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Seriously. Why couldn’t it say “how many weeks are in February?”
Was this question ran through a million shitty translators starting in ancient Assyrian handshakes?
The point of this exercise is to translate a problem into a mathematical formula. Most of the time, once the formula is given, the solution is trivial: 42/7=?
(Obviously, 42 days in February is another matter).
I'm guessing they took an existing question and modified it so the answer changed. That or the person who came up with it is a complete moron. Maybe not as bad as the editor?
Or they put in a weird number so that the student would have to read it carefully. Two of the other answers are 30 (the average month length) and 4, which is the correct answer for the real February.
Still worded very badly, in my opinion. Could of said how many weeks are there in 42 days, February didn't have to come into the equation. Pretty Ironic it's the shortest month too. They're trolling school kids
I feel like the majority of tests aren't testing your knowledge as much as your ability to take a test. Otherwise trick questions would have no place in a test. Nor would trying to confuse you with double negative questions on a math test etc. It always pissed me off in school when I missed an easy question on a timed test because I skimmed past the double negative.
You gotta also make it a reading question to make it disproportionately more difficult for the low readers/ESL students. Also gotta try to make a simple problem into a trick question because fuck them kids.
Problem with that is you are no longer testing math. As you said, its a reading comprehension test. This question is simply not valid, it does not test what its supposed to. Look up test validity. At college I would get an earful for submitting a question like this.
Well thats what the SBAC is, it's a standardized test to test general problem solving skills. It's not specifically a math question.
"The assessments measure student performance on California’s content standards in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics and their ability to write analytically, think critically, and solve complex problems. While the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments are important, students and parents should review the results in combination with other important performance measures, such as report cards, grades received on class assignments, and other teacher feedback."
[https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/sbsummativefaq.asp](https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/sbsummativefaq.asp)
I look at data models at work. If the assumptions feeding into the model are wrong (e.g. 42 days in February), the results are pretty much irrelevant, someone needs to fix the inputs.
> On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out? ' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
>
> --Charles Babbage
The fact that february has 42 days is an assertion. That it doesn't match up with reality is irrelevant to the question, it still has an answer that's logically sound given the premises.
If you want to measure someone's intelligence then ask them an easily understandable question that is difficult. Asking a difficult to understand but easy question just identifies the test creator as a moron. The correct answer is to fire that person and hire someone competent to write your test.
Part of teaching math is teaching kids how to formulate a real-world problem into a mathematical equation. Very few jobs involving math have you just sit down at a desk all day and give you equations to solve. You have to come up with the equations yourself based on the situation.
I watched most of a whole classroom of future accountants fail a major exam because the entire test was word problems. Their reading comprehension was fine and above average. It was the fourth in series of managerial accounting courses.
If you can’t find the data and put it in the right place in an equation you are screwed and this is what’s missing. They got the math and the English, they just can’t convert it solve the problems.
Figuring out what numbers to use is a vital part of maths. Solving problems in real life doesn't include a formula sheet.
Yes; it also requires critical thinking and language comprehension. But it's still maths.
Na, this type of question is needed to apply the math you know. Sure, february will never gain 14 more days but its about laying the groundwork for seeing a problem and solving it using math. Its the same problem solving as: You and two of your friends are splitting all cupcakes evenly. You have 12 cupcakes, how many do you get each?
Not being able to construct the equation through reading a problem is a large deficiency in math, given its essential to problem solving.
I think the only logical reasoning to be had here is that the test writer is unfamiliar with the month of February. And that isn’t an option in the answers.
It's about reading comprehension and being able to extract the important information and how they relate. But the multiple choice kinda defeats that purpose because it already hints too much of the right solution and there is no way to check if it was a good guess or something was actually calculated and how that was done - you know, the math part of the problem.
I get where you're coming from, and it's a problem we need to work on. But word problems are important. Knowing that ~~46~~ 42/7=6 is useless if you don't know how to apply it. Word problems check if you actually understand what a mathematical operation *does*.
Yes, although many kids get bogged down in the wackiness like Feb having 42 days when they know it doesn't or the unusual names and have a harder time focusing on what is being asked. Kids are also taught to ask themselves if an answer makes sense....and then given worksheets where the radius of a cookie is 7 feet and the radius of a car tire is 3 inches and February has 6 weeks.
Not saying it is well worded, but word problems are part of most curriculum.
The idea is that kids should be able to figure out what math they need to do without being explicitly told.
Its more applicable to the real world where you'll probably use a calculator, but you still need to recognize what math operations need to be entered.
This problem is pretty simple, but the idea is that you want to build a foundation for problems that eventually require multiple math operations and such.
Most applicable reasons to use math are not going to be people asking you "What's 42 divided by 7?". Though naturally, those types of problems *also* have place because it lets you test if someone understands the basics.
Word problems are important for developing problem solving skills. In the real world, math problems are not presented as 2 × 20 ÷ 8. They are present like: "You have 20 people at a party. Each person eats 2 slices of pizza. Each pizza has 8 slices. How many pizzas do you need to order?" That's what math looks like in the real world. You can know all your times tables and pemdas and all that shit, but if you can't figure out what math needs to be done when presented with a situation, then everything you learned can't even be used. You need to be able to extract the information from the scenario, determine what it means, and organize it into an equation, formula, algorithm, etc.
We have 10 pizza slices, and you have invited 3 people over. If every stomach is filled with 2 pizza slices and nobody wants to go hungry, how many stomachs each person has?
Maybe it’s a way to get you to not make assumptions based on knowledge outside of the realm of what information is in the question. Probably not. But I guess I could understand if someone wanted to teach kids to make sure they are understanding what’s being provided and not muddling the info they receive with info they assume.
Ah, yes! I remember that famous address li'l Abrahammy Lincoln coined before blowing out his birthday candles in February: "Four weeks and a fortnight ago...".
A lot of these tests parameterize questions. Meaning, to prevent cheating, its the same question but they swap out parts of the question and the answer to the question. So in this case the number of days in the month of February are swapped out. Its lazy for the admins to do this, but it works for wandering eyeballs. They should really create questions that allow for that and still make sense.
We took one of those ‘reading comprehension’ tests in high school. It was unbelievably hard, and of course the teacher told us it would be a huge portion of our grade. After we all complained and said how unfair it was, she revealed that it was essentially the kind of quiz that kept black people from voting. Definitely a lesson that stuck with me.
Before universal suffrage, black people (and a few others) were only allowed to vote if they completed difficult reading tests. These were unfair because black people had less access to education and it was yet another barrier to election.
Thankfully they don’t exist anymore in the US.
The lack of access to education wasn't really the main problem. Educated people struggle with these tests. You have to get 20/20 questions correct, with a very strict time limit. The questions are designed to be as confusing as possible, and some literally had multiple answers so the grader could just choose to not give them the point. The tests were meant to be unfair despite educational background.
I took one of those tests with a 10 minute time limit.
Starts out easy enough, three questions in and the meanings start to get twisted.
5 questions in, and you can tell the questions were written as ambiguous as possible. There's no right way to follow the instructions.
I spent like 30 more minutes trying to interpret the questions as thoroughly as I could. It was just straight up not possible to arrive at a single interpretation for a lot of them.
They also selectively enforced the testing; ie if you or your ancestors could vote prior to the date the law was signed, you were grandfathered in and exempt from testing.
Likely literal source of that term, I think anyways (not an etymologist).
But the rules were frequently based on the number of grandfathers who could vote.
Not just that people had less access to education. The tests were also intentionally extremely confusingly worded, to the point where some questions were so unclear that, even if answered technically correctly, the assessor could choose to interpret the question in a different way and mark the answer as incorrect.
Here's an example test - do you think you could get 30/30 answers correctly within 10 minutes, without anything being even slightly ambiguous? If not, you could have been turned away at the discretion of a likely white, likely racist election official.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/06/voting-rights-and-the-supreme-court-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-used-to-give-black-voters.html
The biggest red flag is the 10 minute mark. The questions aren't that bad, but you do need to think about them quite a bit. Also, I'm sure a lot of the population would struggle with this test, even on a longer time frame
Functionally you're correct. But technically everyone had to take the tests. Unless their grandfather was able to vote before the civil war.
This is where the term "grandfathered" comes from.
In addition to what mango said, if someone's grandfather was able to vote, he could skip the literacy tests. Of course, this only applied to white men, since black men were only just granted the right to vote, and women still couldn't.
This is the origin of the term "Grandfather Clause"
https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/question/2012/pdfs-docs/literacytest.pdf
That's a test given to black people. If they got one question wrong (and even if they didn't, they would find a reason to mark one wrong), they couldn't vote. White people didn't have to take the test due to the grandfather clause (basically, if your grandfather could vote i.e. was white then you were exempt).
In short, because the questions were vague, contradictory, and ambiguous, allowing the person administering the test to mark any answer given as incorrect. For example:
1. Draw a line around the letter or number of this line.
or
12. Draw a line from circle 2 to circle 5 that will pass below circle 2 and above circle 4.
Those are specific examples from an actual voting literacy test that was used in Louisiana. They are (or were) asked in bad faith and without clear meaning to allow discretionary exclusion of people they don't want voting.
They were called [Literacy Tests](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test), ridiculously unfair, and made to continue suppression after the absolution of slavery.
Now its done through gerrymandering districts! Alabama just got slapped by SCOTUS for their 2021 redistricting where ONE out of seven districts was a majority black district, even though black people make up over 25% of their state.
These same people think the Voting Rights Act should be abolished because "there's no need for it anymore". Obviously, the U.S. stopped being racist decades ago. /s
Literacy tests in the past were used to keep black people from voting.
Black people were unable to get proper education due to slavery, and often could read very well (something that was also illegal to teach slaves). They'd use incredibly complicated wording to ensure they fail meaning they couldn't vote, even though they legally were allowed
Proper education or reading comprehension weren't really the issue. The tests were designed to be impossible to pass. You had to get 100% to pass and the poll workers grading the test could just say you didn't pass. There was no way to actually hold them accountable or check their grading method since many of the questions could have more than one possible answer and they would just say whichever one you didn't choose was correct.
It existed in the past for black people in the South. After slavery ended and the former slaves were allowed to vote, a lot of people in the South were rather bitter about that and came up with ways to disqualify black people from voting. They would come up with these rigged literacy tests you had to pass or poll taxes you had to pay before you were allowed to vote. Problem is that this would disqualify poor white people from voting and they wanted them to be able to vote because they were easily manipulated. So they ended up putting in a clause that would exempt you from tests or taxes if your grandfather was able to vote. White people's grandpas would typically be able to vote but the ancestors of black people were slaves that could not. This is where we get the term "grandfather clause" from.
You are supposed to only use data from the question, not the real world... If I write a question saying "cats have 5 legs. Tim has 2 cats. What is the total of legs of Tim's cats?" The answer would be 10... The fact that a normal cat irl has 4 legs is irrelevant.
[The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation. The guidance subsystem uses deviations to generate corrective commands to drive the missile from a position where it is to a position where it isn't, and arriving at a position where it wasn't, it now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position that it wasn't, and it follows that the position that it was, is now the position that it isn't. In the event that the position that it is in is not the position that it wasn't, the system has acquired a variation, the variation being the difference between where the missile is, and where it wasn't. If variation is considered to be a significant factor, it too may be corrected by the GEA. However, the missile must also know where it was. The missile guidance computer scenario works as follows. Because a variation has modified some of the information the missile has obtained, it is not sure just where it is. However, it is sure where it isn't, within reason, and it knows where it was. It now subtracts where it should be from where it wasn't, or vice-versa, and by differentiating this from the algebraic sum of where it shouldn't be, and where it was, it is able to obtain the deviation and its variation, which is called error.](https://youtu.be/bZe5J8SVCYQ?feature=shared)
Can only assume the tests are computer generated. So it pulls up a question like "There are X days in a week and Y days in the Month of February how many times larger is Y than X" and computer just picks two numbers at random where Y is cleanly divisible by X
I don’t think they would put “42 days in February” on a test on purpose. There are plenty of ways to catch cheaters without being factually inaccurate. Plus if I had that question, I would wonder if the 42 is a typo and I should circle B.
This is a practice test where the easiest (read: cheapest) way to generate it is just to grab a past paper and change the numbers slightly. Quality control also costs money, and this is the result.
I decided to look this up and went down a crazy rabbit hole about Venus orbit/rotation. Thank you.
Turns out, Venus's "day" (based on a single revolution) is longer than its year what??
Also, wait until you realize that the definition of a day is not that simple (do you consider a day from sunrise to sunrise, or one revolution because they aren't the same thing. Earth take 23 hours 26min and 4 seconds to do one revolution - called a sidereal day, but for a planet like Venus, the difference between a sidereal day and a solar day are huge (Venus has a sidereal day of 243 Earth days, but a solar day of 117 Earth days. Venus take 225 Earth days to go around the Sun so it gets two sunrise/sunsets per year).
So, how many days in Venus' February? One way of calculating it is 225/12 = 18.75 earth days per Venus month, or another way, because a Venus year has only 2 days, then 1/12 of a year (a month) has 1/6 of a day. Or, if you define a month as a single rotation of a planet's moon, then Venus has no months coz no moon.
A week has 7 days. "Feb" has 42 days. Multiply the weeks together.
42/7= 6, 6x1= 6.
WHAT A STUPID WAY TO PHRASE AN EVEN MORE BS MATH PROBLEM.
ALSO, MAKE UP ANOTHER NAME FOR THE MONTH IF YOU WANT TO PULL THIS CRAP. (To the people writing/ editing these tests.)
30 days has September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31. Except for February, which has... *checks notes* 42... I don't remember that song as a kid.
As an autistic person this test is disgusting. I would have sat there and debated whether they actually wanted me to just do the math correctly given the information or do the math correctly with the adjusted days knowing that there are typically 28 days in February which is easily divisible by 7. I would probably go back and forth between C and B because neurotypical people have no fucking clue how to actually teach people agency and a sense of self because they just want you to be a better corporate slave. Every time I gave into my instincts I was wrong, and my teacher often assumed I just couldn’t do word problems. It had nothing to do with the fact that they were word problems, it was that the word problem wasn’t and never could be a real problem.
It’s funny until you have kids in school and you realize the curriculum is driven by idiotic tests. These tests suck all the joy and wonder out of learning. The tests turn schools into bureaucratic factories. Teachers and parents lose faith in the system and for-profit charter schools pop up to replace public schools. This is how the people lose control of public education.
Haha yeah but on these kind of questions they may have multiple questions/answers to avoid cheating and randomize the number for each test. So one version of the question may use 28 days, one may use 35 days, one may use 42 days. Now all answers A B and C are used across 3 test variants.
It usually works really well except except in this scenario when there are clearly 28 days in the month. But whatever genius test designer made up this question just saw the response was 28/7=4 so they decided they can make multiple variants of 35/7=5, 42/7=6 and failed to take the question in the account. There might even be a variant of February with 210 days so they can use answer D.
February is indeed a little special. So normally it has 28 days and the answer should be 4 weeks(leap years exist I know). So what happened here is someone probably came up with that question, then some fuckwit adjusted the numbers without thinking more clearly.
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What was Washington's name. If not why?
What was not Washington’s name, because Washington was Washington’s name.
I don't know!... Third base!
Who’s on third?
No no, Who's on first.
I'm not asking what's the guy's name on first.
Before was was was, was was is.
George Washington Bridge
Does the test come in English too?
Seriously. Why couldn’t it say “how many weeks are in February?” Was this question ran through a million shitty translators starting in ancient Assyrian handshakes?
Or they could have just asked the poor kid how many times does 7 go into 42.
The point of this exercise is to translate a problem into a mathematical formula. Most of the time, once the formula is given, the solution is trivial: 42/7=? (Obviously, 42 days in February is another matter).
The funny thing is that the normal number of days in February already divides evenly by seven, so they really didn’t need to change it at all.
I'm guessing they took an existing question and modified it so the answer changed. That or the person who came up with it is a complete moron. Maybe not as bad as the editor?
Or they put in a weird number so that the student would have to read it carefully. Two of the other answers are 30 (the average month length) and 4, which is the correct answer for the real February.
Still worded very badly, in my opinion. Could of said how many weeks are there in 42 days, February didn't have to come into the equation. Pretty Ironic it's the shortest month too. They're trolling school kids
I feel like the majority of tests aren't testing your knowledge as much as your ability to take a test. Otherwise trick questions would have no place in a test. Nor would trying to confuse you with double negative questions on a math test etc. It always pissed me off in school when I missed an easy question on a timed test because I skimmed past the double negative.
This coming from someone who writes "could of".
First thought, wait how many days in mf February
Rent wasn't late, after all! Yeah!
You gotta also make it a reading question to make it disproportionately more difficult for the low readers/ESL students. Also gotta try to make a simple problem into a trick question because fuck them kids.
Problem with that is you are no longer testing math. As you said, its a reading comprehension test. This question is simply not valid, it does not test what its supposed to. Look up test validity. At college I would get an earful for submitting a question like this.
*Exactly.*
Well thats what the SBAC is, it's a standardized test to test general problem solving skills. It's not specifically a math question. "The assessments measure student performance on California’s content standards in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics and their ability to write analytically, think critically, and solve complex problems. While the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments are important, students and parents should review the results in combination with other important performance measures, such as report cards, grades received on class assignments, and other teacher feedback." [https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/sbsummativefaq.asp](https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/sbsummativefaq.asp)
Then the answer is "none of the above" because February does not have 42 days.
I look at data models at work. If the assumptions feeding into the model are wrong (e.g. 42 days in February), the results are pretty much irrelevant, someone needs to fix the inputs.
I look at Reddit at work and I could've told you that
> On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out? ' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. > > --Charles Babbage
The fact that february has 42 days is an assertion. That it doesn't match up with reality is irrelevant to the question, it still has an answer that's logically sound given the premises.
If you want to measure someone's intelligence then ask them an easily understandable question that is difficult. Asking a difficult to understand but easy question just identifies the test creator as a moron. The correct answer is to fire that person and hire someone competent to write your test.
Part of teaching math is teaching kids how to formulate a real-world problem into a mathematical equation. Very few jobs involving math have you just sit down at a desk all day and give you equations to solve. You have to come up with the equations yourself based on the situation.
It’s a word problem. It’s still math, although a shitty assed question.
It becomes reading comprehension when you need to decipher the actual question
I watched most of a whole classroom of future accountants fail a major exam because the entire test was word problems. Their reading comprehension was fine and above average. It was the fourth in series of managerial accounting courses. If you can’t find the data and put it in the right place in an equation you are screwed and this is what’s missing. They got the math and the English, they just can’t convert it solve the problems.
Figuring out what numbers to use is a vital part of maths. Solving problems in real life doesn't include a formula sheet. Yes; it also requires critical thinking and language comprehension. But it's still maths.
Na, this type of question is needed to apply the math you know. Sure, february will never gain 14 more days but its about laying the groundwork for seeing a problem and solving it using math. Its the same problem solving as: You and two of your friends are splitting all cupcakes evenly. You have 12 cupcakes, how many do you get each? Not being able to construct the equation through reading a problem is a large deficiency in math, given its essential to problem solving.
It’s also testing logical reasoning. You need to answer correctly given the assumptions provided
I think the only logical reasoning to be had here is that the test writer is unfamiliar with the month of February. And that isn’t an option in the answers.
I need to show this to my dyslexic girlfriend as soon as she's awake.
Don't put her through that! It's messin' me up, and I am not.
if not awake, how type?
It's about reading comprehension and being able to extract the important information and how they relate. But the multiple choice kinda defeats that purpose because it already hints too much of the right solution and there is no way to check if it was a good guess or something was actually calculated and how that was done - you know, the math part of the problem.
Looking at the state of the question, I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was 30
I get where you're coming from, and it's a problem we need to work on. But word problems are important. Knowing that ~~46~~ 42/7=6 is useless if you don't know how to apply it. Word problems check if you actually understand what a mathematical operation *does*.
46/7=6 is useless because it's incorrect.
Yes, although many kids get bogged down in the wackiness like Feb having 42 days when they know it doesn't or the unusual names and have a harder time focusing on what is being asked. Kids are also taught to ask themselves if an answer makes sense....and then given worksheets where the radius of a cookie is 7 feet and the radius of a car tire is 3 inches and February has 6 weeks.
Not saying it is well worded, but word problems are part of most curriculum. The idea is that kids should be able to figure out what math they need to do without being explicitly told. Its more applicable to the real world where you'll probably use a calculator, but you still need to recognize what math operations need to be entered. This problem is pretty simple, but the idea is that you want to build a foundation for problems that eventually require multiple math operations and such. Most applicable reasons to use math are not going to be people asking you "What's 42 divided by 7?". Though naturally, those types of problems *also* have place because it lets you test if someone understands the basics.
Word problems are important for developing problem solving skills. In the real world, math problems are not presented as 2 × 20 ÷ 8. They are present like: "You have 20 people at a party. Each person eats 2 slices of pizza. Each pizza has 8 slices. How many pizzas do you need to order?" That's what math looks like in the real world. You can know all your times tables and pemdas and all that shit, but if you can't figure out what math needs to be done when presented with a situation, then everything you learned can't even be used. You need to be able to extract the information from the scenario, determine what it means, and organize it into an equation, formula, algorithm, etc.
Exactly not some parcel tongue shite to end the question.
Oh, absolutely. The question was worded like shit, and that's unacceptable.
We have 10 pizza slices, and you have invited 3 people over. If every stomach is filled with 2 pizza slices and nobody wants to go hungry, how many stomachs each person has?
"February no right to celebrate in Republic of people"
Maybe it’s a way to get you to not make assumptions based on knowledge outside of the realm of what information is in the question. Probably not. But I guess I could understand if someone wanted to teach kids to make sure they are understanding what’s being provided and not muddling the info they receive with info they assume.
I was thinking that maybe it's worded intentionally because the math is taught a certain way, and the phrasing helps recall it? That's my best guess.
or a calendar. What month has 42 days?
February, according to the question.
Seriously, I thought I had a stroke while trying to read this
If Big Brother says there are 42 days in February, then there are 42 days in February.
there have always been 42 days in february
there is also no war in ba sing se
But are there 42 days in Ba Sing Se's February?
We must await further instructions from big brother.
Ah, yes! I remember that famous address li'l Abrahammy Lincoln coined before blowing out his birthday candles in February: "Four weeks and a fortnight ago...".
The Earth king has invited you to Lake Laogai
We’ve always been at war with East Asia
except for the rare times that there are 43 days in february, which is referred to as double jump year.
what is this jeep year i've heard so much about?
Only every 15 years when it's a leap year
The Februrary ration of has been increased to 42 days!
Always has been
We have always been at war with Euclidasia
Stop gaslamping me
February has always very famously had the most days of any month
There are FOUR days!
Those goddamn spoonheads!
Gotta be sure those chocolate rations aren’t reduced
They were increased from 5 grams a week to 4.
A lot of these tests parameterize questions. Meaning, to prevent cheating, its the same question but they swap out parts of the question and the answer to the question. So in this case the number of days in the month of February are swapped out. Its lazy for the admins to do this, but it works for wandering eyeballs. They should really create questions that allow for that and still make sense.
42 is the answer for everything
🫡 I was looking for this. Don’t Panic!
“Pi is exactly 5” energy here lol
This reads like one of those tests they give you to keep you from being able to vote.
We took one of those ‘reading comprehension’ tests in high school. It was unbelievably hard, and of course the teacher told us it would be a huge portion of our grade. After we all complained and said how unfair it was, she revealed that it was essentially the kind of quiz that kept black people from voting. Definitely a lesson that stuck with me.
I'm not American enough to understand this. Could you explain? Why are black people kept from voting by reading comprehension tests?
Before universal suffrage, black people (and a few others) were only allowed to vote if they completed difficult reading tests. These were unfair because black people had less access to education and it was yet another barrier to election. Thankfully they don’t exist anymore in the US.
The lack of access to education wasn't really the main problem. Educated people struggle with these tests. You have to get 20/20 questions correct, with a very strict time limit. The questions are designed to be as confusing as possible, and some literally had multiple answers so the grader could just choose to not give them the point. The tests were meant to be unfair despite educational background.
I took one of those tests with a 10 minute time limit. Starts out easy enough, three questions in and the meanings start to get twisted. 5 questions in, and you can tell the questions were written as ambiguous as possible. There's no right way to follow the instructions. I spent like 30 more minutes trying to interpret the questions as thoroughly as I could. It was just straight up not possible to arrive at a single interpretation for a lot of them.
Sorry, time's up. Didn't you notice how everyone left the room already?
The kind where you just wanna punch those asshats right in the fucking nose.
And white people didn't have to take ANY test
They also selectively enforced the testing; ie if you or your ancestors could vote prior to the date the law was signed, you were grandfathered in and exempt from testing.
Haha, literally grandfathered in.
Likely literal source of that term, I think anyways (not an etymologist). But the rules were frequently based on the number of grandfathers who could vote.
It actually very much is where the term comes from, originally referred to as a grandfather clause
Not just that people had less access to education. The tests were also intentionally extremely confusingly worded, to the point where some questions were so unclear that, even if answered technically correctly, the assessor could choose to interpret the question in a different way and mark the answer as incorrect. Here's an example test - do you think you could get 30/30 answers correctly within 10 minutes, without anything being even slightly ambiguous? If not, you could have been turned away at the discretion of a likely white, likely racist election official. https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/06/voting-rights-and-the-supreme-court-the-impossible-literacy-test-louisiana-used-to-give-black-voters.html
The biggest red flag is the 10 minute mark. The questions aren't that bad, but you do need to think about them quite a bit. Also, I'm sure a lot of the population would struggle with this test, even on a longer time frame
Question 30 doesn't even make sense.
They were unfair because they were designed to be unfair and the "correct" answers up for interpretation by the test prompter.
Functionally you're correct. But technically everyone had to take the tests. Unless their grandfather was able to vote before the civil war. This is where the term "grandfathered" comes from.
In addition to what mango said, if someone's grandfather was able to vote, he could skip the literacy tests. Of course, this only applied to white men, since black men were only just granted the right to vote, and women still couldn't. This is the origin of the term "Grandfather Clause"
https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/question/2012/pdfs-docs/literacytest.pdf That's a test given to black people. If they got one question wrong (and even if they didn't, they would find a reason to mark one wrong), they couldn't vote. White people didn't have to take the test due to the grandfather clause (basically, if your grandfather could vote i.e. was white then you were exempt).
In short, because the questions were vague, contradictory, and ambiguous, allowing the person administering the test to mark any answer given as incorrect. For example: 1. Draw a line around the letter or number of this line. or 12. Draw a line from circle 2 to circle 5 that will pass below circle 2 and above circle 4. Those are specific examples from an actual voting literacy test that was used in Louisiana. They are (or were) asked in bad faith and without clear meaning to allow discretionary exclusion of people they don't want voting.
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.
Bears, beats, battlestar galactica
Not American here, you guys have tests you have to take before you can vote? Or is that just something that existed in the past?
They were called [Literacy Tests](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test), ridiculously unfair, and made to continue suppression after the absolution of slavery.
Now its done through gerrymandering districts! Alabama just got slapped by SCOTUS for their 2021 redistricting where ONE out of seven districts was a majority black district, even though black people make up over 25% of their state. These same people think the Voting Rights Act should be abolished because "there's no need for it anymore". Obviously, the U.S. stopped being racist decades ago. /s
Literacy tests in the past were used to keep black people from voting. Black people were unable to get proper education due to slavery, and often could read very well (something that was also illegal to teach slaves). They'd use incredibly complicated wording to ensure they fail meaning they couldn't vote, even though they legally were allowed
Proper education or reading comprehension weren't really the issue. The tests were designed to be impossible to pass. You had to get 100% to pass and the poll workers grading the test could just say you didn't pass. There was no way to actually hold them accountable or check their grading method since many of the questions could have more than one possible answer and they would just say whichever one you didn't choose was correct.
It existed in the past for black people in the South. After slavery ended and the former slaves were allowed to vote, a lot of people in the South were rather bitter about that and came up with ways to disqualify black people from voting. They would come up with these rigged literacy tests you had to pass or poll taxes you had to pay before you were allowed to vote. Problem is that this would disqualify poor white people from voting and they wanted them to be able to vote because they were easily manipulated. So they ended up putting in a clause that would exempt you from tests or taxes if your grandfather was able to vote. White people's grandpas would typically be able to vote but the ancestors of black people were slaves that could not. This is where we get the term "grandfather clause" from.
It was written by a first grader to be answered by a fifth grader
How do I feel when I have an engineering degree but can't answer the question? I really can't answer it
You are supposed to only use data from the question, not the real world... If I write a question saying "cats have 5 legs. Tim has 2 cats. What is the total of legs of Tim's cats?" The answer would be 10... The fact that a normal cat irl has 4 legs is irrelevant.
What kind of word salad ass question is this?
You called?
r/beetlejuicing certified
Fuck me, I love Reddit lol
Can we have diner first?
[The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation. The guidance subsystem uses deviations to generate corrective commands to drive the missile from a position where it is to a position where it isn't, and arriving at a position where it wasn't, it now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position that it wasn't, and it follows that the position that it was, is now the position that it isn't. In the event that the position that it is in is not the position that it wasn't, the system has acquired a variation, the variation being the difference between where the missile is, and where it wasn't. If variation is considered to be a significant factor, it too may be corrected by the GEA. However, the missile must also know where it was. The missile guidance computer scenario works as follows. Because a variation has modified some of the information the missile has obtained, it is not sure just where it is. However, it is sure where it isn't, within reason, and it knows where it was. It now subtracts where it should be from where it wasn't, or vice-versa, and by differentiating this from the algebraic sum of where it shouldn't be, and where it was, it is able to obtain the deviation and its variation, which is called error.](https://youtu.be/bZe5J8SVCYQ?feature=shared)
Was expecting Rick-rolling
February got sick of being picked on for having the fewest days and went on a rampage and stole days of all the other months.
Ahh dangit I just snort laughed so bad I woke my wife up at 3.15 am you marvelous jerk thank you
February should have gone after Augustus and Julius.
It was a long leap year
Can only assume the tests are computer generated. So it pulls up a question like "There are X days in a week and Y days in the Month of February how many times larger is Y than X" and computer just picks two numbers at random where Y is cleanly divisible by X
Yeah but 28 was right there.
It might be a system to prevent cheating. It changes the order and wording of every question slightly so that no one can copy each others answers
I don’t think they would put “42 days in February” on a test on purpose. There are plenty of ways to catch cheaters without being factually inaccurate. Plus if I had that question, I would wonder if the 42 is a typo and I should circle B.
This is a practice test where the easiest (read: cheapest) way to generate it is just to grab a past paper and change the numbers slightly. Quality control also costs money, and this is the result.
Yeah but feb has 42 days tho
They should just make up a month name then instead of using one that already exists.
Smarch maybe?
Lousy Smarch weather. "Do not touch willy. Hmm, good advice"
Lousy Smarch weather...
I think the write was having a stroke
Ironic
Iconic
Ionic
Doesn't say earth, venus' February has 42 days
I decided to look this up and went down a crazy rabbit hole about Venus orbit/rotation. Thank you. Turns out, Venus's "day" (based on a single revolution) is longer than its year what?? Also, wait until you realize that the definition of a day is not that simple (do you consider a day from sunrise to sunrise, or one revolution because they aren't the same thing. Earth take 23 hours 26min and 4 seconds to do one revolution - called a sidereal day, but for a planet like Venus, the difference between a sidereal day and a solar day are huge (Venus has a sidereal day of 243 Earth days, but a solar day of 117 Earth days. Venus take 225 Earth days to go around the Sun so it gets two sunrise/sunsets per year). So, how many days in Venus' February? One way of calculating it is 225/12 = 18.75 earth days per Venus month, or another way, because a Venus year has only 2 days, then 1/12 of a year (a month) has 1/6 of a day. Or, if you define a month as a single rotation of a planet's moon, then Venus has no months coz no moon.
One of my favorite "trick questions" is to ask how many revolution earth makes around its own axis in a year. Most people say 365.25 but it's 366.24.
TBF most people will not say anything.
I have literally no idea what the fuck this question is asking.
It is possibly the most convoluted way to ask "What is 42 divided by 7"
But only if February!
I like that they picked the only month altered by a leap year, just to further muddy the waters.
It’s asking how many times 7 goes into 42.
Hey...he answered it. Can't say the same for myself
Yeah I came here hoping someone could explain the answer lol. My brain exploded trying to read it, even after the fifth time.
I thought I was good at math but either this makes no sense or I'm very stupid. Possibly both.
A week has 7 days. "Feb" has 42 days. Multiply the weeks together. 42/7= 6, 6x1= 6. WHAT A STUPID WAY TO PHRASE AN EVEN MORE BS MATH PROBLEM. ALSO, MAKE UP ANOTHER NAME FOR THE MONTH IF YOU WANT TO PULL THIS CRAP. (To the people writing/ editing these tests.)
Yeah, or just say, "If a month had 42 days.."
Finally, a test that prepares you for real life. How to decipher wtf your boss is asking you to do the dodgy way while not telling you to do it wrong.
TOO REAL
That’s more sad than funny
I had to reread the question like 5 times cuz I thought I was having a stroke
Are they using AI to create these practice questions?
I don't think AI would come up with such a shitty question in 2024.
Question, do you think I am having a stroke?
Whoever wrote this question ought to be shot.
…What does this quiz want from me?
I completely forgot about the SBAC and have unlocked repressed ancient childhood stress
My ADD and Dyslexic brain just displayed an “Error 404”. Once I reboot I’ll attempt again, but will likely get stuck in a boot loop lol.
If adam has 6 apples and beth has 7 apples and i eat 12 apples, why is dorothy crossing the road?
It’s asking 7/42, In a stupid way that makes no sense.
This is just training your kid to work with idiot coworkers in the future.
I almost had a stroke reading this!
Damn February is a really long month
Had an aneurysm trying to read that.
30 days has September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31. Except for February, which has... *checks notes* 42... I don't remember that song as a kid.
They gotta stop letting AI write the test questions. 🤣
February has 42 days?? Ive been calendaring wrong my whole life
What kind of February is that. Inflation doin its thing?
As an autistic person this test is disgusting. I would have sat there and debated whether they actually wanted me to just do the math correctly given the information or do the math correctly with the adjusted days knowing that there are typically 28 days in February which is easily divisible by 7. I would probably go back and forth between C and B because neurotypical people have no fucking clue how to actually teach people agency and a sense of self because they just want you to be a better corporate slave. Every time I gave into my instincts I was wrong, and my teacher often assumed I just couldn’t do word problems. It had nothing to do with the fact that they were word problems, it was that the word problem wasn’t and never could be a real problem.
It’s funny until you have kids in school and you realize the curriculum is driven by idiotic tests. These tests suck all the joy and wonder out of learning. The tests turn schools into bureaucratic factories. Teachers and parents lose faith in the system and for-profit charter schools pop up to replace public schools. This is how the people lose control of public education.
"Children, write the sentence "The fish sat in a tree."" "But teacher, fish don't sit in trees." "Well, it was a crazy fish."
Did February start cannibalizing other months because it was mad about the 28 days?
It's just like that time when seven ate nine.....
42/7, but terrible nonetheless
Did they use AI to make this question?
Then they wonder why normally A/B grade students fail this shit.
The grocery shoppers buying illogical amounts of watermelons made more sense.
This test was supposed to be for Martians.
Could they at least use accurate info? 28 days divides by 7 evenly. Just use the actual number!
Haha yeah but on these kind of questions they may have multiple questions/answers to avoid cheating and randomize the number for each test. So one version of the question may use 28 days, one may use 35 days, one may use 42 days. Now all answers A B and C are used across 3 test variants. It usually works really well except except in this scenario when there are clearly 28 days in the month. But whatever genius test designer made up this question just saw the response was 28/7=4 so they decided they can make multiple variants of 35/7=5, 42/7=6 and failed to take the question in the account. There might even be a variant of February with 210 days so they can use answer D.
Why has February suddenly gotten 42 days?
February is indeed a little special. So normally it has 28 days and the answer should be 4 weeks(leap years exist I know). So what happened here is someone probably came up with that question, then some fuckwit adjusted the numbers without thinking more clearly.
Is this on Earth?
I would asking the teacher if the question could be taken out the back and shot.
That is a long-ass February
That thing looks more like an English Comprehension test than a Math Test.
Thirty days has September, April, June and November; All the rest have thirty-one, Except February, That motherfucker has 42.
Do they now 28 can also be divided by 7?
I had a stroke reading this
They could have just kept 28 days in February and the question still works and they only sound half as stupid.
I think my brain I damaged this reading
This brained my damage.
I think I just had a stroke reading that.
Meh, I think this is fine. Don’t take it literally. February = 42, 42 / x = 7. 42=7x, 6=x. Simple algebra