Some of these GRE analogies are so fucking stupid.

[Surgo]

Here's one:

12. MORBID : UNFAVORABLE

A. reputable:favorable
B. maternal:unfavorable
C. disputatious:favorable
D. vigilant:unfavorable
E. lax:favorable

My thought process was "morbid has nothing to do with unfavorable really; so I'll pick the one that has nothing to do with the other" which ended up being C. Somehow the answer is A, because apparently to these people morbidity is an objectively unfavorable trait. What?

But I guess a test is only as good as its makers. But the fact that my life depends on them is extremely disheartening.

[Judging__Eagle]

What?

[erik]

13. What?:The Fuck
is as to
A. Huh?:Those dipshits
B. Who?:Buttercups
C. Why?:Sodium Peroxide
D. How?:Alacrity
E. None of the Above

Fixed

[edit 1:tidying up the multiple choice format]
[edit 2:more serious response

I always took forever on analogies because there is an infinite amount of ways to interpret them, and the trick is trying to get in the head of the people who selected the answers and try and figure out what relationship they had in mind.

Morbid is unfavorable to most folks by most all of its definitions.

So I'd try and either choose something else that would be viewed as unfavorable by people in a similar nature, or alternatively something that would be viewed as favorable by a similar nature.

Being reputable would be favorable to people who are concerned with "morbid" as being unfavorable. I would have had D be runner up to A, C as the unlikely choice, and B and E are definitely wrong.

If "Healthy:Favorable" were an option then that would have hands-down been my first pick.

[shau]

While I hate this things as well, I can't really say this is a bad question. Morbid is defined:

mor⋅bid
   /ˈmɔrbɪd/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [mawr-bid] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. suggesting an unhealthy mental state or attitude; unwholesomely gloomy, sensitive, extreme, etc.: a morbid interest in death.
2. affected by, caused by, causing, or characteristic of disease.
3. pertaining to diseased parts: morbid anatomy.
4. gruesome; grisly.

Definition comes from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/morbid.

It seems pretty clear to me that something being morbid is unfavorable. Furthermore, the relationship will never be that the two terms have nothing to do with each other. That would be like asking you to pick the best non sequitur from the list.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Furthermore, the relationship will never be that the two terms have nothing to do with each other. That would be like asking you to pick the best non sequitur from the list.

Yeah, they don't want anyone "thinking outside of the box".

[shau]

Yeah, they don't want anyone "thinking outside of the box".

Damn right. I don't know what I would do if I did not have this nice cozy box to think in.

Seriously though don't try to get to creative with this. I screwed up a lot of problems like this because I over thought them.

[ckafrica]

Standardized tests are shit on a stick labeled chocolate.

I mean we had this school over here make all the native english teachers take a english competency test that is normally given to students wishing to apply to study in the US. I scored a 96% which was the highest in the school but some of them scored in the 70s. They would have only just got in to college with those scores. Now some we're the sharpest knives in the drawer but as they all did finish university.

The reality with these kind of tests is that passing them is often not about knowledge but understanding the strategies involved in taking them. They're a cookie cutter solution for our cookie cutter world.

[JonSetanta]

I did very well on analogies in high school SATs (you Brits and pseudo-Brits may or may not know what that is since you have something else, but no matter).
Just don't think about it when you do it. When I do these the correct word matchups sort of stand out in to my vision as I look at them.
.. or... maybe not everyone can do that. I don't know.

Math, however, dragged my entire SAT score down. I had to take 2 remedial courses in college before even beginning the single required credit math, and got a D in that.. with a tutor.
I'm mathtarded.

Pick A.

[erik]

I will definitely agree that standardized tests are very imperfect methods of measuring academic success. Some people are not good test-takers and don't have the luxury of receiving lots of prep-work for the standardized tests to become familiar with them.

But I'd been training for it since forever, took it once in 7th and 8th grade each (before my classwork had even covered much of the material). My parents knew how to game the system.

My friends gave me a hard time about it since I didn't get an 800 on math (a few of them got 790's or 800's on math), but I did alright overall 770 verbal, 740 math. If I hadn't had massive prep work, I bet my scores would have been hundreds of points lower since I am not naturally a good "test-taker" by any stretch of the imagination.

Heh, I did get my best SAT math score on the day I forgot to bring a calculator. (oops!)

[Crissa]

Some of us need those stupid tests to show we have something in our brains worth while because the daily scut work didn't show it.

-Crissa

[ckafrica]

I've met enough "smart" idiots to not concede that point. All it proves is you test well

[Josh_Kablack]

The reality with these kind of tests is that passing them is often not about knowledge but understanding the strategies involved in taking them.

A major part of being educated in contemporary American society is learning how to game various arbitrary and unfair systems - today's standardized tests prepare students for tomorrow's income tax filings and litigation.

[CatharzGodfoot]

I've met enough "smart" idiots to not concede that point. All it proves is you test well

Heh. I too am a "smart" idiot. Never would have made it into college if I hadn't tested well.

It would be interesting to see if there was some sort of underlying mental distinction between smart/bad testers and idiot/good testers aside from cheating. Some sort of g1/g2.

Oh, and for the record: I am considered retarded enough that these days I get time-and-a-half on tests. A good number of 'bad testers' might just be slow like me.

[erik]

I've met enough "smart" idiots to not concede that point. All it proves is you test well

Some of the dumbest people in my highschool were the people with the highest grade point averages. Every day they spoke I would hear the dumbest thing I had ever heard to date, and it was always new material. No measuring stick is perfect, especially since everyone is an idiot some of the time.

The combination of school work, standardized tests and a couple essays collectively are our best shot to efficiently gauge what level of subject material they are prepared to continue. Each and every one of those can be worked around or provide exceptional difficulty and give misleading results for some folks, but it's not like we have better methods waiting in the wings.

[Surgo]

My essays were so poor that it's a wonder I even got into college, let alone three of them. That's the main reason I'm dreading the graduate school application process so much.

[erik]

My favorite essay was very short.

"You are my backup school."

I got admitted.


As further evidence that folks can be idiots despite testing evidence to the contrary, I didn't even bother with the colleges that offered me full rides. I wish I had taken one of them up on their offer since it would have motivated me to work studiously to keep the scholarship and also the savings would have been substantial and would definitely alter my life-long financial status for the better.

[ckafrica]

clikml: Not sure if that is "smart" stupid or not. Money or prestige? Hard call

The valedictorian of my year got a full scholarship at the local pretty good school and took it rather than a partial at a top end school for his undergraduate in Engineering. He figured if he stayed at home he scholarship was big enough that he was earning money if lived with his family.

Greatest thing in his story was after graduating and going into a bio engineering lab for a year, he gave it up and when back to study to be a priest. Realized that it was what he always wanted to do, and to stop let people pressure him into doing what they expected him to.

[JonSetanta]

I've met enough "smart" idiots to not concede that point. All it proves is you test well

I've met quite a few as well. Far, far too often.

[Hey_I_Can_Chan]

Here's one:

12. MORBID : UNFAVORABLE

A. reputable:favorable
B. maternal:unfavorable
C. disputatious:favorable
D. vigilant:unfavorable
E. lax:favorable

First, this is stupid. A good test writer doesn't reuse his distractors unless there's a purpose behind it, and there's no purpose behind this one except to be a dick. Second, analogies rely on being able to construct the hypothetical sentence in one's head at very high speed. This is a task best suited to the autistic and telepathic.

Given there are a handful of ways analogous words can relate--and because I've taught SAT preparation courses in the past (when analogies were still on the SAT)--, I immediately conjured the sentence MORBID is a synonym for UNFAVORABLE, but there's no way to go there without drill-and-kill instruction into how the test questions are written.

And this one is shitty.

Yes, REPUTABLE is a synonym for FAVORABLE; B and D are stupid; C employs a word that will sucker in the well-educated, which is poor test writing (reward a vast vocabulary, don't punish it!); and E is straight-up rude in that it plays to the test-taker's test anxiety ("I am lax and therefore favorable"), which is seriously what some test writers aim for.

My thought process was "morbid has nothing to do with unfavorable really; so I'll pick the one that has nothing to do with the other" which ended up being C. Somehow the answer is A, because apparently to these people morbidity is an objectively unfavorable trait. What?

Although I am loathe to suggest it, practice makes this easier. The more bullshit that you can see through the easier this becomes. I took the GRE a few years ago and scored, like, 98% on the English portion, and I'm still pissed that I don't know the couple of questions I answered wrong. I chalked it up to a scoring error and said done.

But I guess a test is only as good as its makers. But the fact that my life depends on them is extremely disheartening.

As it should be. I could give ETS a 30-minute presentation on proper test-writing, and they'd reject it all because there'd be no trick questions, it'd reward knowledge not preparation, and the thing would be fucking fair.

Don't even get me started on the Advanced Placement English examinations or the SAT 2: Literature examination, 'cause those totally suck ass. Compared to them, the GRE is fucking just.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

Please take this advice on the GRE analogies: use definitions. Use very little else if it can be avoided.

I got a full ride to college. I'm on a full ride to grad school. I would like to think that this advice means something.

Also, the essay is bullshit. I wrote practically the same essay twice. The first essay I got a 2.5 on. The second I got a perfect score. It is so subjective that it doesn't matter.

[Manxome]

I took an AP physics test in high school where one of the questions was "which of the following does not include an example of an equal and opposite reaction?"

I decided to go with the answer that seemed most likely to have fooled the test writers, which was something like "a ball falls to the earth." (Might've mentioned gravity in there somewhere.) Don't remember the other options.

[Judging__Eagle]

I read this all, and can only assume that this is some sort of test? Right?

I still have no real idea as to what the OP is about though.

[PhoneLobster]

I'm doing a course in horticulture for my job (along with some of the dumbest people on the planet, seriously, the whole "caterpillar-butterfly" thing had to be revised about 5 times and I'm still not sure they got it)
Anyway under funded and poorly organised the tests we (occasional) sit are often out of step with the actual material we (occasional) cover in the course.

Its a straight pass fail at 50+% so its not a big deal that about 10% of the questions are totally new to us, especially since those questions aren't always totally new to ME.

But one question I couldn't answer due to not having covered it at all somewhat recklessly informed me to...

"Name the two main types of fungicide."

With nothing better to do with my time I wrote...

"I shall name the first one Bob and the second one Terry."

[Surgo]

JE: Yes, it's the test that everyone who wants to go to graduate school in the United States must take.

[Judging__Eagle]

Only two words to respond to that sort of thing:

rofl