.edu/Numbers). Admittedly, those aren't Harvard numbers, but one would still expect a 600 math SAT student to be able to do well on a basic high-school algebra quiz.
- swolchok 17y ago
  I did not disagree with the author's main point, merely the assertion I singled out.
  - timr 17y ago
    Perhaps, but your argument was a challenge to the statement that the students represent the best and brightest of the state, and that's what I was addressing. When the test is as easy as this one, the argument that these students aren't elite isn't important.

maximilian 17y ago

Yes, but the questions were really easy. Even a liberal arts major should've been able to answer them. They would have seen problems like these in the first 2-3 years in high school many, many times.

bugs 17y ago
In all reality most high school students don't pay attention in their math courses and only do minimal effort for what grade they required. To be honest I was taught how to do scientific notation in one day in high school and if you asked me the rules for how many places to keep through operations I could guess but I truthfully wouldn't know. I have taken 2 chemistry courses and many other high level lab courses in college and have only heard that scientific notation was preferred not required (for the chem courses) and given no refresher course. From personal experience I have met people who made it through AP Calculus in high school (passing grade in class not test) who really have difficulty understanding and passing a basic college algebra course. Summary: just because people are introduced to problems in high school doesn't mean they can do them.

timr 17y ago

"UW is a public university. It may very well be the best public university in Washington, but I'd bet the best students have a nontrivial rate of private school attendance." Don't kid yourself. This is an epidemic problem at all schools, public and private. I have friends who teach at both public and private universities, and they all have the same horror stories. My own personal experience (private undergrad / PhD at UW) bears out their anecdotes. With certain institutional exceptions, private school kids are richer, not smarter. Also, the GPA and SAT scores of incoming UW freshman are astonishingly high right now (IQR of 3.60-3.91 GPA, 570-680 SAT math, according to http://admit.washington.edu/Numbers http://admit.washington.edu/Numbers). Admittedly, those aren't Harvard numbers, but one would still expect a 600 math SAT student to be able to do well on a basic high-school algebra quiz.

swolchok 17y ago
I did not disagree with the author's main point, merely the assertion I singled out.
- timr 17y ago
  Perhaps, but your argument was a challenge to the statement that the students represent the best and brightest of the state, and that's what I was addressing. When the test is as easy as this one, the argument that these students aren't elite isn't important.