Quote:
Originally posted by ZTAngel
The teachers spend the time teachings students how to take the test. It's like when you take the SAT prep courses. You learn how to take the test rather than learn all the vocab/math that is associated with it. The students learn all the 'tricks' of passing the exam without ever learning the concepts behind it (i.e.- they learn how to finish the geometry section of the exam by learning process of elimination and other tricks but never really learn the real concept behind the question on the exam). By teaching students how to take a test rather than giving them a real education, you end up with one-track robots who are programmed to pass a test but not much else.
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While I agree with your conclusion (ie "Standardized testing is a tenuous method for studying intelligence or learning"), this line of thought is really pretty weakly grounded. There are very few 'tricks' that markedly increase scoring on tests such as the SAT, and zero that work better than simply knowing the material.
For years, 'teaching to the test' has become a buzzword, but the concept isn't very fully explored. For instance, one important way to teach to the SAT is to utilize rather lengthy lists of words to increase vocabulary, which aids the analogy and reading comprehension sections. However, these are not arcane words for the most part - the literal increase in vocabulary is, most likely, a legitimate use of resources.
Even beyond that, any teachers that feel confined to 'teaching to the test' are exacerbating the problem. The real issue comes from improper foundation in the subjects tested - if the students in 8th grade cannot perform at an 8th-grade level, as a collective, we need to start looking at the 7th-grade instructors, and the 6th, and so on. To my mind, this is the real issue - if we confine instructors to this situation, we ignore previous levels that have failed to perform.
The bottom line is that classes such as those provided by Kaplan aren't magic - they provide a level of comfort with discerning question 'types' and utilizing past information to answer the questions as posed. Any amount of 'teaching to the test' is simply a result of a systemic failure to teach previous to the test.
The classes and 'tricks' should be completely unnecessary.