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College entrance exam


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#1 Guest_Indio Maphioso

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Posted 07 December 2010 - 04:15 PM

In my country (Brazil), if you want to study on ANY college you will have to do an exam. They are really tough and competitive (i did one last week and failed, my score was 78 and the "worst" score that have a small chance to pass is 92. As you can see it's not for everbody...... you have to study A LOT and anything that you miss will be your nightmare during the exams.Again: Do you think they are fair? I don't know how this works on the USA, but do you think we sholud try to change this? It's not everybody that have chances to do it...Thats not all: Here in Brazil you still have to do a HUGE exam called "Enem" (something like "Secondary Education National Exam") that you have to answer 180 questions and a good wrinting in two days (during the same weekend). At least the questions are easier and i did it pretty well.What we can do to solve this problem?(I will not give up and i will try again next year...)
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#2 skulhedface

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Posted 07 December 2010 - 05:48 PM

I think college entrance exams are MORE than fair.Let's be honest, college is supposed to be (despite depictions in Animal House and the like) a prestigious place of higher, continuing education. People go to college to become doctors, lawyers, businessmen, nurses, accountants, etc, etc, etc. These are people who are all required to be very intelligent, and these tests are designed to make sure you can hack your chosen profession. Put it this way-- I would rather die than be operated on by a doctor who couldn't have passed that entrance exam. If anything, I don't think some of these exams are hard enough, really.This bleeds into another topic I was thinking about-- cheating, academically. Bringing back this theoretical doctor, how comforting is it to think about if you're about to be operated on by a doctor who, on his own merits, is no medically smarter than you are? Maybe he got through medical school by cheating. I know this is a ludicrous example, but it's not too far fetched. You can become an LPN (nurse, if you're unfamiliar) with simply two years of buckle-down technical college education. Sure, some of these nurses do hands-on training, but a good majority of it is academic, and if you luck your way past the hands on part, but cheat through the academia, you're being seen by a nurse (who, barring surgery, interact with you far more than doctors do) who got through college by cheating, but is actually medically stupider than you. THAT'S a frightening thought, to have watched an episode of House and still know more medicinally than a nurse that coasted her way through a two year program.Leading back to the original post's point, this is why I think college entrance exams, extended to other colleges (community and technical) should be HARDER. Taken in small groups, none sitting closer than five feet from each other, with absolutely no cell phones or notes allowed.
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#3 Guest_Indio Maphioso

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Posted 07 December 2010 - 06:07 PM

You said somthing important: Sometimes cheating will tell who you really are. In my region the education quality is poor and cheating is as common as water in the ocean. How can people still do something like this! Cheating destroy any kind of fair on these exams (looks like some of the people who scored 100+ on the same exam i did cheated and were eliminated, that's why the "worst" scored 92).This is the sad reality...
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#4 Guest_lazilicous

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Posted 15 December 2010 - 05:11 AM

I think I will agree with skulheadface...for here in our country, Philippines, thgere are a lot of schools and universities offering the same...and we can distinguish those who are studying in the schools having entrance examinations and with those who have none,the trend here is that, students coming from universities with no entrance examinations sometime show intellectual lags, in the sense that they do not value education as much as the other students do...they also develop vices that are very particular with those schools...I think, having a college entrance examinations is just fair to limit those kind of students and at the same time, they could have a challenge on striving harder the next time they take the exams.:D
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#5 Guest_xxrsd462e

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Posted 18 December 2010 - 06:10 AM

It is fair.The primary purpose of college entrance exams is to trim the number of students who are able enough to study putting aside the tuition fee factor. Entrance exams are suppose to be a 'survival of the fittest' where only the deserving gets its best. >.< and besides, all of you took the same test perhaps your best is not the best for them. ;) GPs were deducted for this post, please read the rules! - Kiba
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#6 Mighty Falcon

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Posted 18 December 2010 - 11:09 AM

I think it's fair especially it is required in prestigious universities. It really depends on how the universities created their questionnaires (I heard that there are some students say that the college they're entered have easy tests, but it's unconfirmed yet) . If anybody gets a lower score, they shouldn't give up and it's not the end of the world. Another reason there are major exam is because they will test the students how intelligent or skillful they are. I found out that some universities with entrance exams have lower tuition fees and high quality of education compare to other colleges. I went to a computer college that doesn't require E.E. before but the tuition is higher.

Edited by Mighty Falcon, 18 December 2010 - 11:22 AM.

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^ Read that, not this.


#7 Guest_carinchen

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Posted 24 December 2010 - 01:23 PM

We don't have that in Norway. What college you get into depends on how good you did in high school. Love that system =]GPs were deducted for this post, please read the rules! - jamzemu
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#8 Guest_teenNet

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Posted 28 December 2010 - 11:20 PM

entrance exams do seem annoying at first but if you look at it as a whole, they are needed. college is a place for higher education, emphasis on the higher. if they let everyone in, it wouldn't be known as higher education. it's also a way of determining who can handle college. take the MCAT's (medical college admissions test) for example. If someone scored low on that test, they're are pretty much showing that they can not handle the extra four years of tough schooling if they can't even handle that one test. one test is nothing compared to what a person will go through in college. each exam just separates the weak from the strong and in the end, the strong, also the brightest and smartest ones, graduate with a degree and can be proud to say that they were able to tackle on the amount of work they received and show how much they learned in the end.
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#9 Guest_radiusn

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Posted 18 March 2011 - 07:48 AM

I don't think it is fair because your potential cannot be seen by paper examination alone, but it is the fastest and cheapest form of exam than any other method.GPs were deducted for this post, please read the rules! - tedsb16
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#10 sakred

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Posted 25 March 2011 - 06:52 AM

Living in America, I feel as though the education system is seriously lacking. I never had to take any sort of college entrance exam and my elligibility had to do with what GPA I got in my highschool years with a sub par education. I think that an entrance exam would be cool as long as the examination pertains to the general knowledge needed to get into the college and is not biased in any way. The entrance exam should be unique for each college but certain topics should be standardized worldwide and nationwide.
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#11 The Mothman

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Posted 26 March 2011 - 09:44 AM

I personally think college entrance exams are unnecessary. They seem to lack any purpose, and it is one of many reasons why people don't get accepted to "major" universities (Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc.). For one thing, academics are only one part of intellectual development. Anybody with a brain can study for a test and get excellent grades on their report card; this is if they choose to do so. However, being "book smart" is nothing like hands-on experience.Pursuing your career requires this! The entrance exams require you to be book smart, and requirements needed to pass it lack any practicality in the real world (unless if some of the subject matter is involved in your chosen career path, which I will admit is very crucial). How is knowing Napoleon's date of birth going to help you perform surgery on a dying hospital patient? It won't! Just because a person makes bad grades in high school doesn't mean he is a numbskull with no learning capabilities. Psychopaths can excel grade-wise and earn a degree. Judging one person based on a number is not good enough to assure that the person has no hope of being successful in college.Speaking of which, why even care about things like this? When you go to college, aren't you supposed to be more responsible? My professors wouldn't give a damn if I skipped each class and flunked, and the college would be getting paid no matter the circumstance. If a person wants to attend college, he should be held accountable for his choices, in the classroom and off-campus. My point is that there is no certainty that people shouldn't be judged based on their knowledge of "who won this war," or whatever. I even have friends who managed to get a scholarship for athletics, and in high school they didn't even have an impressive report card each nine weeks! They're more serious about schoolwork than they've ever been, and it is not a matter of being book smart, but rather the idea that college paves the way for their future professions. That is what sets the two forms of knowledge apart from each other. You go to college to learn what you need to do to succeed, and it isn't just about being "intellectually significant" in the public eye.

Edited by The Mothman, 26 March 2011 - 09:46 AM.

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#12 Guest_barjinder

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Posted 01 April 2011 - 07:30 PM

They never are fair and never will be... A test cannot determine ones potential... Where I live there is a Diploma Exam at the end of each semester, they are worth 50% of the entire grade, is it fair to have an entire semesters work to be weighed equal to 1 test?
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