People like to poke fun at Mississippi's teachers and students for our less-than-desirable reputation in education. (Need evidence of our shoddy statistics? Look here and here. For starters.) It's such a regular occurrence that "Thank God for Mississippi" even has its own entry in the Urban Dictionary.
Apparently it's a regular response when state rankings are reported. Especially if you hail from the 2nd worst state. No worries, you'll always be ahead of the Magnolia State!
But before you take the easy way out and hang your head in shame OR point and laugh, let me ask you one thing. As an educated adult, could you pass Mississippi's 7th grade Language Arts standardized test? Don't worry. It's multiple choice.
Easy, right?
Easy, right?
Consider this a pop quiz. Normally, Mississippi students have to answer 40 reading questions and 40 writing questions over 2 days. But since you're probably a little rusty, I'll only ask you to answer 3.
From the 2008 MCT2 practice test:
From the 2009 MCT2 practice test:
From the 2008 MCT2 practice test:
From the 2009 MCT2 practice test:
From the 2010 MCT2 practice test:
Please leave a comment with your answers. I'm going to tally up the responses and see how we do.
No cheating. Don't forget. I have eyes in the back of my head.
No cheating. Don't forget. I have eyes in the back of my head.
I'm watching you,
Ms. P
11 bonus points:
OMG I was good at language arts in Middle School but I know I'm going to do awful on this. I don't remember having questions like this! But, I'll try...
C
H
G
ack.
CARMEN! Nice to internet-see you. Yeah, these questions are beasts, but thanks for putting yourself out there. I had to look up the answers myself, and I TEACH 7th grade Language Arts. I'll give the answers away in the next post.
I HAD to try because I feel like it hasn't been that long since I was in school so I should still remember this stuff.
#3 is clearly G. #1 doesn't provide enough details about the assignment for me to guess -- is it supposed to be persuasive through emotional appeals or factual? Vivid language will sell on pathos, but you need "facts" to make a logical appeal. I don't like any of the answers in #2 because there's no option for "take it out because it's unnecessary fluff," but I guess H comes closest. Blearg. I'd fail 7th grade, apparently.
c
f
g
WOW!! HARD!
The MS MCT is waaaay harder than the CA STAR exam (I've prepped in both states.) Why do MS test writers continue to sabotage students? I believe Dr. Jolly stated that a panel of teachers actually write the exam.
STAR practice test link... I thought you might find it interesting to compare.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/documents/cstrtqela7.pdf
Okay, B , H, G
C
H
G
Number one is a horribly constructed question. Asking students if a passage provides "good information to persuade" them is both awkwardly worded and impossible to answer objectively.
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