Re: Testing job applicants

[hmv@port.ac.uk (Mike Meredith at home)]

Hi

In article <37da472f.1121462@news.netcomuk.co.uk>,
	z80@ds1.com (Peter) writes:
> 
> I happen to know a number of teachers, school, college and university
> ones, who have all been in the business for many years, who *all*
> agree that standards are falling.

I also happen to know quite a few University lecturers (I do work
at a University), and they don't *all* agree that standards are
dropping.

And personally, the ratio of totally clueless students to very
bright students I meet electronically hasn't changed over the
last 10 years (I no longer meet students in the flesh at work,
and for various reasons the ones I meet electronically tend to be
or the other extreme)

[Cries for evidence removed]

I haven't got any evidence (other than personal experience, which
doesn't really count), and I'm not going to bother hunting any
down.

> The evidence of falling standards comes from improved pass rates, and

Ouch. The very rusty statistician within me has just fainted in
horror. That's a hypothesis, not evidence.

You could well be right that falling standards are the reason,
it's just that saying so at this time of the year automatically
irritates me :-

You're an 18-year old who has just spent 2 years working like
crazy on you're A-levels, and you get some good results. And what
happens when you turn on the TV ? Every old fart under the sun is
claiming that standards are falling, and that A-levels aren't
what they used to be. Nice way for society to congratulate you on
your achievement, even if standards *are* falling.