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Google Insights: Standardized Test Searches Around the World

11 points by dangoldin 17y ago

dangoldin 17y ago
I just submitted this because I started playing with Google Insights recently and this seemed like a pretty interesting analysis. One thing that is noticeable is the yearly effect with October having the most searches - probably coinciding with some type of application deadlines. Another interesting piece is to look at searches by different country - I think it's pretty interesting to see how low the US interest is for the GRE but it's the highest for the LSAT. Pakistan also shows up high for the MCAT which I found pretty interesting. Nepal seems to be high on some of them so it makes me wonder if anything is going on with that. If Google maintains this database for a long enough time period it may be possible to see long term trends in the data - maybe the US had a much higher interest in the GRE decades ago. Does anyone know if these other countries have test that have similar names? That would skew the results.
- ujjwalg 17y ago
  Thanks for the link and wealth of information here. My startup is actually developing products related to standardized tests. This will come in handy. I was completely unaware of Google Insights. It looks very comprehensively and intelligently organized.
  - dangoldin 17y ago
    Glad to help! I recently rediscovered it after reading a data visualization post that was linked to from here.
patio11 17y ago
Want an eye opener? Copy paste "入試" without the quotes in. Two alternatives to scope it are "大学入試" and "センター入試". They are Japanese for, respectively, "entrance examination", "university entrance examination", and "Center Entrance Examination" (long story short, most entrance exams are administered by a particular university, the Center one is shared by many universities, so it is a closer analog to the SAT than the other options). Quick preview of coming attractions: 入試 is more popular in Japan than any of your terms were worldwide, by a wide margin.
- xiaoma 17y ago
  Add 高考 (the Chinese college entrance exam) to the list and everything else, including 入試 are pretty much flattened against the bottom line. http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=sat%20test%2Clsat%20test%2Cgre%20test%2C%E9%AB%98%E8%80%83%2C%E5%85%A5%E8%A9%A6&cmpt=q http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=sat%20test%2Clsat%2...

11 points by dangoldin 17y ago

I just submitted this because I started playing with Google Insights recently and this seemed like a pretty interesting analysis. One thing that is noticeable is the yearly effect with October having the most searches - probably coinciding with some type of application deadlines. Another interesting piece is to look at searches by different country - I think it's pretty interesting to see how low the US interest is for the GRE but it's the highest for the LSAT. Pakistan also shows up high for the MCAT which I found pretty interesting. Nepal seems to be high on some of them so it makes me wonder if anything is going on with that. If Google maintains this database for a long enough time period it may be possible to see long term trends in the data - maybe the US had a much higher interest in the GRE decades ago. Does anyone know if these other countries have test that have similar names? That would skew the results.

ujjwalg 17y ago
Thanks for the link and wealth of information here. My startup is actually developing products related to standardized tests. This will come in handy. I was completely unaware of Google Insights. It looks very comprehensively and intelligently organized.
- dangoldin 17y ago
  Glad to help! I recently rediscovered it after reading a data visualization post that was linked to from here.

patio11 17y ago

Want an eye opener? Copy paste "入試" without the quotes in. Two alternatives to scope it are "大学入試" and "センター入試". They are Japanese for, respectively, "entrance examination", "university entrance examination", and "Center Entrance Examination" (long story short, most entrance exams are administered by a particular university, the Center one is shared by many universities, so it is a closer analog to the SAT than the other options). Quick preview of coming attractions: 入試 is more popular in Japan than any of your terms were worldwide, by a wide margin.

xiaoma 17y ago
Add 高考 (the Chinese college entrance exam) to the list and everything else, including 入試 are pretty much flattened against the bottom line. http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=sat%20test%2Clsat%20test%2Cgre%20test%2C%E9%AB%98%E8%80%83%2C%E5%85%A5%E8%A9%A6&cmpt=q http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=sat%20test%2Clsat%2...