It's a self-assessment device for prospective honors students. You score it this way:
* agree strongly - 5 pts
* agree - 4 pts
* indifferent or can't decide - 3 pts
* disagree - 2 pts
* disagree strongly - 1 pts
If you score 70 or higher you will enjoy your career in Honors. He also says "no one will score a 100 on this (at least not without multiple personalities)."
Respond to the following statements:
1. I like to read for fun.
2. I can stall on schoolwork but still make an A with a last-minute push.
3. I am goal-oriented and hate to be distracted from achieving what I've set my sights on.
4. My strongest motivations are intrinsic. Some things are worth doing for their own sake.
5. Sometimes I enjoy being alone with my thoughts.
6. Discussing ideas with other people is exciting.
7. I find myself thinking differently from those around me.
8. I am already gathering information about postgraduate education (law schools, med schools, graduate school, etc.).
9. I solve problems more quickly than most people.
10. I enjoy being with friends who are as smart as I am.
11. I can tolerate living with "loose ends" -- unanswered questions, unsolved problems.
12. I would rather take all the classes I'm interested in than graduate early.
13. I want to take classes that challenge me, even if it doesn't mean more money when I graduate.
14. I expect to meet interesting people and be exposed to new ideas in college.
15. I would like to go abroad for study or travel.
16. I enjoy doing projects or research on my own.
17. A good course is one that is an adventure in thinking and that tackles big issues. I would take it even if I weren't guaranteed an A.
18. I'm pretty sure of who I am, even if I haven't chosen a career.
19. Even though I expect to make new friends and participate in extracurricular activities, my top priority in college is learning.
20. I pay attention to current events.
It is really interesting to see this list and think about our current students and myself as an undergrad. Until recently, our honors college admitted student based solely on ACT. Good test scores do not reflect any of these interests. In fact, some of these interests will probably work against a good GPA. I know that many of the honors colleges and programs around the country continue to use GPA/ACT/SAT for their only admittance criteria. I don't fault them for it, because I realize how difficult it is to be objective and fair when trying to admit students. I was part of our honors interview process last year as we started a program deemphasizing ACT scores and I've seen the issues that can arise when trying to determine if one student is 'better' than another. On the other side of the system is the students who are planning on being judged by their GPAs and ACTs. That is how they've been told they can earn all of the things mentioned in the above list, and this does not include parent's expectations. It is a really tough situation, and I'm proud of UCA's honors college for trying to change the system.
I scored high on this test, but I spent most of my time in honors questioning whether or not I belonged there. I've been strongly considering working with honors students, because there are so many ways in which I can relate to them. I understand the concept that any grade other than an A is failing. I've dealt with the desire to find or form the perfect argument. I've struggled with the transition from conversational honors classes to general education courses where current issues are avoided. At the same time, there are still a lot of ways that I don't relate. As an undergrad I was in love with the program, but not all the people it attracted. Then it made me like an outcast, as a professional I worry it will make me feel unappreciated. Fortunately, I think the opportunity to work with people who believe in those honorsesque ideals will outweigh the mistakes students make as they work on maturing.
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2 comments:
I scored 81, and I'm not so sure how I feel about it. I think a non-Honors student would have scored just as high. I'm ambivalent about my feelings towards the Honors College (at UCA and as an experiment in general). Don't get me wrong; I appreciate all I learned and gained from my experience as an Honors Collegian. I don't think I'd have learned the things I did or gained the professional experience I did without the Honors College. For that, I am truly grateful. But my issue with Honors--in general and in practice at UCA--is the fact that it get get to be so classist, so upper-crust, so vanilla. In my experience, there is just no diversity in these types of programs: you take classes with upper-middle class white kids, taught my upper-middle class white professors, about upper-middle class white concerns. Occasionally there'd be a course about social class, and we did talk about social issues, but all anyone could do, basically, was theorize. There was little praxis, I guess.
I'm with you, though. In a lot of ways, I always felt out of place in Honors. I grew up poor, I came in Honors late, I'm a first generation college student, so I have a different set of concerns for my future. A lot of times, I felt guilty knowing that, while my education was/is important, getting out of college and landing a job that pays me enough to live comfortably is a concern of mine, too. A lot of times I felt too practical for Honors. What I mean by that is in discussions with Honors students, or in Honors classes, I sometimes felt like my peers were missing the real point of discussion--poverty is not just about economic theories and finger pointing, but it's about the people who live in it every day, and in doing so make America run.
I've been thinking a lot about Honors recently because my old room mate from last year who is still at UCA told me he decided to drop out of the program. He is a nursing major and he simply cannot fit an Honors class in his schedule. He's already done independent studies, so at this point, he really has no other option than to quit. I found myself really supporting his decision, whereas two years ago I'd have really encouraged him to stick with the program by whatever means necessary. Ultimately, I know that one does not have to be in Honors to be smart, to do well in school. And, conversely, that just because one is in Honors does not mean his is smart or that he will succeed in school.
I don't know if any of that makes sense. I don't hate Honors, so I hope my comments aren't interpreted that way. I'm just not so sure I did it for the right reason or that I'd do it again if I had to go back in time and decide.
Very thought provoking post!
Thank you for such a thoughtful and honest response. I've wondered about the white upper-middle class that overwhelms honors too. I've worried that honors programs (not necessarily UCA's) are more of a social club than an academic endeavor. We attract and recruit the people who are already interested in the things mentioned on the quiz, we bring them all together and we push them harder than they would probably push themselves. We refine their skills, but in all honesty, they would have been successful anyway. Are we just giving them a place to find friends with those similar interests?
To follow with that, what if honors programs spent energy on students who didn't score high on this quiz. If we worked to inspire them and give them reason to care about the things on the list we would help them be successful. As an example, paying attention to current events (question 20) will help students in any of their classes. It doesn't matter if they are taking gen ed Biology, Psychology, or Oral Comm.
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