A little something that I didn't know was going on back East with the Common Core and tying. Link I took these two quizzes and made 6/7 on the Reading and 7/7 on the Math. Truthfully these aren't as hard as a lot of the question you will actually see on a standardized Algebra II (Sophomore or Junior) test and is only slightly easier than the Geometry (Freshmen or Sophomore) test. This is more along an Algebra I Eighth Grade or Freshmen) test, and in thinking about it about the same as the Eighth grade math test. When it comes to the reading part this is way easier than the Common Core test that has been rolled out. The Writing test is even worse in Common Core, Eighth graders have a passage that takes 10 minutes to read out loud. I know because I had to read it to them, per the instructions, I read as they read. No telling what the Junior test will be when they roll it out. Ten minutes of me reading is a huge amount for them to take in and process.
7/7 on the math. Haven't bothered with the reading one yet. Anyone who couldn't ACE this in the 10th grade--let alone after having obtained a degree in the sciences--should realize that their math education is effectively ZERO. And if large numbers of school kids can't do these problems by the end of the 10th grade? Then the entire system is an abject failure. If you're a decision-making professional in a science or technology related field and these questions are anything more than trivial to you, you really should resign and go back and get educated. I shudder to think what kind of technical decisions you are making if these types of problems present any difficulty.
I scored 7/7 on both. You say you have to read to them? Are they allowed to read it themselves, or are they only allowed to hear the passage from you?
Eh, I'm going to have to disagree with you there. At least, for two of the questions. Reducing roots to simpler factors is something I've never used outside of teaching my sister algebra, and a lot of people, even those in science related fields, might never use the kind of geometry required in question #4.
Tried to take the Math test. Got the first three correct, but had to guess the answer on one of them because the graph was so small that I couldn't read the labels involved, even though I knew the proper region. Then couldn't see the illustration on the next problem (the park) well enough to know what the values were. So I gave up. It's not supposed to be an eye test. From what I saw of the test, it didn't seem difficult.... As far as "will I ever use it IRL?", my POV is that it's testing problem-solving skills. Like Calculus, it makes you think. How many people ever truly have to find the area under a curve? But college degrees will continue to require Calc classes because they teach you how to think!
If someone can't read for 10 minutes in real life and understand it, then I do not know how the hell they will every function. Lots of vital things like contracts take at least that long to read When you hear things like this you realize just how much things like Twitter's 140 characters or less have damaged the ability of schools to educate.
Even allowing you to miss those two, you'd still pass. But to get 0/7 and having a degree in the sciences? Disgraceful. A typical 10th grader should've had a couple of semesters of algebra and have completed (by the end of the 10th grade) one or two semesters of geometry. More advanced students may already be doing more advanced algebra or trigonometry. The Pythagorean theorem should be deeply engrained at this point, so handling square roots and such should be second nature. And, really, if you miss the square root problem, you're doubly inept. You're GIVEN all the possible answers. If you've somehow forgotten how to do square root problems, you should be able to work backwards and disprove the bad/prove the good answer. Not knowing how to do this indicates another weakness: the inability to check one's answers. As for the geometry question, that's probably the "hardest" one on the test, as it requires memory of a postulate from geometry. Even so, this is a VERY basic principle and one that should be very fresh in the mind of a 10th grader. If someone with a sciences degree is totally stumped by this, then, clearly, their knowledge of geometry is very, very limited.
Don't know which browser you're using, but in Chrome, I right-clicked on the graphic and displayed it in its own tab, which made it readable.
This test should really be aced at the end of Algebra I. The test we give in Oklahoma is a lot harder than this. Which is why I don't get that it was saying how hard some of the questions are, given there relative ease in complexity. Yet Oklahoma is so far behind in education? If the Upper East is thinking this is hard.....
We have to red the prompt while they silently follow along and highlight or make notes in the margins, then they are free to go back and read it again.
You do know that the tests for writing prompts, as far back as 1994 and across a great amount of the county, have been single, 3 sentence paragraphs or thereabouts right? And they certainly have not been research type papers where the students have to pick out information, paraphrase it, and put it back down in such and such pages. <---(not sure how many pages if there is a minimum anymore)
So nothing about the Principals "going on strike" against using the tests as performance indicators for teachers?
Even if you don't remember how to reduce roots, the other three choices are all obviously larger than the square root of 50 so as long as you know what a square root is you can get the right answer. Similarly on #4 a visual inspection tells you all the other choices are wrong answers so you can get the question right even without knowing how to do the calculations so long as you know that a right angle is 90 degrees.
Absolutely right. Even if you can't calculate the right answer, you should still be able to deduce it by eliminating the wrong ones. I paused briefly on the "how many trees in the preserve" problem, simply because I didn't want to take it for granted that the drawing was to scale. Of course, once you see it is--and it must be--the wrong answers are clearly wrong.
This is where so many students are lacking. They can't read material and summarize it or expand upon it with their own interpretations and analysis.
7/7 on both, and I feel as if I'm being made fun of. The formula is 10+2n? No kidding, you just told me so! Anybody who has been exposed to beyond-elementary school media and yet can't do these questions easily has to be less than fully conscious.
If I'm reading the article correctly, this quiz is there to make you feel like you're involved in the story. It's not from "Common Core" which is the focus of the article. Basic Algebra, especially word problems, are used in most everyday life. Going much beyond that may be required by a specific career but can easily be recalled or retrained thanks to a whole host of sources available for free on the internet.
I agree. However it broke down after the questions were done and said 4 were moderate hard and 3 really hard. Which I was trying to say earlier they are not. Even the Algebra I test which is either a freshman or eigth grade test is harder than these.
Can't get past the first question of either test. Good job Washington Post on such a crappy web page.....
