There are signs up at my school advertising exam prep courses. They say that they cover all the major exams - LSAT, MCAT, Soap Carving, GRE, the whole works.
WTF, asked one of my friends, is "soap carving" on the list for?
So I looked it up. It turns out that soap carving is an actual part of the Canadian DAT (Dental Aptitude Test). When you take the test, they give you a piece of soap and a knife and a picture and you have to carve the soap to match the object shown in the picture. It's supposed to show that you have the necessary manual dexterity to be a good dentist. People planning to take the test spend a lot of time practicing their soap carving skills in order to do well on this part of the test.
I emailed my friend to explain the matter, but he had forgotten our previous conversation, and he assumed that I must be drunk and sending out random emails for the hell of it.
Does it mention that ETS has always had a whole load of tests aimed at general college applicants with essay questions and such (the "Achievement Tests")? It's always seemed to me that their recent dinking with the SAT just amounts to swapping parts of the English Achievement Test into it, though I could be mistaken without actually taking the revised test.
The article says that ETS is changing the test because if they don't California will stop requiring it for its state colleges. According to the article, California is concerned that too much time is spent currently teaching to the SAT. I'm not sure how using essay questions instead of analogies addresses that concern, but apparently both ETS and California think it does.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2004-08-17 01:48 pm (UTC)WTF, asked one of my friends, is "soap carving" on the list for?
So I looked it up. It turns out that soap carving is an actual part of the Canadian DAT (Dental Aptitude Test). When you take the test, they give you a piece of soap and a knife and a picture and you have to carve the soap to match the object shown in the picture. It's supposed to show that you have the necessary manual dexterity to be a good dentist. People planning to take the test spend a lot of time practicing their soap carving skills in order to do well on this part of the test.
I emailed my friend to explain the matter, but he had forgotten our previous conversation, and he assumed that I must be drunk and sending out random emails for the hell of it.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-17 04:44 pm (UTC)Which option is closest to "the writer of this piece should be sent back to high school"?
And for that matter, is for or agin' this whole thing?
no subject
Date: 2004-08-17 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-17 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-18 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-18 10:00 am (UTC)The article says that ETS is changing the test because if they don't California will stop requiring it for its state colleges. According to the article, California is concerned that too much time is spent currently teaching to the SAT. I'm not sure how using essay questions instead of analogies addresses that concern, but apparently both ETS and California think it does.