I think a lot of people just assume that human populations somehow fit a bell curve neatly over various traits, but many of these tests are *designed* to clean up the curve by tweaking test items until beta populations fall along the right line
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This might mean adding redundant "easy" questions to push more low-scorers up to the middle or using time pressure to push slower readers/thinkers down to the middle, depending on how the curve looks on initial tests. Or vice versa.
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The problem isn't that high-scorers are bad at the thing that's being tested for, it's that there may be some or many folks scoring in the middle who are equally good or better. When you tweak items to produce a desired curve, you muddy the waters re: what the test actually tests
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If top scorers *are* really good *and* really fast, isn't that fine? Well, no. In the real world, cognitively-demanding work isn't a speed run. If top scorers get the best opportunities, people w/ traits preferable to speed (creativity, conscientiousness, etc.) may get pushed out
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Wait, are you *actually* subtweeting Malcolm Gladwell, or are your thought processes and timing simply uncanny?
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Yeah in this case I'm basically subtweeting Malcolm Gladwell
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If the same tests doubled their time limit or halved the scope, what percentage of students do you think would see a large relative performance gain? Are these the slow thinkers? I'm curious how much this is about properties of specific tests versus mostly untestable.
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I'm sure this varies widely based on the features of a specific test. It would be easy enough to evaluate: give the test to one randomized group to take within the standard allotted time, and to another group give the same test untimed
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that's why i always preferred learning in isolation. in groups ppl would "get it" faster than i did, because the way i learn is more similar to feynman, building on low-level principles, so i would ask lots of "dumb" questions and take a long time to ponder over simple concepts
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but once a concept clicked, i was always the first to be like "ahhhhh so X is just like Y, but in reverse!" and the teacher would be like "well, yes, i guess you're right!"
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