Philosophy students excel on standardized tests

[Antediluvian]

http://libarts.wsu.edu/philo/overview/excel.asp

According to this article, philosophy students typically have a great advantage when taking standardized tests with scores on the GRE described as:

the highest verbal reasoning score of students in ANY major
the highest analytical writing score of students in ANY major
the highest quantitative reasoning score of any humanities or arts major

as well as scores on the LSAT

the highest score of students from any of the 12 largest disciplines (tied for first with Economics)
the 2nd highest score of students in any major (trailing only Physics)
by far the highest score of any majors traditionally associated with Pre-Law preparation. (For example, English was 11th, Political Science 16th, and stand-alone Pre-Law programs were 28th.)

Some think that philosophy majors are endowed with these reasoning skills because of the curriculum they endure, but it could also be that those in this major are naturally inclined to perform well. However, I'm sure the curriculum aids these students at least to some extent.

 

[Philovitist]

Philosophy attracts a lot of people of the high-end intellectual academician stripe. I think that's where most of the advantage comes from.

 

[snafupants]

Philosophy attracts a lot of people of the high-end intellectual academician stripe. I think that's where most of the advantage comes from.

I would contend the same thing. The GRE, at least the old version, is slightly more g-loaded (~.8) than conventional IQ tests like the WAIS (~.7) tend to be; the GRE correlates better with most IQ tests (r = ~.82) than some IQ tests correlate with one another (r = ~.4 - .9, m = ~.7). The GRE was actually more g-loaded in the nineties when it possessed the LSAT-like multiple choice, rather than essay, analytical reasoning section. The verbal section of the GRE has historically been the most g-loaded and least susceptible to practice, at least within the verbal/quantitative dichotomy; incidentally the vocabulary, information, comprehension and similarities sections of the VCI on the WAIS are among the most g-loaded (~.78). Those sections appear to emulate the GRE verbal section. Almost like they planned it that way...bastards.

 

[LTVX]

Is it me or isn't the core of the methodology used in universities to teach and exam students based on philosophical texts?

 

[scorpiomover]

Easy way to find out. Compare pre-entry SAT scores by degree, to see the level of pre-selection.

Then compare pre-entry SAT scores to post-entry LSAT scores, for the average scores by degree, to see the level of improvement by each degree.

Sure the data is available. No need to speculate. when we have the empirical data to analyse and deduce the answer.

 

[Melkor]

It's a pity that philosophy is such a useless degree in the real world then, isn't it? XD