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This reminds of me playing Hearts on a PC. You can try really hard to get a good score, or you can get the worst score possible and win the round[1]. I didn't r
by mehulkar 14y ago
This reminds of me playing Hearts on a PC. You can try really hard to get a good score, or you can get the worst score possible and win the round[1]. I didn't read the whole article, but it was pretty clear that to get the lowest possible score you have to know the correct response to every question. (A little less black & white for the essay section, but you get the gist.)
Colleges should have a lottery admission available to people who can get a perfect score on the SAT/ACT. Students would inadvertently study harder and learn proportionally more than if they were to study hard enough to get a perfect score.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts#Shooting_the_moon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts#Shooting_the_moon
- greatzebu 14y agoYou don't really need to identify the correct answer; you only have to be able to find an answer that you're sure isn't correct. Of course, that's much easier if you know what the right answer is, but there's pretty commonly one obviously wrong option.
- mehulkar 14y agoThe "obviously wrong option" often turns out not to be as wrong as I first thought.
- gizmo686 14y ago> but it was pretty clear that to get the lowest possible score you have to know the correct response to every question. Not exactly. To get the lowest possible score, you only need to know a incorrect response to every questions. This is a very different thing, as it is not uncommon for a question to have some obviously incorrect answers.
- mehulkar 14y agoKnowing an absolutely incorrect answer to every question is difficult to ensure. It leaves things up to chance since you cannot prepare for the exact questions you get. On the other hand, knowing all the correct answers is perfectly doable.
- bagosm 14y agoThis is not true. For example you know that the result of 5.123.443 x 9.999.999 can't be 42. But you dont immediately know the correct answer, which is harder.
- mehulkar 14y agoMaking the answer hard to deduce/calculate is only one side of the difficulty. The other side is making the question hard to decipher. I don't think the SAT has any questions that are as straightforward as your example, but I could be wrong.
- brianchu 14y agoThe lottery idea is a terrible one. Missing just one question on the test is enough to drop your score from a 2400 to a 2370 in many cases. Achieving a "perfect" score is largely due to luck.
- mehulkar 14y agoWoops, my lottery was supposed to refer to people who can get the lowest possible ("perfect") score. Looks like I can't edit my comment now.