Hanging out at home cleaning bit-by-bit, but generally being uncomfortable from some stupid virus I picked up...anyway... One of the biggest problems I run into when it comes to taking tests is not being able to figure out how the person that wrote the questions thinks, and thus not being able to know how to accurately respond.
This test on randomness has a perfect example of the kind of question that screws my scores up:
Pepper, Sugar, Salt. Which is the odd one out?
-- Sugar
-- Pepper
-- Salt
On the one hand, sugar is different from pepper/salt based on usage: you use sugar to sweeten, p/s to enhance. However, pepper and salt don't invoke the same tastes, and salt/sugar are common combinations in cooking, whereas pepper/sugar or pepper/salt are not. Also, salt/sugar are also similar in that they are both clear/white crystalline (rectangular, iirc) substances, whereas pepper is dark and includes multiple ingredients. Pepper and sugar are also both often used to enhance natural flavor, while salt most often is relied upon to add its own distinct "saltiness" to foods perceived as bland.
This is all the kind of stuff that goes through my head as soon as I see the question, regardless of whether it is a very simple comparison or even a matter of science. (In the case of science, I wind up coming up with a bunch of variables that aren't written into the question, and can't tell whether they're just part of the assumptions we're supposed to make or not!) So I end up with a variety of ideas about possible answers, but because I can't see into the test-writer's brain I have absolutely no way of figuring out what the expected response actually is.
Posted by moggy at July 17, 2003 01:16 PM | TrackBack"pepper is dark and includes multiple ingredients"
Pepper doesn't have multiple ingredients, it just looks like it does because it's ground up. I get my pepper whole and grind it as I use it. It's all one ingredient, a part of the pepper plant.
"So I end up with a variety of ideas about possible answers, but because I can't see into the test-writer's brain I have absolutely no way of figuring out what the expected response actually is."
Unfortunately, so long as your brain works that way (spending more effort on figuring out what answer the test writer wanted you to give rather than just giving what answer comes naturally to you) you are never going to be diagnosable with any mental tests. That quality of your brain quite literally makes you untestable in a standard clinical sense.
You have to make a *lot* of assumptions on any test of this kind. My own guess would be that "sugar" doesn't belong, but that's based on the assumption that the test-writer was focusing on the flavors of the items in the list (sugar is sweet, the others aren't) -- I could only draw that assumption because people typically don't think about crystal structure or color when thinking of food flavoring additives. However, that assumption is not necessarily valid.
Hell, it could just as easily be the case that "pepper" is the one that doesn't belong, because the other two items in the list both start with the letter "s". Who knows?
I run into this problem in my career constantly, especially as regards taking the exams for my IT certifications -- especially the "story problems", where you have to make all kinds of assumptions behind what's being said, assumptions that aren't necessarily valid. That's why I always have to spend extra money on test prep software, to explain the reasoning behind the wording of the questions and so on.
Posted by: Zathras on July 18, 2003 08:18 AMActually, it's not that I start out from the "what was the writer thinking" standpoint and work outwards to the many possibilities from there, it's that I'm deluged with potential responses instantly and have to narrow them down. With no instinctive sense of which is right/preferable that I can detect, I have to rely on logical analysis.
Posted by: Moggy on July 18, 2003 02:11 PM
