Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

One thing society needs to get right is not screwing over slow thinkers from day 1. A slow thinker can sometimes generate amazing projects over remarkably short timelines, but deliver "meh" performances on standardized tests that use time pressure to fit scores to a bell curve

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

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.

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

You know what also muddies the waters? Studying for 3 to 5 other classes on top of the one you're being tested for. So you're also tested on stressful time management, which isn't bad in itself, but it's far from being tested purely on the subject at hand.