Asshole Colleges Create “Collegiate Exit Exam”
12 years ago

The Council for Aid to Education thinks there isn’t enough quality information to gauge if undergraduates are actually learning anything. So, in order to really put things in perspective and see past those test scores that apparently are completely unreliable- they made another test.

“The test will measure analysis, problem solving, writing, quantitative reasoning and reading, the Council for Aid to Education said.

“It could serve a similar role to the admission exams that graduate schools rely on as a standard evaluation for their applicants.”

“Employers want to see something they can rely on,” Poliakoff said. “They don’t want to see a portfolio of things that show a candidate may or may not have done.”

“A dirty secret about higher education for a very long while is, we’ve had no particularly good ways of knowing the most important thing, and that is whether students are learning,”

So far a handful of colleges have already adopted the test and I have to say, I’m really stoked…that I already graduated. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure a “good way of knowing” whether or not students are learning from their classes is the tests…that they take…at the end of the class.

If a grade point average and existing standardized tests aren’t reliable enough, how is stacking ANOTHER test going to actually accomplish anything? As for prospective employers, I’m pretty sure the whole reference check and interview processes are fairly reliable. If you go through an entire interview and the kid can’t navigate his way through a simple conversation where they have to explain what they’ve done then, uh, don’t hire that person.

This is all incredibly stupid.

[via NBC News]

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    2. Rihanna Deserved It

      i honestly don’t feel like i learned shit in my 5 years of being an undergrad. somethin like this would validate that i either did indeed learn stuff, or that i’ve skated by with an easy major and an adderall prescription. this seems like a step in the right direction towards measuring how much people learn.

      12 years ago at 10:57 am
    4. Apathy

      Your gpa is a measure of your work ethic, not your intelligence. That is why people care about it

      12 years ago at 2:22 pm
  3. Frat A Hayek

    I think it’s actually a smart idea. I went to a southern school with a strong regional reputation but a virtually non-existent one outside of the eastern seaboard (other than it’s sports). My school is also notorious for grade deflation and exceptionally challenging classes. Though I was significantly more prepared than kids I know from higher ranked schools, my GPA made it look like I wasn’t. I’d have fucking rocked an exit exam.

    12 years ago at 10:39 am
  5. RageEveryDay

    Good idea, it’s not like all the students have been taking different courses to fit their major or anything. Also they say they want the exam to “serve a similar role to the admission exams that graduate schools rely on”. Any one who has taken the GRE (for Grad School) knows that exam is just as easy as the SAT

    12 years ago at 11:24 am
  9. Thad_Castle

    “A dirty secret about higher education for a very long while is, we’ve had no particularly good ways of knowing the most important thing, and that is whether students are learning.”

    That’s because most colleges don’t want everyone knowing that the real answer is fuck no.

    12 years ago at 1:41 am
  10. 0bid0offeronfucks

    A couple of questions:

    1. How can employers expect to take a raw score and apply them to a given job. It seems that it may be an unnecessary barrier to entry.
    2. Given that employers, HR specifically, will have minimum cutoff standards it appears that several qualified candidates may not receive interviews.
    3. As a person who has hired people, I would much rather hire someone that can learn quickly than a person who tests well but is unable to adapt to a given situation
    4. How standardized can these tests really be? Seriously? The ACT/SAT/GMAT can hardly qualify as standardized tests anymore; if they could Kaplan wouldn’t be able to charge an arm and a leg for prep courses.
    5. When are these tests going to be given? For full effect I assume it would be just after graduation when a graduate is screaming thank God almighty I’m free at last. Is it really fair to the recent graduate to force them to take a test in the drunken stupor that is the post graduation weeks? How will this effect them 10, 20 and 30 years down the road? Will this lead to low efficiency in the work place – I say yes.

    12 years ago at 10:17 am