100% Failure Rate On University of Liberia's Admission Exam 308
slew writes "Apparently none of the 24K+ students who sat for the 2013 Liberia University entrance exam got a passing mark, and fewer than a hundred managed to pass either the english (pass level 70%) or math (pass level 50%) sections required to qualify to be part of the normal class of 2k-3k students admitted every year... Historically, the pass rate has been about 20-30% and in recent years, the test has been in multiple-guess format to facilitate grading. The mathematics exam generally focuses on arithmetic, geometry, algebra, analytical geometry and elementary statistic and probability; while the English exam generally focuses on grammar, sentence completion, reading comprehension and logical reasoning. However, as a testament to the over-hang of a civil war, university over-crowding, corruption, social promotion, the admission criteria was apparently temporarily dropped to 40% math and 50% English to allow the provisional admission of about 1.6K students. And people are calling foul."
Re:What is the real problem here? (Score:4, Interesting)
The test isn't the goal, selecting students for admission is the goal.
Really? Selecting candidates that don't have the prerequisite knowledge to understand what's being taught? Wouldn't this be a waste of time/money?
Classics inaccessible for students .. (Score:4, Interesting)
"For American college students, 1990 appears to be a historical cliff beyond which it is rumored some books were once written, though no one is quite sure what. Why have US colleges decided that the best way to introduce their students to higher learning is through comic books, lite lit, and memoirs?" link [theguardian.com]
Failed State (Score:4, Interesting)
Liberia is a failed state, ranking 174 (of 187 countries) in the Human Development Index. Probably, somebody has manipulated the admission exam for his own profit. Reminds me a bit of Robert Mugabe winning the lottery [bbc.co.uk].
FP (Score:4, Interesting)
Liberia is in Africa, so it must be the former colonial power's fault.
Re:One more reason that such systems make no sense (Score:5, Interesting)
There's different ways to deal with that. The university I studied at allowed anyone to enter the first year. You could however only proceed to the second year if you completed the first year with a minimum score.
IMHO this is more fair than an entrance exam because you get judged on your ability to keep up with the particular program, not on how shitty your previous school/program was.
Re:One more reason that such systems make no sense (Score:4, Interesting)
For all the overqualification we get "on paper", we french still have the poorest understanding of economics in the entire OECD, and it shows in the polls and election results. Where else in the western world can there be overtly authoritarian communist candidates to the presidency or representative elections raking in a two-digit percentage of voters ? Defiance towards politicians is on a all-time high in France, yet they are the ones we turn to in order to fix all our problems.
You're right that we are more vindicative and aren't prone to political apathy, but it's clearly not helping when it's radical politicians who stand to be the only beneficiaries. If I were to summarize the mainstream french political sentiment, it would seem completely schizophrenic:
- we want more money individually, but do not want prices to inflate nor income discrepancies to increase,
- we want to determine our lives and be free of bureaucracy yet clamor for more government regulation with every bad news,
- we want more public expenses but do not want to deprive the private sector of the funds it needs to create jobs and wealth.
I'm pretty sure some of it will sound familiar to Americans.
Re:One more reason that such systems make no sense (Score:5, Interesting)
In the states you can sort of get through high school without too much effort.
In my case, almost 0 effort. I never did homework. I rarely worked on anything school related outside of school, and only if it was on a topic that interested me. I started skipping school in 5th grade (I have older brothers who I can thank for teaching me those tricks), and missed hundreds of days of high school. And yet I graduated and went on to university. The problem is definitely the slow kids. I had no interest in honors or AP classes that gave you homework throughout the summer. I didn't want more homework, I wanted to learn more during the school year. In university, I was much more motivated.
It was more challenging, most professors refused to coddle the slow or lazy students. I went from barely graduating high school to being in the top 1% of the #1 Community College in the US (at that time), to a regular university, where I graduated with honors. All because I felt like there was a purpose in showing up every day. Its amazing what a little trial and tribulation can do to make you rise up and succeed.
Re:One more reason that such systems make no sense (Score:5, Interesting)
For all the overqualification we get "on paper", we french still have the poorest understanding of economics in the entire OECD, and it shows in the polls and election results.
Except the US, who expects the free market to solve all problems.
Where else in the western world can there be overtly authoritarian communist candidates to the presidency or representative elections raking in a two-digit percentage of voters ?
Somewhere where they're informed enough to realize authoritarian capitalism isn't any better.
Defiance towards politicians is on a all-time high in France, yet they are the ones we turn to in order to fix all our problems.
And who else is going to do it? If we're going to work together to solve our problems, government is how we do that. The only other alternative is to surrender to the rapacious greed of the rich.
- we want more money individually, but do not want prices to inflate nor income discrepancies to increase,
Nothing wrong with that. When there is such vast income disparity like that in the US, bringing everyone closer to the average would increase almost everyone's economic status. For those whos status would decrease, boo fucking hoo.
- we want to determine our lives and be free of bureaucracy yet clamor for more government regulation with every bad news,
What we really want is regulation that works and is enforced. That corporate owned cronies in government have passed regulations designed to not work, and deliberately fail to enforce the ones that do doesn't mean regulation is bad.
- we want more public expenses but do not want to deprive the private sector of the funds it needs to create jobs and wealth.
Providing services to those who need them will increase the funds available to the private sector. When you give aid to the poor, they spend it. That money goes directly to the bottom line of businesses, allowing them to create jobs. Give aid to the rich like the US does, and they just sit on it.
In other words, France only has the "poorest understanding of economics in the entire OECD" if you're a free market fundamentalist. That's like a creationist saying that France has the "poorest understanding of evolution".