Niamh Reilly

Chinese Comprehension
Aptitude Scale Reflection
I found these aptitude tests to be very interesting. The results of my groups survey were
especially amusing. The only question everyone could agree on was that in China, test
determine your life. Everyone either agreed or strongly agreed. What I wonder is how much
connections, hard work, and money also affect citizens lives. Personally, I dont entirely agree
that tests in China determine someones life entirely. What would have been nice to see, is
more explanation of peoples choices, but few people actually said anything. Even more
entertaining was the fact that the majority of people said that peoples lives in America were not
driven or determined by tests. How can high school students in America, all who have taken the
SAT and done testing throughout their entire lives, who attend one of the best high schools in
the country due to the results of a test, say that life in America isnt determined by testing. My
hypothesis is that due to obsession with media (celebrities and business people celebrities) in
America that people have developed an idealized image of the American system and society,
that may not be actually true what so ever. Because the students in this class dont study
Chinas celebrities and successful school dropouts and are heavily influenced by Asian
stereotypes, they dont have the same feelings as with America.
A third of the people survey claimed that testing was a good way to measure a persons
skill level, while two thirds disagreed or strongly disagreed. I thought this question would be
more split or completely to one side. My prediction was that everyone would strongly disagree
or disagree, or that half the people would agree and half disagree. Because it is such a small
sample of people, and judging by the qualityof people taking this class, I assumed the results
would lean more towards disagree. I was right, but I thought there would be an even larger
amount of people who disagreed than there was that actually did.
A surprising result was that people thought that even if someone failed an aptitude test
for a certain level of job, they still should be able to do that job and any job on a higher level. I
completely disagree and thought others would as well. It strongly contrasts with the question
regarding if someone doesnt have the skill for a job, they shouldnt be allowed to do it. People
agreed with that statement more than not. These two questions are extremely related to each
other. One says a persons ability was gauged by a test and one just states ability. This subtle
difference produced polar opposite results.
Most people prefered several short tests in lieu of one larger one. I agree with this, but
still found that interesting that people agreed. I thought more people would be open to one
longer test. People also thought you should be able to take a test as many times as you want. I
agree but noted the few people who said that moderation was also important.
One of the more surprising results is that more than 50% of people said that testing was
necessary in school systems. I expected a strong trend of disagrees, but the results were the
exact opposite.
The rest of the results were what I expected them to be. They corresponding with all the
other results in their message. Overall though, an interesting assignment with enlightening
results.