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Except if people actually prepare for the standardized tests in some way or another as is usually the case ... "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to b

Except if people actually prepare for the standardized tests in some way or another as is usually the case ... "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." Your point is still valid though, I find university test scores more "accurate" too, whatever that means for learning.

Siira 6y ago
Preparing to solve questions in STEM subjects is what learning STEM is all about.
- audunw 6y ago
  The problem is what those questions are. Are you expected to memorize a formula or are you expected to solve a real problem, possibly with the formulas available in a cheat sheet? My wife grew up with a lot of testing in asia. Now working as a teacher in northern europe she finds the approach here way better for actually learning, where there's less focus on memorizing things, and more on problem solving. The thing is, it's harder to make tests for problem solving, so tests tend to favor memorizing, especially when there's a lot of it. It's not just about making the questions, it's about grading them and making a judgement about whether the student took the right approach despite getting the wrong answer. How do you standardize that? I'm not sure what's standard, but at my university we often had exams with either formula books and/or a cheat sheet we could prepare ourselves. Yet the math tests were way more challenging for me than the simpler tests without access to material we had in high school.
- jl2718 6y ago
  I’m not sure about that. The goal is to make something. I’ve come to appreciate Joe Gebbia’s description of art school as likely superior to my STEM education.