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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   29157 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023

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I think the biggest problems with the SAT are both the range compression at the upper end, as well as the reduction in g loading as you discussed.

In contrast, a similarly equivalent exam in India, the NEET, is designed explicitly to avoid those problems. It is difficult (though the claims that some questions can stump Western physics or engineering majors are overblown), but more importantly, the sheer number of questions and the difficulty ensures that it's basically impossible to get a perfect score. You have to be both very good at the subjects (all STEM related), and also excellent at time management. That implies a far longer tail of results, which makes it easier to tease out "mere" 99th percentile nerds from the 99.999th percentile geniuses, and not even the latter can hope to get a perfect score.

Which is as it should be, I have a jaundiced opinion on extracurriculars being defacto mandatory for the purposes of college entry, it's largely a waste of time that both biases for the rich and wealthy (who on top of being genetically smarter) are also capable of gaming those systems by sending their kids off to a nice summer of helping dig wells in Africa or similar bullshit.

On the other hand, a smart but poor student in India is on a much more level playing field. All they have to do is focus on making it in the NEET, and everything else becomes moot. This laudable system is of course undermined by our own AA, but I still consider it an improvement.

That implies a far fatter tail of results

Longer, not fatter.

Thanks, fixed.

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