Apparently Cambridge University admissions officers have broken free of the stultifying multiple-choice exams and predictable student essays of the type that are used in college admissions over here. Ananova has a sampling of the, er, "creative" questions that hopeful Cambridgians and Oxfordians must answer:
A new survey shows a Cambridge University admissions tutor asked a candidate if the moon is made of cheese...The survey of 1,000 Oxbridge candidates also shows would-be Oxford law students had to compare Timotei and Tesco own-brand shampoos.
According to the Daily Mail, a candidate wanting to study medicine at Cambridge was told: "Convince me to watch you do a dance performance."
Oxford University claim their questions are intended to test applicants' ability to think laterally, form a logical argument and express themselves coherently.
A spokesman said: "It would just be to see how a student reacts to something they haven't been taught.
Well, yes, I suppose they haven't been taught that - but isn't Oxford interested in what the kids have been taught? And how does one figure out a scoring rubric for this type of item?
Fark.com has a link to pay-subscription-only article about these items. I can't access it, but Fark does note that:
Sample question for Cambridge University applicants: "Plants do not have brains because they cannot walk." Discuss. (Question 5)
Yeah, guess that involves "lateral" thinking. So much for learning trigonometry....
Both Jane Galt and Joanne Jacobs have more on the British system of higher education, which has been steadily lowering its standards so that more kids can attend college. Joanne quotes the following graf:
Where else in the world can students prepare for university without needing to study any of the following: maths, their native language and literature, natural sciences or a foreign language? Where else can students meet college entry requirements while shunning all the difficult subjects and opting instead for an ersatz combination such as media studies, sociology and sport?
With Britain's "pick and mix" curriculum, I suppose the Cambridge officials have to design admission tests to measure things that aren't taught, since there's no guarantee that Cambridge's applicants have any educational knowledge in common.
Posted by kswygert at August 18, 2003 10:16 AM