PISA tests are not based off school curricula. This is a much different claim than the one that PISA tests successfully examine "high level understanding and ap

PISA tests are not based off school curricula. This is a much different claim than the one that PISA tests successfully examine "high level understanding and application of subject knowledge and skills". PISA tests are time-bound; thus, they cannot avoid testing time management. PISA tests include multiple choice questions; thus, they cannot avoid testing students' ability to eliminate nonsensical options. The issues with short-answer questions are more subtle and less problematic, but at the very least, depend on the reviewer having the capacity to fully understand the students' response, linguistically and colloquially. These are very common complaints about test design: that the test scores end up being trumped by orthogonal "test-taking" skills. The typical responses to them are that these orthogonal skills are nevertheless useful "real-world" skills, which is absolutely true, but it undermines the original claim that the tests are primarily examining the actual subject knowledge.