7 Students arrested in SAT cheating scheme

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Abner, Sep 29, 2011.

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  1. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

  2. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    cha-ching, $2500 for a test? Wow. I wonder why the students cheated. I'm not so shocked that they did, kids do that if they think they can get away with it, but I really wonder "why?" To get into a great school? No, because their high school records were all poor. Really, what's the point? Any kid can transfer from any random CC nowdays, I guess I don't really get how it's worth it? Smart kid is going to jail for 4 years though, maybe he'll be allowed to do DL while locked up <smirk>. Clearly he's ready planning a career in business.
     
  3. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Or politics, law or milliversity education.
     
  4. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    Milliversity!?!?

    :You_Rock_Emoticon:
     
  5. artichoke50

    artichoke50 New Member

    I really don't see a point in cheating anyways. Not only is it morally wrong, but even if they did pass their way through "purchased grades" to get into a great school they will have no knowledge to get through it.
     
  6. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef


    Maybe, but I think you'll find plenty of supporting arguments against standardized tests being accurate predictors of academic success.
     
  7. jts

    jts New Member

    How about a case study:

    I had a 29 on my ACTs back in 1997, my junior year of HS. Perfect--36--in both English and Reading Comprehension. I dropped out of the local technical college four times, to the point where I don't think they'd have taken me back again... and my Mom worked for them. :) It took me more than 10 years after HS to finally earn my B.S.

    Another data point: I had a high school G.P.A. below 2.0, and graduated last in my class. (At least, I hope I graduated last in my class...)

    It was a discipline and attitude problem, in my case. I would guess that a G.P.A. is a much better predictor of "conformity and subservience" (as I might have put it, back in the day) than standardized testing. Some of us test well, but make up for it by being phenomenally lazy and uninterested in organized education. :)

    Tom
     
  8. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    Thanks for sharing that Tom. I'll give you one too. I scored an 18 on my ACT. (I think that's failing lol) Youth? Nope. Fast forward 20 years, I also scored low on most of the CLEPs I've taken (which I'd also argue never really has correlated with how well I understand a subject IMO). Just not a test person. I did, however, earn 2 associate degrees and 1 bachelor degree- only got 2 B's in college (first degree) and 1 B in my last AA/BA combo and while I've dropped out of grad school, my grad GPA is still a 4.0 <shrug> I'm a good "student" but that's never the whole story lol! People are more than a number, and more than a GPA.
     
  9. jts

    jts New Member

    Absolutely agree. Multiple choice tests in particular are silly, and often telegraph the answer.

    Example: I took some silly math (arithmetic, actually) placement test recently as part of an employment testing thing (work study--I ended up not qualifying for financial reasons), and scored in the 98th percentile or something stupid like that. (And I'm not, trust me, in the 98th percentile in manual arithmetic!)

    Here's how I did it: With some of the harder questions I simply picked the most likely answer and worked backwards to see if it fit in the question. It was an adaptive test, and the questions got harder and harder and oh so impressively harder until you were multiplying fractions divided by other fractions that were being mugged by still more fractions in a back alley... and it's been 10 years since I've done anything with a fraction besides converting it into a civilized decimal number... and argh! :headache:

    Point being, I basically used the test against itself, and didn't really "deserve" that score. I suppose, though, that being devious really does count for something in our society. :wiggle:

    Getting back on point, our society places a large value on "credentials," and quite a lot of it may well be misplaced. What does having a degree truly mean? What do grades represent? If not knowledge retention, then what? And how important is knowledge retention, truly, in a civilization with most of the world's knowledge a Google search away?

    No answers... just questions. :)

    Tom
     
  10. ryoder

    ryoder New Member

    I agree that too much is placed on credentials and easily quantifiable numbers. People sort of make fun of USF in Tampa because of its lowish ranking but I know you can get a high quality education there. They say UF is better than FSU and FSU is better than UT and UT is better than USF. Who freaking cares about these quantitative assessments of a school. I know I don't.
     

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