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OrientedDis.. Disoriented. |
Wednesday, July 03, 2002 while three people commented on a post in my blog? Wow.. that's an all-time-record-high! *wink* I did enjoy reading those people's perspectives on standardized testing versus "making the grades" in high school, and I will attempt to write a compact-version of my response to the different opinions. I have been out at Pepperdine's college orientation (that whole trip being a huge post coming after this), and I left without any post about this upcoming trip because.. to be honest.. I had abosolutely no time. I packed late, played in a soccer game (which we won - I scored! :) - our team is still undefeated 5-0 I think - yellow is definitely a lucky color to be - every year I'm yellow I've been on an undefeated team - one other year), and next thing I knew I was jumping in the car with my family and driving to my grandparent's house from which we would leave to the airport the next day. Anyway, in regards to the comments about SATs: To say that an SAT (I'm sorry, but I can't agree with the terminology of "standardized testing", considering the SAT/ACT - the tests which are used - are not considered or labeled as 'standardized tests'.. if there ever is a standardized test, I don't think I will be complaining about it..) .. to say that an SAT predicts success in and out of college - that seems like an absurd conclusion to make based upon a test score. Success, well, actually, I wrote on this very topic ("success") a few posts down below, so I won't really get into it.. but, I believe success has nothing to do with mere intelligence, or having an excessive amount of money, heh, but success really comes right down to ambition (intelligence certainly helps make the ambition productive). High school transcripts undoubtedly show a student's ambition - one of the most important things to have going through life (including education), and not only do they show ambition, but they show that a student has goals and a focus. A high school transcript can also show whether or not a student cares. You can demonstrate brilliant results on a test which you took on a single day (demonstrating your 'luck' - in Amy's case .. heehee, or so-she-says..she's just being modest because I know she's a brilliant cs major ;Þ, or perhaps, innate intelligence), but I believe transcripts speak long-term characteristics of an individual. As far as particular grades and class rank go in high school, I would agree with the idea that they too can be an inaccurate predictor of success in college; however, I think transcripts serve as a far-better assessment of how well a student will do in college. I think that at most colleges everyone will be offered similar educational opportunities, but the way in which the opportunities are delivered to the students are a different matter. Anyway, my point is, I think that at college most people can start on the same level of things, and that a person's innate intelligence - if the test were to measure that - only serves to show how difficult it will be for a student to succeed, but not if they will or not. If a person's goal is to get good grades in college, and if they have the ambition for that, then ambition is far more important than what a student knows off the top of their head when it comes to actually making the grade. Like John mentioned - you can have idiots with masters degrees - this is due to those people having great ambition alone. Were they successful? Yes, according to their school's standards, and society might have opened up opportunities to them which they would like to claim as having reached 'success' on their own standards. Whether or not they are successful on a whole as an individual.. that is up to them to decide. I know that if I walked through life without ever actually feeling like I learned anything, I could have the greatest job, but that my 'success' would be a lot less meaningful. "I walk a hundred miles a day and never go any place.." .... hm, I just wanted to insert that as the elderly janitor where I work said that as he passed by me just a little while ago (he talks to me/himself as he passes by hunched over every day..) .. it kind of seemed to fit the idea of what I'm trying to say here. *shrug* That's all. :) . . . babbled Lin |
