As a black person, standardized tests saved me from racism/prejudice.
At my blue blood private school, I had a math teacher who explicitly told my dad that he gave me a bad letter of rec on an MIT summer camp application, because as a black person affirmative action would make life too easy for me.
I'm happy it was only a summer camp and not my real college admissions the following year.
Even though I was a top five math student in my class across the entire private school, he and the dean of the math department gave me lower grades for the same work. They also didn't let me test out of classes (wouldn't show me test results), etc.
Thank God for SAT II's and AP exams.
I destroyed those tests. 5's and 790's.
Highest marks in the class for Math SAT II's.
But it didn't help my GPA from those biased teachers.
I did get into MIT for real the next year.
Standardized tests helped protect me from teacher bias.
Ultimately, the world is just a mess.
Now, I just focus on teaching people that the only fix for our problems will not come from mankind (to see what I'm talking about, take a look at: https://jw.org).
Not sure what I should take away from "taking a look" at your link.
Do you mean "look at what comes from mankind ; we can't expect anything good from it when results like these are some of its outputs"?
I'd hope that's what you intended but I fear that it's not.
I personally do hope for either AGI or a 3rd type encounter to expend Humanity's philosophy.
I used to work with a black lady at the water treatment plant for my town in high school. The JW's disfellowshipped her for the crime of having opinions and divorcing her husband. Maybe you need to take a close look at your proposed solution with 144000 slots on the lifeboat.
> At my blue blood private school, I had a math teacher who explicitly told my dad that he gave me a bad letter of rec on an MIT summer camp application, because as a black person affirmative action would make life too easy for me.
How horrible. The only lesson of value is, "this specific teacher cannot be trusted." To deny a student an opportunity to learn to teach some bizarre life lesson is completely misguided. Sorry you had to experience it.
> Standardized tests helped protect me from teacher bias.
Me too. I got terrible grades because I was busy trying to be a rebel in high school. Many of my teachers thought it more important to teach "life lessons" instead of their subject. I did very well on the ACT and SAT and got into college despite lackluster grades.
I agree that humans are a mess. Well done on making it to MIT, it is not the first time I read or hear an experience like yours. Still, some kids are not privileged enough to get good math education but they might be late bloomers. I've met a genius with horrible SAT scores, a late bloomer, self-taught who now publishes in renowned math journals
And all that blue blood private schooling, mathematical prowess and MIT education has led you to conclude that the solution to all of humanity’s problems, checks link, is the Bible.
Please don't take HN threads further into religious flamewar and certainly please don't cross into personal attack, which your comment arguably did.
No doubt the link was a provocation but the whole idea here is to resist shallow provocations and focus on the interesting substance of a post, or an article, or a phenomenon.
At my blue blood private school, I had a math teacher who explicitly told my dad that he gave me a bad letter of rec on an MIT summer camp application, because as a black person affirmative action would make life too easy for me.
I'm happy it was only a summer camp and not my real college admissions the following year.
Even though I was a top five math student in my class across the entire private school, he and the dean of the math department gave me lower grades for the same work. They also didn't let me test out of classes (wouldn't show me test results), etc.
Thank God for SAT II's and AP exams.
I destroyed those tests. 5's and 790's.
Highest marks in the class for Math SAT II's.
But it didn't help my GPA from those biased teachers.
I did get into MIT for real the next year.
Standardized tests helped protect me from teacher bias.
Ultimately, the world is just a mess.
Now, I just focus on teaching people that the only fix for our problems will not come from mankind (to see what I'm talking about, take a look at: https://jw.org).
Humans are a mess.