I was always annoyed by those race questions.

I'm "white," but I'm also South American. So I was advised to put down South American when I first took one of those tests - the supervisors said it would be more accurate and, well, some Westerners still have a hard time believing that any South American is actually white. But then the SATs thought I was Hispanic and set me down for some Hispanic scholarship fund or something - but I'm not Hispanic, so they took the nomination away. After that incident, I started to put "other." I'm guessing it must be even more annoying for people who have mixed ethnicities.

its always probably fun for the bi-racial

Originally posted by BowWowsBaby
its always probably fun for the bi-racial
i hate it when i'm filling out stuff like that and they ask for your eye color and there's no blue/green option. just blue or green. cause mine are both. :grr:

~Edited~

the standardized part

god Americans are stupid...there are alot of white Brazilians etc.


I hate the way that the tests dont actually tell you anything, I'm just a good guesser, and apparently that places me in the 99th percentile for my Washington Standardized Tests

When they ask what religion you practice. Completely unnecessary aside from their silly statistics.

the fact that they exist

Originally posted by Idol Fanatic
When they ask what religion you practice. Completely unnecessary aside from their silly statistics.

That question is stupid. I'm not even able to answer that question. I don't especially practice any religion. I am what I like to call a spiritual reincarnationist. And, I think they definetely wouldn't have that on the list. What is the most practiced religion in the States anyway? Is it Christianity?

The race and religion questions. I feel like I'm being discriminated against or something. It pisses me off.

Originally posted by Chambers
I was always annoyed by those race questions.

I'm "white," but I'm also South American. So I was advised to put down South American when I first took one of those tests - the supervisors said it would be more accurate and, well, some Westerners still have a hard time believing that any South American is actually white. But then the SATs thought I was Hispanic and set me down for some Hispanic scholarship fund or something - but I'm not Hispanic, so they took the nomination away. After that incident, I started to put "other." I'm guessing it must be even more annoying for people who have mixed ethnicities.

Those questions are dumb anyway. Who cares how much better the blacks do in math than the Latinos or whatever? I don't.

i hate those CAT 6 STAT 9 or whatever they call them tests in school and the teacher has to read every single thing aloud and then if you finish early you have to sit in the quiet classroom for like an hour lol i also hate filling in those damn bubbles

Anyway, the thing I hate is that you really can't study for them.

Originally posted by consentida
The race and religion questions. I feel like I'm being discriminated against or something. It pisses me off.
it's for when two people have everything in common except their religion.

I was always annoyed by those race questions.

It's not just on the standardised tests. It's on college applications and forms of every kind.

My half sister is part Portuguese, part Chinese, and part Caucasian, and I know that she despises these questions. They're almost as annoying to her as people coming up to her and saying "What exactly are you?"
Because of this, my entire family (even though everyone else in my family is entirely Caucasian) has taken to putting "other" on such forms.
I think more people should do this, start a quiet revolution against the need for "race definitions."
Ditto for religion questions on tests and applications that have nothing to do with religion.
Or just to f*ck with "The Man." Whatever.

In the UK we aren't asked any of those questions- the board of education has all our details, we all just have to fill in our number (we have numbers- because the UK is a totalitarian state now) on the front of the test and that's it!

I hate tests because in the real world of work, you have the option at looking something up if you've forgot or havent used it in ages- while with tests it's more of a memory test than anything.

Originally posted by periacta

My half sister is part Portuguese, part Chinese, and part Caucasian, and I know that she despises these questions.

This confuses me too - are Portuguese-Americans automatically not considered caucasians? I've noticed people tend to do this with Italian-Americans too - if they have dark eyes and dark hair or something and aren't as white as Anglo-Americans, they're not white at all. What bugs me about this is how strict race definitions are in the U.S. (although the U.S. isn't the only country that does it). I know this British guy who emigrated to the U.S. who was asked about his skin undertones at an American consulate. The consul said he wanted to correctly label people who thought they were white but weren't actually truly white (like if they had a slight olive undertone to their skin). :confused:


The other part I hate about these tests is that they don't measure intelligence at all. I know people who have done really well on them and yet do a poor job in real life. I know people who have done very poorly on those tests and are now great successes.

Having to take them is what annoys me.
And the race/religion thing. (soon they'll be asking for something like "sexual preference")
But mostly, having to take it.

Another one:

FILLING IN THOSE DAMN BUBBLES.

This is gonna sound odd, but I love standardized tests. :biglove: I think they're usually really easy, and they get me out of classes for a couple days.

Originally posted by Chambers
This confuses me too - are Portuguese-Americans automatically not considered caucasians?

You are, of course, completely right about being confused about that and also for pointing out that my phrasing in my post was rather ignorant.
My attention was somewhere else when I wrote that, and rereading it now "part Portuguese, part Chinese, and part Caucasian" seems extremely dumb. I knew better.

You are right also, Chambers, about many people with Mediterranian heritage's status as a caucasian being questioned. Portuguese, Spanish (especially in the Southwest, I grew up in Arizona, and I was shocked to learn that there were people in Europe that spoke Spanish!), as well as Italians and Greeks (Grecians?), and probably a lot of other countries that I'm missing.

I think in the past (and still to this day) there are different "degrees" of "whiteness," or, at least the classes and "desireability" within the rather large category of "Caucasian." Nordic and Anglo-Saxon seem to occupy the highest tier, French and German--the middle one, and Mediterranean and Russian, and other Eastern European inhabitants take up the bottom rung.
That's assuming you're Christian, of course, otherwise, you don't even get a damn rung.
But now we're getting more into class distinctions, so I digress.

I'm actually pretty sure that the "caucasian" has been thrown out as a race defining term in Anthropological studies and other scientific fields, being that the lines (as in all "races") have become so blurred.

Of course we couldn't ask the creators of an educational standardised test to follow something as crazy as science, could we? I mean, what with their cockeyed ideas about "evolution" and "global warming"! :rolleyes:

Originally posted by barwars
(soon they'll be asking for something like "sexual preference")

Uh oh...I hope not. I can just imagine my chagrin...
"F*ck. The test hasn't even started, and already there's a question I don't know/don't care enough to answer!"

All in all, I just hate them. I hate those stupid bubbles, I hate when you realise at question #126 that you inadvertently skipped question #11, so NOW you have to erase all those perfectly filled in bubbles and start all.over.again.
And I hate how they have instructions on the test on how to shade in the bubbles. JESUS CRHIST! Is anyone really that dumb that they need help figuring that out?!

Fortunately, I'm all done with standardised tests...until I take the MCAT next year.

Originally posted by periacta
I think in the past (and still to this day) there are different "degrees" of "whiteness," or, at least the classes and "desireability" within the rather large category of "Caucasian." Nordic and Anglo-Saxon seem to occupy the highest tier, French and German--the middle one, and Mediterranean and Russian, and other Eastern European inhabitants take up the bottom rung.
That's assuming you're Christian, of course, otherwise, you don't even get a damn rung.

Yes - it's all arbitrary (mostly political) categorization. Afterall, the Irish weren't even considered white at one point.

I thought Scotch-Irish was about as white as you could get

Originally posted by ThirteenInchEscape
I thought Scotch-Irish was about as whit as you could get

Yup, but for obvious political reasons the English claimed the Irish weren't white - that the Irish were an inferior race. The Irish in the U.S. only started to climb the "racial ladder" when they adopted racist attitudes towards African-Americans. That's why these racial classification systems are completely arbitrary and, well, racist.

What I want to know is why "Human" isn't listed in the race section...I mean, Humans make up the largest race of people on Earth...

Originally posted by Chambers
I was always annoyed by those race questions.

I'm "white," but I'm also South American. So I was advised to put down South American when I first took one of those tests - the supervisors said it would be more accurate and, well, some Westerners still have a hard time believing that any South American is actually white. But then the SATs thought I was Hispanic and set me down for some Hispanic scholarship fund or something - but I'm not Hispanic, so they took the nomination away. After that incident, I started to put "other." I'm guessing it must be even more annoying for people who have mixed ethnicities. I absolutely LOVE standardized tests! About 2 weeks of screwed up schedules and fun tests:D Nothing better than those....

Originally posted by Chambers
The other part I hate about these tests is that they don't measure intelligence at all. I know people who have done really well on them and yet do a poor job in real life. I know people who have done very poorly on those tests and are now great successes.
Intelligence and success aren't always linked together. The smartest person I know (Me:D I am serious about this though. Not trying to be egotistical or anything) never does his homework:D I am just WAY too lazy to spend my time with that crap at my haven, AKA my house.