How to get around subjectivity

Kaplan likes to teach a lot of test strategies. A lot of these strategies do actually work very well for some people. They can actually work for all people, even though, admittedly, they are not ideal for some. I'm pretty sure I've said before that you should pick the test strategies that work for you.


I myself am not really a test strategy type of person. This is really why I like math. I think you should just understand the material. If you understand it, then you don't need a strategy. Strategies are for people who don't understand completely. Things like math are very objective. There just is one right answer. And if you understand math, you will find the right answer. You can even check your answer if you're not sure to find out if it's right or not. It's very easy actually. Math is something you just have to understand. So I all the time forget formulas, but because I understand math, I derive the formula from my understanding of the material. I never use strategies for math. I never have or would use strategies for math. But reading comprehension... I hate reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is highly subjective. Actually, to tell you the truth, when I'm teaching reading comprehension in TOEFL or SAT, I sometimes think the wrong answer is the right one. But I probably shouldn't say that. But it's because it's so stinking subjective! The answer is one thing, but maybe I really think it's the other. And maybe I can even find valid evidence to prove my point. It's like poetry. Who can REALLY say what Shakespeare meant when he wrote such and such. On a side note, I chose my minor based on the fact that I didn't want to study something subjective and write papers which I would think were written quite well but my teacher, of another mind, would find something subjectively wrong with it and give me a bad grade. I was deciding between philosophy and physics and when I thought of the subjectivity in philosophy and papers I chose physics.


SO. I can really sympathize with those of you who are having a hard time on the more subjective areas of standardized tests. BUT. Be encouraged. Take heart. There's a way to beat this system. That's because these standardized tests are in fact standardized. And as much as I'm not myself into the strategies that Kaplan teaches (though some people should be, they are very good very valid strategies for the right kind of people, I just have my own different ones that work better for me) I really am into how Kaplan teaches standardized tests according to question type. So like there are rhetorical function questions or inference questions or speaker's attitude questions. For me, if I were to take the test, this would be very helpful, because in each type of question they are looking for one specific type of answer. And if you can learn the type of answer that they want you to give, it becomes more objective. So like if they were to ask you, "How does the author emphasize the point about bla bla bla?" My answer would be, "By talking about it." But that would be wrong. So I would think, ok, this is a rhetorical function question and rhetorical function questions for the reading section are about either organization for big picture questions or details and examples for little picture questions but this is a big picture question so it must be looking for some type of organization. So if you learn the test and what kinds of questions there are and what the questions WANT you to say, then you can answer in the way that the test WANTS you to answer, which in my opinion doesn't always align with the most logical answer.


So, I want to say that when Kaplan teaches standardized tests according to question type it can really be a very helpful thing. The test makers are trying to trick you. But if you learn how they try to trick you, because it's done in a uniform, standardized way, then you won't be tricked!


▼▽▼▼【講師】Amberly先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【consistency works】2009.04.29 (Wed)