contre standardized testing

An example of a “degree relationship” among word pairs on the GRE exam is “fear: terror”, so says my prep book. Anxiety related neuroscience studies would suggest that there is no distinct definition of fear, thus no certainty in pairing terror with fear—and most certainly, no proof that terror is a degree of fear. However, because this exam requires no prior subject knowledge outside of basic verbal and mathematical skills in order to do well, popular knowledge decrees that terror is indeed a degree or characteristic of fear. An exam such as this produces scholars who practice the idea that each word has an official meaning and minds that reject the notion that words are but a vessel to convey a meaning—meaning being something subjective in nature. My qualm with multiple-choice tests, then, is that they preach the existence of everyday absolute truths—ones that are unfortunately, as in this case, not proven true.

On the GRE, in a situation where you don’t know the meaning of one word in a word pair, you can study the patterns between the other pairs that you do understand and use process of elimination. For instance, Anathema: Curse as A) wattage: bulb or B) : government. None of my other peers in the room knew the definition of anathema, so we first studied “wattage: bulb.” A bulb is measured by wattage. Can a curse be measured? “It would be a ridiculous idea to think that curses can be measured” was the response my instructor gave. With the dismissal of this apparently preposterous idea, the answer by process of elimination was choice B, “: government”. Once again, the proper response to this problem was to refer back to popular knowledge and what is considered to be “normal knowledge.” But even with my limited knowledge of curses, I would say I personally feel that the curse bestowed upon Job far surpasses any curse that Disney gives to its princesses. It seems bizarre to me in the face of standardized testing, that I cannot elaborate on ideas (at least not in the multiple choice sections)—and even more so, as I’ve been trying to say about the verbal section of the GRE, that there exists an absolute truth to be studied, memorized, and picked on an exam.

Furthermore, the vocabulary on standardized tests such as the GRE and SAT promote Western culture in such a way that I feel takes away from optimally progressing in knowledge. Words like “doublet”, “mail”, “mace”, and “foil”—of the Medieval times—are all over a practice set in my prep book. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with learning these words or about medieval times. My issue with their presence, however, is that they are words that many non-Western students would not even remotely know. Standardized tests force its test-takers to learn Euro-centric words such as these, definitions such as that of “curse” and “anxiety”, and test-taking strategies that are useless outside of their four hours of testing. Understandably, all students hoping to get into a college in the United States will take the SAT and those wishing to get into graduate school will take the GRE. Unfortunately, however, the school system of the United States is missing out from the diversity offered by the non-Western cultured community who were either not prepared to learn Western culture or chose against doing so.