PSAT, SAT, etc .

[Baker, John]

        I think you're making a leap here, based on the evidence you cite.  The question here was a problematic one that ETS now says should not have made it through the screening process, the first time in years that they have admitted this.  One problematic question, out of more than a thousand, doesn't tell us much.  In addition, ETS's correct answer was E (no error), the very answer that a student who had not been exposed to a misleading grammar text would have given.

        Note that I'm not taking a position at this time on whether such tests are invidious.  I just don't think that the discussion over this one question gives any evidence for that position.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Page Stephens [mailto:hpst at EARTHLINK.NET]
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 2:46 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: PSAT, SAT, etc .


We debated the question at great length with (presumably) greater knowledge
of the subject than the average 16 or 17 year old. I am just happy that I
took my last silly test of this sort 38 years ago and that I happened to
come from a pretty straight cultural background, ie. one approved of by the
writers of such tests and even then I think I missed two or three of the
questions on the test.

I wonder if it might be possible for us to obtain an old copy of the verbal
parts of one of these tests so that we could examine it and discuss its
questions in terms of dialectical differences on this list.

Such an exercise might prove enlightening.

Page Stephens

----- Original Message -----
From: "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: PSAT, SAT, etc .


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: PSAT, SAT, etc .
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
>         Whether that's true or not, I don't see that it follows from the
postings.
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Page Stephens [mailto:hpst at EARTHLINK.NET]
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 3:20 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: PSAT, SAT, etc .
>
>
> Is there anyone on this list who has not been convinced by the uploads
about
> the PSAT that such a test is merely used by the people who write it and
the
> colleges who use it in order to make invidious distinctions between
students
> with different cultural backgrounds?
>
> If there are please defend the stupid things.
>
> Page Stephens