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From TA: > Among problems that were used by the department to blackball unwanted candidate students, these problems are distinguished by having a simple soluti

From TA: > Among problems that were used by the department to blackball unwanted candidate students, these problems are distinguished by having a simple solution that is difficult to find. Could someone explain the mechanism here? I can understand how this would hurt any relatively unprivileged group, by requiring certain "gotchas" that have nothing to do with people's innate ability or level of education. But is there anything further? I.e. were these problems well-known among students who had already passed through an unfairly discriminatory gauntlet?

pvg 5y ago
The mechanism is you simply don't put these problems to the candidates you don't want to flunk out.
- TimTheTinker 5y ago
  I didn't see anything like that mentioned in TA. It sounded like the same problems were being given to everyone -- and that the malicious behavior was in problem selection itself. Am I wrong?
  - ekiru 5y ago
    The "A personal story of Tanya Khovanova" section at the start of the article itself describes the method more explicity: "One of the methods they used for doing this was to give the unwanted students a different set of problems on their oral exam." The introduction adds that the Jewish (or otherwise "undesirable") students "were given these problems one after another until they failed one of them, at which point they were given a failing mark."
  - pvg 5y ago
    You are. It's described several times including on the first page, second paragraph: One of the methods they used for doing this was to give the unwanted students a different set of problems on their oral exam.
PoignardAzur 5y ago
It's a two-parter. One, you only give the hardball problems to people you want to filter out, as the paper mentions. Two, you use hardball problems with a simple solution, so that if people make a scandal / complain to political authorities, you can point to the simple solution and "No, look, it's actually really easy, these people just weren't good enough!".

pvg 5y ago

The mechanism is you simply don't put these problems to the candidates you don't want to flunk out.

TimTheTinker 5y ago
I didn't see anything like that mentioned in TA. It sounded like the same problems were being given to everyone -- and that the malicious behavior was in problem selection itself. Am I wrong?
- ekiru 5y ago
  The "A personal story of Tanya Khovanova" section at the start of the article itself describes the method more explicity: "One of the methods they used for doing this was to give the unwanted students a different set of problems on their oral exam." The introduction adds that the Jewish (or otherwise "undesirable") students "were given these problems one after another until they failed one of them, at which point they were given a failing mark."
- pvg 5y ago
  You are. It's described several times including on the first page, second paragraph: One of the methods they used for doing this was to give the unwanted students a different set of problems on their oral exam.

PoignardAzur 5y ago

It's a two-parter. One, you only give the hardball problems to people you want to filter out, as the paper mentions. Two, you use hardball problems with a simple solution, so that if people make a scandal / complain to political authorities, you can point to the simple solution and "No, look, it's actually really easy, these people just weren't good enough!".