The SAT Test: Good for Korean 'Testees'
Better for your 'stamina' than boshintang!
According one of my Korean students, the SAT test "helps the testees to gain the overall knowledge" needed for university life.
Well, I don't think that many students wear overalls these days (aside from a few hardy souls at agricultural colleges), but I'd heartily agree that 'testees' ought to know all about covering themselves properly by the time they head off for university.
My student also thinks that "the SAT test gives ... testees" a better understanding of "Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice."
Perhaps the student means that it helps the 'testees' better empathize with the proud and rigid Mr. Darcy?
And not only in things literary do the 'testees' prove useful, for the student holds that they also stimulate "interest in [other] subjects unfamiliar to the testees," things that bring one into "the judicial system," even as high up as "the Supreme Court"!
I hope that the this supreme rise attributed to the 'testees' is a career move and doesn't involve legal problems stemming from something unseemly.
But I also find myself faced with a dilemma requiring a judicious decision of my own. How do I prudently tell this student -- a female! -- that either she's misspelling "testes" or should be writing "test-takers"? Either way, I'll have to explain what "testes" means.
And I'm not sure that I have the 'test-takers' for that...
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 2:54 AM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Ah, just tell her that test-takers is more appropriate.
You might want to mention that the SAT test itself does nothing to help test-takers "gain the overall knowledge needed for university life." Presumably (I stress), students already know what they're supposed to know and will learn the rest when they get there.
I can only speak for myself, of course, but my testes completely missed the point of Pride and Prejudice.
And I would agree with kangmi that the SAT does nothing to help students gain knowledge. In fact, no test helps students gain knowledge--the point of a test is to test knowledge, not to impart it. I think that's a far more important flaw in your student's paper than her fondness for testes.
By the way, raunchy humor aside, you do know that "testee" is actually a word, right? Yeah, it's funny, and should probably be replaced by "test-takers," but it is still valid English.
Jeffery,
Your student is nuts.
Kangmi, you're right, of course. There's no need for me to elaborate on "testees" at all.
Still, it gave me something to blog about...
Jeffery Hodges
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Charles, I imagined that "testees" is a word (on the model of "employee"), and I didn't tell the student that she was wrong but simply replaced "testees" by "test-takers" as the better alternative.
Jeffery Hodges
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Wonderdog ... what a squirrely thing to say.
Jeffery Hodges
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At the risk of some minor bawdiness, I'll relate a joke:
A guy walks into a psychiatrist's office wearing only a piece of plastic wrap around his waste. Taking one look at him, the psychiatrist says, "I can clearly see your('re) nuts."
ba dump bump.
Wonderdog, that guy must have been wasted.
Jeffery Hodges
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Amusing, as always, Gypsy Scholar!
Thanks, Nathan.
Jeffery Hodges
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Aaaaarg! I got "worded"!
Waist...dang it.
Wonderdog, I still like "waste."
Jeffery Hodges
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I found a nice site that provides great information on the SAT and interesting strategies.
http://www.macunderground.org/satfaq.php
RSydnor55, thanks. I'm positive that the ears of 'testees' everywhere will prick up at this news.
Jeffery Hodges
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