this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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LLMs are solving MCAT, the bar test, SAT etc like they're nothing. At this point their performance is super human. However they'll often trip on super simple common sense questions, they'll struggle with creative thinking.

Is this literally proof that standard tests are not a good measure of intelligence?

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 8 months ago (2 children)

There has been plenty of proof that standardized testing doesn't work long before ChatGTP ever existed. Institutions will keep using them though because that's what they've always done and change is hard

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago

Long before. Even in 1930 the eugenics-motivated creator Carl Brigham recanted his original conclusions only years ago that had led to the development of the SAT, but by then the colleges had totally invested in a quick and easy way to score students, even if it was inaccurate. Change is hard, but I think the bigger influence here was money since it hadn't been around that long at that point.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Not disagreeing with you; how do you suggest a way for admissions to reliably compare applicants with each other? A 3.5 at one school can mean something completely different than a 3.5 at another school.

Something like the SAT is far from perfect, but it is a way one number that means the same thing across applicants.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

I think this is the point, because Harvard got rid of the SAT requirement, and then just brought it back.

It’s a really terrible measure .

But it is an equal measure, despite what it measuring moderately meaningless.

I don’t think we have a better answer yet, because everything else lacks any sort of comparable equivalency .

And I say this as an ADHD sufferer who is at a huge disadvantage on standardised testing

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

There shouldn't even be admission based on what you score in some random test. My (non-US) university accepted everyone who applied, at least for my field of study. Does that mean many people drop out after a semester or two? Absolutely, but there are countless people completing their studies who would have never gotten a chance to do so otherwise. Why shouldn't they be allowed to prove themselves?