Are you as smart as a 15-year-old?: This is what students need to know in the Pisa test

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Bad testimony to the Germans! In the PISA survey, students were worse off than ever. Swiss youth are different. They did a good job. They are above average in three areas: math, reading and science.

Swiss teenagers scored an average of 508 points in mathematics. They surpass our northern neighbors, who scored only 475 points. The average for member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is 472 points.

When it comes to reading performance, 15-year-old Swiss teenagers also surpassed the OECD average of 476 points, with 483 points. However: in the last poll in 2018 there were still 484 points.

Conversion from kilometers to astronomical units

There are three different types of questions in the Pisa test: multiple choice questions and simple and complex questions without suggested answers. The duration of the test was determined as two hours. While tasks had to be done manually before, they are now solved on the computer.

The math questions included tasks in the planetary system, among other things. “For this task, students need to determine which three planets have average distances in astronomical units (AU) shown in the model,” according to the OECD assignment. A table of distances should provide orientation. 1 AU is approximately 150 million kilometers.

Students also had to calculate distances. This required conversion from millions of kilometers to astronomical units.

This was on a Pisa reading mission

As if that wasn’t enough, another section dealt with an intangible result, according to the OECD. Youth were presented with a newspaper headline about a local basketball team that said the team had won all games that season by an average of 19 points. The question was asked whether it was possible for the team not to win a match with a difference of 19 points this season. Solution: Yes it is possible.

For example, in the reading section, students had to browse forum entries and answer questions. Different information had to be assigned to specific members of the forum. Sample studies on bird migration have been carried out in natural sciences.

Source : Blick