Letters

Contrary to his contention that the exams "don't work,'' I would like to point out that they not only work in terms of indicating whether students can perform quality work at the college level but also in terms of upgrading a high school curriculum that has been "dumbed down'' to a point that has become demonstrably ludicrous. Perhaps this has not been true at schools such as Carolina Day School where Roberts teaches, but it has certainly been true in most public schools nationwide.

Roberts' first objection is directed at the section of the exam that requires students to carefully read various passages of prose or poetry and then answer multiple-choice questions. Although I would take issue with his assertion that "few college humanities professors use multiple-choice questions in their courses,'' he more importantly fails to understand why such questions are part of the exam. In an article published in The College Board Review (Spring, 1989), Eric Wimmers, senior examiner for the Educational Testing Service, explained the validity of such a testing process. He stated that the questions are a test of close reading ability. They force the student to read with discernment, to draw careful inferences, and, perhaps most important, to establish "a boundary where objective understanding ends and subjective response and interpretation begin.''

Furthermore, Wimmers noted that the questions used in the exam are not those that require "reductive'' readings of the works (such as "Which of the following is the meaning of Moby Dick?'') but those that require the student to move from the level of comprehension of words and phrases in context "through the recognition of structural patterns, rhetorical procedures, and figures of speech, to the recognition or interpretation of imagery, tone, purpose, genre, and theme.'' In other words, students are being tested on their ability...