Australian Geometry Test Too Difficult?

[Thomas Okken]

(11-22-2017 09:06 PM)pier4r Wrote:  

(11-22-2017 02:43 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  So you think it's fine to ask students to translate some German in a French test? Calculus in an algebra exam? Just figure it out, be creative?

Of course not. But if you studied French all the time building short sentences, filling gaps in text where some words are omitted, studying grammar and learning words all the time. I won't be surprised if the test would ask "please write a letter of 50 to 100 words to your friend" (given that you have a dictionary with you and enough time assigned for the test). You never wrote such long letters, but you have the building blocks to do it.

Nonetheless be sure there will someone saying "We never wrote letters of 50 words, what is this for a test!?"

My point is: if one has the blocks to solve it, but one needs to find the proper arrangement of those to solve it (and one never saw the arrangement before) then it will be a good test - in my opinion - to give out the mark "with honors".

I think it is ok to reserve the top score, and with "top" I mean really over 90% or so of the total marks, only to those that solve something that requires creativity. Disclaimer: not that I would have been able to achieve those top scores, but I would have accepted them.

You're still saying it's OK for the test to be harder than what the students were taught. I don't know what kind of school you attended, where you never wrote an essay before suddenly being required to do so on a test. I'm sure that kind of approach works great for identifying those students who are ahead of the curriculum, but that's not what schools should be doing.