Students in California must pass an exit exam in order to receive a High School diploma.
Some students (and parents!) are complaining about the exam, claiming that it is too difficult. One mother said that it would hurt her child’s future and prevent him from getting into college.
Here’ some questions from this “difficult” exam. Keep in mind that the students only need to score 55% in Math and 60% in Language Arts in order to pass!!!
MATH
The cost of a movie ticket last year was $4.00. This year the movie ticket costs $5.00.What is the percent increase of the ticket from last year to this year?
A. 10% B. 20% C. 25% D. 40%
Solve for n. 2n + 3 = 17
A. n = 2 B. n = 3 C. n = 5 D. n = 7
The winning number in a contest was less than 50. It was a multiple of 3, 5 and 6. What was the number?
A. 14 B. 15 C. 30 D. It cannot be determined
LANGUAGE ARTS
Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence.
The frightened pilot’s face was ashen as he gingerly lowered the plane onto the Smith’s private _______ that time was running out for his ailing friend.
A. runway: he knew B. runway, he knew C. runway. He knew D. runway but he knew
The green backpack has _______ pockets than the blue one.
I think number 4 is bullshit (or misleading at best). The directions say “that best completes each sentence”. Their correct answer, c, is not a sentence; it’s two sentences. I was looking for “runway; he knew” but that wasn’t an option.
I figured this was a CA student, worried about the exam. I was going to tell you, “Don’t worry, it’s easy,” but I guess I don’t have to.
The exit exam is a joke, for reasons that should already be clear from the OP. Also, I took it as a sophomore, and yet I’m still here. If I passed the exit exam, why can’t I leave?
I would guess that the exit exam doesn’t really prevent anyone from graduating, because anyone who fails it would most likely be failing out of school anyway. Yes, this is a broad generalization but still. This test was a waste of several hours for me. And whoever said it’s too hard, um, wow.
Not to mention that regardless of the punctuation, calling “runway he knew” a phrase really stretches the meaning of phrase. It certainly forms no grammatical constituent. Call me pedantic, but it should say, “choose the word or group of words…”
I didn’t like 5 either because choice B is perfectly normal in spoken, casual English. They should be more clear that they’re looking for uber-formal written standard English rather than simply telling you to choose that which “best” completes the sentence, whatever that means.
Isn’t it because this test is a necessary but not sufficient condition for graduation?
I passed this with flying colors the first time I took it. My freshman class was the first that was required to take this, and we were told we could try it again every semester until our last if we couldn’t pass it.
One girl (who had inexplicably passed a selective admissions process to get into the school) didn’t pass the math (with the 55!) until the last semester of her senior year.
We have to take Standards of Learning tests in Virginia, which sounds like basically the same thing, but broken into sections when we take the exam. We have ones in some of the sciences, in English, math, and history. We have to pass a ccertain number (I don’t remember how many.) They’re completely ridiculous, and a piece of cake.
Honestly, I think the GED tests that I took were harder, not that I found them hard. We have the MCAS back home, which caused a big stink back in Boston, but people have gotten by. I never took as I went to private school, but I think they might have been harder, as well.