I hate standardized Reading tests Created 11 years ago2012-08-13 19:29:53 UTC by 2muchvideogames

Check this out (I'm not in here though)

This is from an apparently popular standardized practice test question. From the thread above it's apparent that people agree that the answer is A. However, the actual answer was B for some reason.

This is what I really hate about standardized reading tests, that subjective questions like these have only one objective answer. The interpretation and analysis of English is NOT open-ended. One person's interpretation goes, and everyone else is either completely right or completely off. Now it's your turn to discuss.

I'm assuming from the "z" in 'Standardised' that this is an American test. It does seem incredibly obtuse, and problems like this will arise until subjective classes are graded based on a better system than "right or wrong". I took English in High School and in college. In high school, the exams were similar to this - although not quite as unclear. In college however, because it was part of the media course I was on, it was graded on the same principals as the Media exam which is subjective essays. Proving you understand without a definitive "right" or "wrong" answer. A lot of education establishments are far too hesitant to adopt a system like that, though, because it's far more time consuming to grade.

It's all just further proof that Sir Ken Robinson is a damn smart individual.

When I first read it and he said it was one o'clock I imagined one in the morning, in which case yes, B would make sense. The officer offering to see her home at that hour would make sense. But, it never specifies, and in the answer it says "time of day" and not "night".

On second thought, let's not answer this question. 'Tis a silly question.

Haha, Monty Python reference.

What kind of retarded exam is this?

Yeah, we had these kinds of english tests at the end of high-school. It's the reason why I didn't have the maximum score, because at the audition test you had to give an answer like this based on hearing 2 times a conversation, NOT READING A TEXT.

Btw,

It's all just further proof that Sir Ken Robinson is a damn smart individual.

At some point that man mentions about divergent thinking. Well, I just bought some weeks ago a book: "Lateral thinking". I think it means mostly the same subject. I don't actually "learn" anything from the book, I think it's supposed to "awaken" something that's already been there in the childhood, but was forcefully put asleep by the educational system. Now I remember Red's line from The Shawshank Redemption: "The man has become institutionalized!" (not actually quoting, but he's saying something like that).

I thought the answer is clearly "B".

How can the river be dangerous when his mother was walking "along" it? She wasn't walking "on" the frozen river, like the people in The Batman Rises.

It did say "half-frozen" meaning it must've been partially water. It doesn't say if she's walking along a road, or a path, or just in the woods but if an officer happened to be there it must've been a road, and if he saw her it couldn't have been pitch black. I maintain that it doesn't seem that unsafe to just be walking along the river. It doesn't specify that the road was icy, or the weather was bad, or if she was on an incline.

Of course, this question does seem to be posted by a thirteen-year-old and who knows if he/she left out any important parts.

I learned something new.

It appears that 'possibly' and 'probably' mean two completely different things. On a typical forum, however, it appears that the difference between these two vary considerably from individual to individual. Basically, when you have a question where both words are among the choices, your score is bascially down to whether you were wearing your lucky underwear.

I doubt it, I'm pretty sure most of us can probably distinguish the the meaning between the two words, possibly.

In my mind, probably means "I don't know for sure, but likely yes", whereas possibly means "maybe".

no - probably not - maybe/possibly/perhaps - probably - yes