Posted on 10/14/2020 4:49:10 AM PDT by karpov
For ten years I served on the GRE Literature Exam committee. The exam is one of the special subject matter exams separate from the regular GRE (with math, verbal, analytical sections), and several English departments require that applicants take it. Each year five of us would meet for several days at Educational Testing Service’s campus outside Princeton to pore over data on prior tests, review the performance of each question, and select new passages and craft new questions for the next administration.
During my tenure, five years of it as chairman, the number of departments in the United States including the test in graduate applications dwindled considerably. The consistent racial gap in scores was a problem for departments aiming to boost the admission of African American and Hispanic/Latino students.
And there was a substantive objection as well: The heavily white-male orientation of the test. Inevitably, nearly all authors of the passages we selected that dated before 1800 were white males. Given the comprehensive nature of the test—it has to cover literature written in English from Beowulf to the 20th century, as well as major works of world literature starting with Homer—we couldn’t avoid the racial imbalance. To do so would be to alter literary history.
Since the time I left the Committee five years ago, the test has only grown more unpopular, as you may expect. In fact, it’s doomed.
Throughout my involvement, I admired the design of the test for its breadth, and the staff members who managed our work were excellent. The test showed very well which test-takers possessed generalist knowledge of literary history and an analytical eye for literary language.
But impressive reading knowledge of great literature through the ages, which a high score confirms, doesn’t count much with English departments anymore.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Letting the Left gain control over what passes for “education” was a horrible, and quite possibly fatal, error.
L
Thumbnail article synopsis for the time-challenged: the Birchers had it right over 60 years ago.
That is what happened when the big push came for end-of-course standardized national tests for public schools. These tests were supposed to locate teaching inadequacies. No one took the time to realize that those who control the tests, who write the tests, control what is being taught. And the Left controls the tests — and the textbooks.
I took the GRE in Chemistry a long time ago. Wow!
A rebuttal and a reflection on the achievements of Western Civilization.
When I was a kid — I think 11 years old, about 1971, I had a teacher who talked about the John Birch Society quite a lot. They were crazy. They had wacky ideas. Everyone knew they were wrong. No one took them seriously. They were bad people.
I didn’t know anything about anything at the time. But I was thinking, they must be on to something to make this teacher so upset. I don’t recall that she made any effort to tell us anything about JBS but she clearly hated them.
I took the geology GRE in 1984 with a crippling hangover. Did pretty well, mostly because I just wanted to finish and leave, so I wasn’t overthinking my answers.
The battle continues at some schools - https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/10/we-need-to-talk-about-bruce/
Letting the Left gain control over what passes for “education” was a horrible, and quite possibly fatal, error.
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Understatement of the century.....!!!
Mentioning the JBS to most teachers was the equivalent of showing a silver cross to Dracula.
That’s the way to do it. I took mine on Dec 28, 1975. I was wearing hard contacts and one slipped to the corner of mt eye and I could not get it back in center. You were not allowed to leave the room so I was in misery. Did not do well.
Must pay closer attention here.
Me too! Took the Chem GRE in 1967. Did extremely well, and to this day can’t figure out how.
Me too! Took the Chem GRE in 1967. Did extremely well, and to this day can’t figure out how.
And its not going to change in any upcoming decade or two......
The Left is utter cancer and it destroys anything and everything it touches, Academia is just another example of that proof.
The upshot of this is a society where significant fractions prefer walking around with a toothache to allowing someone else to study dentistry because it wasn't invented by a sexually deviant Person Of Color. Once upon an innocent youth I didn't believe anyone could be that stupid.
LOL... hey just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT... ;^)
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