High School Exit Exam

* The first two sample math questions from the new California state exit exam (Dec. 17) suggest that the test writers are not only out of touch with reality with respect to what is reasonable to expect of a high school graduate but with physical reality as well. The first problem states, “After her basketball class, Regina calculated that the height of her best jump from the floor can be described by the equation: y = 5t - 5t(squared), where y is the height in meters and t is the time in seconds.” This suggests an impressive connection to the “real world,” but it is as phony as most problems in math books have been in the past. If the formula is correct, Regina’s feet were 1.25 meters, or more than four feet, above the floor in the middle of her jump! Perhaps Regina and/or the test makers are living on another planet.

In the second problem, the figure has been drawn so that the border between the two rectangles has a constant width, yet this contradicts the dimensions given. Perhaps the test makers are actually living in a parallel universe that is not necessarily Euclidean!

HAROLD JACOBS

Valley Village

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If you want to know what is wrong with our education system, you need look only to the No. 1 English language exit exam example. The test asks for a definition of the adjective “inquisitive” and asks the student to choose the correct answer from four possible alternatives, all of which begin with “one who . . . ,” i.e., allowing only a noun as the correct choice.

As impressed as I am by this example, I’m confident that, with application of a little extra diligence, our educators could find even more effective means of disseminating ignorance.

MARVIN PETAL

Oxnard

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Congratulations on an excellent article about the high school exit exam. I have an unanswered question. Why write a new exit exam? Why not use the CBEST exam, the one they use to determine if a person has the basic knowledge necessary to get a teaching certificate? When I took it, it seemed a good exam of what everyone should know after graduating from high school. That way we could maintain just one team for preparing, administering and grading the exam.

WILLIAM KOELSCH

Pasadena