Okay , I was browsing around reading articles about reliability of IQ tests and came across something called PISA(Programme for International Student Assessment) . Supposedly it's the academic equivalent of the Olympics . When conducted in 2009 , the Chinese literally stomped the test , with the Shanghai province scoring the highest despite taking part in the test for the first time .
Here are a few quotes from an Indian article detailing the test's results :
"More than one-quarter of Shanghai's 15-year-olds demonstrated advanced mathematical thinking skills to solve complex problems, compared to an OECD average of just 3%," noted the analysis.
Compared to this , the 2 Indian states which also participated in this test(Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh) ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively from the bottom .
In math, considered India's strong point, the states finished second and third last, beating only Kyrgyzstan; the English test threw up the same result. Girls were better than boys and science results were the worst, where Himachal stood last. TN was slightly better and finished third from bottom. The average 15-year old Indian is over 200 points behind the global topper.
Experts estimate that an Indian class VIII student is at the same level as a South Korean class III student in math abilities or a class II student from Shanghai when it comes to reading skills.
These are the test results from 2009 :
Subsequently , India has refrained from taking part in both 2012 tests and upcoming 2015 tests . According to India's education ministry , the poor performance can be attributed to a "sociocultural" disconnect between the questions and Indian students .
Does this surprise anyone ? I thought Indians were supposed to be pretty good at math , physics and programming . Guess I was wrong .
Isn't @saren an Indian native ? I'd like to hear his and any other Indian posters' thoughts and opinions about all of this .
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