All of these "aptitude" tests; only in America!

so much better when you did nothing all year and just crammed it all in at the last minute and scraped through on raw untutelaged ability alone. or bribery.

What are you talking about when? I still do that, it's one of the few skills I picked up from my years at school.

I still haven't met anyone who handed in their Uni assignments two weeks early like me. Mmm, I must be unusual.

studying for those tests to so overrated. I just got back a practice AP exam and scored higher than all the people that wasted their weekends pointlessly on studying...

Give a man fire and he'll be warm for the night. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.- Terry Prachett

The point of the subject of this thread and the cause of the proliferation of all of these aptitude tests is due to various forms of "social promotion" that has been going on in the public schools. At the tender age of third graders, some schools were advancing kids to higher grades without having gained the basic scholastic skills expected at a third grader's level. The expectation is that by making them repeat 3rd grade, they may be able to break the chain of under achievement earlier before it becomes unamanageable.

In NYC, it currently is perceived that kids promoted up from the 3rd grade who are not at 3rd grade level only proceed to fall farther behind until, at 12th grade, they become incapable of qualifying for a middle school diploma, much less one for high school.

Education and literacy are poor in many countries; even the wealthy ones. Perhaps it is a symptom of society's reliance on technology. I don't know, but speechcraft and reading are not important to the kiddies these days. I'm just glad that my father passed on his love of learning to me, or I would be a "thicko" like most of my contemporaries.

Our society has a double standard: What the school system should do to improve and deliver quality education to children versus what the school system cannot do to teach my child.

These two "attitudes" in the general public have been in contradiction to each other for decades and the "my kid is perfect" school of thought has been in dominance for a very long time. This is why social promotion became so prevalent in the first place.

Again, it falls back upon responsible, quality parenting.

as far as the British state school system is concerned, education has been a political football for decades now and schools are in serious trouble. I trained as a teacher many years ago and spent nearly two years doing part-time and supply work before jacking it in (hated it)

the National Curriculum and it's associated testing has effectively stifled learning in favour of standardised assessment which can then form "league" tables which parents can then use to identify which schools are "good" and "bad." This utterly fails to take into account catchment area, location, environment, funding, well anything really. Teachers really don't teach anymore, they simply run through the standardised curriculum regardless of whether the kids understand any of it and any guidance comes from "continuous assessment" ie none worth mentioning.

the sooner the Govt, but prob not this one, abandons the NC and SATS, and league tables, and returns to a 3-tier education system, the better off everyone will be.

@Taw- yeah, I noticed that.
My history teacher, when asked what religion Germany (WW2) was, she said Aryan. This is a teacher, you understand, not a student.
I'm also wondering why the hell we have a text book about the Cold War which contains no mention whatsoever of North Korea. After all, it did spend 4 whole pages on Vietnam.
I also think the 11+ banning was the worst mistake our country ever made. Why learn in primary school if there's no 11+? Why? I didn't revise a second for my 11+ and got about 2 questions wrong. 2 thirds of my goddamn class(and that's REALLY saying something) got As! It's easy!

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