All through high school I had really high standards for myself. Not
the grades, mind you (I admit, humblebrag, my grades were always
uncomfortably high, probably as an expected but still sad byproduct of
this process (yes, I’m actually complaining about grades being too high.
I don’t want my report card to have lots of Bs or Cs, but I really
didn’t need to pour enough resources into schoolwork that I graduated as
valedictorian, when there were so many other personally and socially
meaningful things I could be dedicating effort into creating — but
that’s a subject for another post (humblebrags all the way down.
Somebody get some internet pitchforks and poke some sense into me))),
but simply how I managed my time for doing homework.
In my opinion: not very well. I always spent too much time surfing
the internet and doing things less urgent than homework, then ended up
sleeping at midnight or one o’clock or whenever often to finish what I
should have done earlier.
And yet, compared to many of my friends (definitely not all, though),
that’s not late at all and the amount of buffer time I had between
finishing work and having it due was positively luxurious. But then, I
suppose, I didn’t have the same amount of math homework. But to counter
my excuse, I had additional responsibilities such as practicing olympiad
problems and preparing weekend presentations and translating the school
newsletter. So I don’t actually know if my workload was significantly
lighter than average or not, ergo I don’t know whether my time
management skills were significantly better than average or not. It
seriously doesn’t feel like they would be.
And allegedly, even when I’m procrastinating, it’s more productive
than my friends’ procrastination, maybe even
Paul Graham’s good
type of procrastination. Often when I gripe about how much my former
self procrastinated they will ask me what I’ve been doing and, after
hearing the answer, tell me this. What have I done to put off homework?
Oh, I did some olympiad math problems, committed to my GitHub projects,
read a bunch of programming blogs, organized my old chemistry notes from
two years ago, and surfed the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Yeah.
Total waste of time. Meanwhile certain friends surf 9GAG whenever they
get the chance. (Which is not to say that I don’t procrastinate in
obviously unproductive ways sometimes — I surf reddit, YouTube, and
TVTropes of course. Sometimes I even just read my own blog or dig
through old folders in my computer. I’m weird. But anyway.)
我本來還想把這一篇用英文跟中文各打一次來實際比較看看,但這已經被困在草稿匣夠久了。一直做重複、吹毛求疵、沒有效率的修改本來就是我寫心情文時的弊病,如果再要求修改時要保持兩種語言版本的同步的話,大概寫到天荒地老都寫不完。(如果讀者沒有讀過我最近亂發的文章,故事都是這樣的:我覺得我在草稿匣累積了太多寫一半的文章,所以在畢業後,我在六月十一號決定從那天開始每天發文,直到我出國,目的是強迫自己把那些草稿寫完,中間還亂發很多其他我本來大概不會寫下來的東西。其實還滿有成就感的。另外,如果你的中文沒有很爛的話,如果你在任何地方認為我寫的中文不流暢或是可以寫得更好,請毫不留情的留言批評。這也是一件我發現我在寫中文方面很缺乏的經驗,我會很感謝。當然,根據以往經驗,懇求讀者留言沒什麼機會成功。)
If you came to this blog or this post hoping to read English, sorry
not sorry. It’s only fair, really, given how many people on Facebook
can’t read the massive English textwall posts I’ve spammed them with for
so long.
常常有人訝異我的英文這麼好。有時候這些人還會問我怎麼學的--碰到這種問題我都不知道要怎麼回答。喔,很簡單啊,只要選擇在一個主要說英文的國家出生,然後跟一群從國外回來的同學一起讀有80%的課是用英文上的學校連續讀十二年就好了。
偶爾也有人知道我是雙語部的或在不同的情況下認識我,反而會覺得我的中文比他們預期的好,例如我的駕訓班教練。其實我在雙語部還是上了十二年的國文課,進度理論上跟其他學校一樣(「理論上」三個字要強調),我也跟身旁很多親戚朋友用中文溝通了更久。比奧林匹亞競賽的經驗應該也讓我認識的上普通國語教學學校的學生,比其他雙語部同學認識的多。所以這應該也不奇怪吧。
但是。其實我對這兩個語言的精熟度其實還是差很多。日常對話沒問題,不過我對英文細枝末節的部分瞭解的比中文多太多太多了。家裡有不止一本「常見英語錯誤」類的書,我小時候會當小說讀--我是一個很奇怪的人。在學校課程中,我編輯自己或他人的英文文章是一天到晚的事情,什麼奇怪的句子跟構造都碰過、想過、修理過。還有些時候,我會很自然的寫出一個英文單字,然後發現我不知道為什麼自己會知道這個單字的意思,但就是有一種感覺告訴我,對,subsist的意思就是「存活於只有最基本的需求被滿足的情況」。跟中文比較:有時候,直覺也會告訴我有某一個成語是可以用的,但我只能清楚想到這個成語的兩、三個字。聽起來很「對」,不過我就是想不到第四個字是什麼,或是怕前三個字換成錯別字,再加上懷疑整個成語意思根本不是我模糊腦袋裡現在浮現的,因為我認得這些字字面上的意思,但無法說服自己為什麼它們合在一起可以解釋成這種意思,最後只好放棄,用國小白話文的措詞就好了。
「總覺得,我在用任何偏離國小程度的白話文的詞彙的時候都是假裝的。」
我在舊一點的草稿寫出了這個句子,不過那一串「的」字讓我覺得怪怪的,現在想想,沒有人跟我討論過寫出這種或其他奇怪的句子時應該怎麼辦。哪一些「的」可以省略?有辦法把句子重寫(recast)避開嗎?還是不管它,我覺得它聽起來很奇怪純粹是錯覺,多讀一點中文就會發現根本沒什麼大不了的?
使用兩種語言的方法也差很多。看看這個部落格就知道了。我相信我在學校雙語部外的大部分台灣朋友不會試著去理解我關於自己長篇大論的英文作文,但長篇大論的文章還是我最認真表達自己的地方。反觀我的中文短文,都通常是那種搞笑、釣讚、裝弱的文。(不,我真的很弱。)我不時會發現自己在網上逛到一個陌生人的心情文,看得津津有味。我們之間的關係頂多是朋友的朋友的朋友,我只知道我跟他應該都喜歡數學這個共同點罷了,但因為語言,我在那些瞬間覺得自己瞭解他勝於瞭解幾乎所有在我身邊講中文的朋友。我自己怎麼看這件事都覺得不合理,有點慚愧。
我回去讀了我第一次寫的關於雙語的文章,可能有一點過火:後來證實,在我的朋友中似乎真的有會純粹為了抒發感情而寫七言律詩的人。而且,我講中文的朋友圈裡,文學類佔的比例本來就應該比他們在整個社會裡佔的比例少很多。在學校跟在生活裡,吸收英文多於中文(而且數學多於英文)是我做的選擇,只是我自己不知道選擇的中介點好不好罷了。是否,我花在跟講中文的親戚朋友互動的力氣不夠?
If you remember, Part 1 was
here and my goal is to construct a theoretical system of
standardized tests that I would be satisfied by. Here’s what I’ve got.
As usual, because of the daily
posting streak I have openly committed to, standard disclaimers
apply.
-
We’d have a first-tier test like the SAT, except this will be
explicitly designed not to distinguish among
the high performers.
The goal of the test is to assess basic proficiency in
reading, writing, and mathematics. Nothing else. Most good students,
those who have a shot at “good colleges” and know it, will be able to
ace this test with minimal effort and can spend their time studying for
other things or engaging in other pursuits. Students who don’t will
still have to study and it will probably be boring, but the hope is
that, especially if you’re motivated to get into a good college, there
won’t be much of that studying.
For colleges, the intention of this test is to allow them to require
this test score from everybody without having to
put
up disclaimers that go like,
there is really not a difference in our process between someone who
scores, say, a 740 on the SAT math, and someone who scores an 800 on the
SAT math. So why, as the commentor asks, is there such a difference in
the admit rate? Aha! Clearly we DO prefer higher SAT
scores!
Well no, we don’t. What we prefer are things which may coincide
with higher SAT scores…
Life update: I got my driver’s license from the place where I learned
to drive. Then I drove home from there with my mom, and it was zarking
terrifying.
Also, WordPress says it has protected my blog from 38 spam
comments.
Early in the morning tomorrow, I have a small surgical operation, so
I can’t sleep too late. (Well, it ended up being pretty late anyway.
Darn.) Therefore I think I’m going to do something unprecedented on this
blog for the daily posting
streak: I’m going to post an incomplete non-expository post.
Yes, the only purpose of the title is to get initials that are four
consecutive letters of the alphabet..
One of the more argumentative post sequences on my blog involved
ranting against standardized tests.
My very first stab was probably the
silly satire directed at the
test everybody has to take that takes up two hours per day of an entire
week. Once college became a thing in my life, I wrote a
humblebrag rant after I took the
SAT and then a summary post
after I snagged this subject for an English class research paper and
finished said paper.
It should be plenty clear that I am not ranting against this part of
the system because it’s disadvantageous to me.
But it should also be said that I’ve read some convincing arguments
for using standardized tests more in college admissions
(Pinker,
then Aaronson).
Despite the imperfections of tests, they argue, the alternatives are
likely to be less fair and more easily gamed. The fear that selecting
only high test-scorers will yield a class of one-dimensional boring
thinkers is unfounded. And the idea that standardized tests “reduce a
human being to a number” may be uncomfortable for some, but it makes no
sense to prioritize avoiding a vague feeling of discomfort over trusting
reliable social science studies. Neither article, you will note,
advocates selecting all of one’s college admits based on
highest score. Just a certain unspecified proportion, one that’s
probably a lot larger than it is today.
And although I wish the first article linked its studies, I mostly
agree with their arguments. So this puts me in a tricky position. These
positions I’ve expressed seem hard to reconcile! So, after arguing about
all this with a friend who told me things like
I think you fail to understand how anti-intellectual american society is
(comments on this statement are also welcome) I think some
clarifications and updates on how I feel are in order.
Late post. As usual.
It started with an online competition — write programs, solve
problems, get points. I wouldn’t call the problems easy, but they
weren’t hard either. So I solved all of them. To make it even less
impressive, only about twenty people submitted anything at all.
But the result was just what it was: I ended up with a free ticket to
PyCon APAC 2014.
I’d prefer a conference about a more functional programming language,
but I’ll take what I get. Another adventure!
First, I got worked up about the test. Then I got a score and ranted
about it on this blog. (I’m still uncertainly hoping that didn’t come
off as arrogant. Let me add, I did not get a perfect PSAT.) Then a
friend pitched to me the idea that I write an article about it for my
school newspaper, which I did. It was far too long. As if that weren’t
enough, I then decided to examine whether the SAT was an accurate
prediction of “academic ability and success” for my English research
paper. Now I’ve come full circle to this blog, where I’m going to try to
synthesize and conclude everything, free of the shackles of the research
paper format, to allow me to move on with my life. This post contains
bits lifted from all three essays and lots of new stuff; I’ve been
editing it for so long that I feel like I have it memorized. Its word
count is around that of the newspaper article plus the research
paper, i.e. far far far too long.
But whatever, nobody reads this blog anyway and I have to get this
out of my system. When I said I wanted to “move on with my life”, I
really meant my winter homework. Oops!
Disclaimer: I am not an admissions officer. I have
not yet even been accepted to a prestigious university (despite rumors
to the contrary…), for whatever definition of “prestigious”, unlike some
of the bloggers I’m referencing. So some of this is pure speculation. On
the other hand, some of it is researched and referenced, and I think the
pure speculation still makes sense. That’s why I’m posting it.
Okay, here we go…
Let’s start with the question of accurate prediction. The SAT is a
useful predictor, but not as useful as one might assume. Intuitively, it
ought to be more accurate than other metrics because it’s a
standardized test, whereas GPAs other awards vary by habits of
teacher and region and are hard to compare objectively. But as a
study
from the College Board itself (PDF) found:
the correlation of HSGPA [high-school GPA] and FYGPA [first-year GPA in
college] is 0.36 (Adj. r = 0.54), which is slightly higher than the
multiple correlation of the SAT (critical reading, math, and writing
combined) with FYGPA (r = 0.35, Adj. r = 0.53).
Of course, that doesn’t mean the SAT is worthless, because combining
the SAT score and high school GPA results in a more accurate metric than
either one alone. But by “more accurate” I refer to a marginal
improvement of 0.08 correlation.
Note from the future, 2017-11-25: I am fairly
unhappy with this rant as it stands — it makes many points I still agree
with, but it just sounds sooo pretentious — but it is one of very few
posts to actually receive a link from an external post I’m aware of, so
I am letting it stand for historical interest. I wrote this years ago;
please don’t take it out of context.
I have to admit, I got unhealthily worked up about getting this
score.
For the purposes of college, I only ever wanted a score that wouldn’t
be a deal-breaker — anything above 2300 would be enough. Any other time
I had left would be better spent in other endeavors. Such endeavors
might help on the college app, but more importantly, I’d also get to
enjoy them.
So why am I here? Partly it’s because my classmates got worked up
about it. Somebody specifically requested me to post my score somewhere.
And partly it’s because there couldn’t be a better way at the moment to
establish my authority to (yet again) rant against standardized tests
here.
“I like fantasy books! I used to read a lot of Eoin Colfer.”
“What does that mean, used to? You don’t read anymore?
That’s so sa-a-a-ad…”
Our teacher and I had this conversation during our first English
class, and I realized I agreed with her. Well, no, of course I still
read: news articles, r/AskReddit threads, and the books we get assigned
in class. But not fiction, almost. As I later mentioned to my teacher, I
followed Sam Hughes’ Ra avidly
(something I highly recommend). That was it.
What does my present self still think of Eoin Colfer? Although I
adored the Artemis Fowl books when I was younger, my interest
faded, but not before I had recommended it to my sister. The
conversation spurred me to get out the seventh Artemis Fowl book,
which I had stopped reading halfway through a year ago, and finish it.
It was still true that I didn’t like it as much, because I couldn’t feel
the high stakes strongly in the book and I found that the joking asides
compounded the problem. But a few days later, when we took a trip to the
Taipei library, I found the eighth book and borrowed it, plowing through
nine-tenths of the book before we left. The ending seemed to be happy
but still felt counterintuitively poignant for me. In any case, I had
closure.
So what’s the lesson? Authors vary in output too. I was naïve to
suppose that because I found this book boring, I had outgrown all books
that were even vaguely similar. In the same trip, I also borrowed a
bunch of other random fantasy books, plus a realistic fiction book about
a teenage pregnancy, just for kicks. It turned out to be surprisingly
good. In a week, I read four books, cover to cover, despite a typical
load of homework and chemo.
Any excuses I made before about not having enough time simply don’t
hold water. Still, I have yet to figure out if this sort of reading is
sustainable, because not every book is so engrossing. Far from it…
Parts of this (a majority of questions, I hope) are intended as
satire. Other parts of this are silliness created to blow off steam from
being coerced into spending nine unproductive hours. Still other parts
exist simply because I wanted to have equally many questions per test.
Also, 256th post w00t. (2019
edit: after the migration, this post count is wildly incorrect, but
whatever.)
“Verbal Reasoning”
Directions: The questions in this test are multiple-choice.
Each question has four possible choices. Read each question and decide
which answer is the best answer. Find the row in your answer sheet that
matches the number of the question. In that row, fill in the oval
corresponding to the answer you selected.
This is beautiful. Why do they have to make it sound all mysterious and difficult? That’s (the reciprocal of) the golden ratio, by the way.
Transcript since the resolution is far from awesome: “Most angiosperms have alternate phyllotaxy, with leaves arranged in an ascending spiral around the stem, each successive leaf emerging 137.5° from the site of the previous one. Why 137.5°? Mathematical analyses suggest that this angle minimizes shading of the lower leaves by those above.