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The arguments against tests, from SAT to civil service exams is that effective tests correlate to IQ. IQ=racist, because we say so, so tests=bad.


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> Tests are sexist, so we need to adjust for that to give men a boost

This is the first time I've heard this opinion and I would be very surprised to find out that it's what the HN hivemind thinks. I would be even more surprised to find that the same people who think this also think the other part about racism.


> Tests are sexist, so we need to adjust for that to give men a boost

I don't think I saw anyone claiming that. What was being written was that boys do a lot better on anonymized tests relative to girls than on GPA (which is inherently non-anonymous), so removing testing is actually exacerbating sexism in education.

This is probably the comment you're referring to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33339235


> IQ=racist, because we say so

The argument is a bit less stupid than that. IQ = racist because whites and Chinese have it while blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican immigrants don't.

Is that reflected in different levels of group performance? Well, yes, but ignore that.


Obviously we currently don't ignore it while not studying it in details either, so we've come up with IQ=racist and stopped there.


I think you're closer to something than the other poster.

Let's give the assumption that certain racial/ethnic groups perform better on IQ tests as a whole than others.

If that were true, that would just be a fact. Yes. But why that is matters. And a lot of the why is just plain old racism. The groups who don't score well on IQ tests don't do so because they've been held back from all of the progress enjoyed by the rest of the world.

It's that progress that increases IQ scores. It's not that white people and Chinese people are smarter due to genetics or culture or whatever people use to spout. It's because they've been able to leverage the progress of the world to advance themselves. Black people, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans, especially immigrants have not been allowed the same access to leverage it. You give them the same resources, the same chances, and over time, you'll see the same increases.

In fact, you do. Because those groups constantly get progress's hand-me-downs. Last year's progress. So they lag behind.




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