Ohio Graduation Test - Sample Questions from Website - How Smart Are You?

Submitted by Michiganguy19 on

I know there have been posts about JT getting in. Hope he does... These tests seem to be important to test reading skills, but its not like most of us solve for x in the real world. When I graduated HS in Michigan there was a merit test that you had to take and I believe that you got a small scholarship, but passing the test was not mandatory. All I actually remember is being bored and that one of the questions involved a picture of the state of Utah and asked you to identify it.

According to achieve.org and USA Today, 26 states in the US have graduation exams. Their data shows that in some states as many as 40% of HS graduates end up taking remedial english classes when they get to college. Likewise, there are three types of graduation exams that exist:

1. Pass the test or else.
2. Pass the test or do a project/complete other criteria.
3. A two tier system where you still get your "local" diploma, but you do not get certified as a HS graduate based on state standards.

Overall, the system in my opinion is mostly a school by school progress report and a "guarantee" by educators that they are not just flipping diplomas to get kids out the door.

Some states that have graduation tests are: Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas. So this will likely come up again in the future with recruits. It seems that these tests mainly cover the three core subjects -English, Math and Science

Sample questions are on the Ohio website and I posted a few below for fun.The Reading sections are too long to post in here and many of the Science Questions have graphs and other tables that are hard to copy. If you have some free time and want to check it out, the link is provided. Below are a few sample questions.

http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3…

Don't let your alma mater down...

Answers are provided on the website, but I figured you would want to challenge yourself.

-Go Blue

Sample Questions Mathematics

1. The table below contains the results of a
biology experiment.
Record of Blooms
Week 1 2 3 4 5

Number of Blooms 3 9 27 81 b

Assuming the pattern shown in the table
continues, what is the value of b?

A. 108
B. 130
C. 162
D. 243

6. A set of data contains 10 negative numbers
and 4 positive numbers. Which one of these
statements must be true?
A. The mean is a negative number.
B. The median is a negative number.
C. The mode is a negative number.
D. The range is a negative number.
3. Which equation is equivalent to
3(2x – 5) = 4(x + 3)?
A. 2x = –27
B. 2x = 27
C. 10x = –27
D. 10x = –3

Sample Questions Science

2. Architects are working with
engineers to build a lecture hall.
How can they design it so that
echoes are reduced and speech is
not heard as garbled sounds?

A. build smooth marble walls,
ceilings and polished floors
B. construct many flat walls,
angled ceilings and smooth
floors
C. use an ultramodern design of
metal walls, pillars and seats
D. build walls out of porous
materials, upholster the seats

17. Two processes that allow cells to
release energy from food are:

A. mitosis and meiosis.
B. excretion and diffusion.
C. fermentation and cellular
respiration.
D. osmosis and spontaneous
generation.

Comments

beast

July 10th, 2009 at 10:23 AM ^

in 2005 it was such a joke. They gave you like seven tries to pass. That and because funding is directly related to test scores the teachers spent weeks giving us practice test so we knew exactly what was gonna be on it. But then again maybe Ohio decided to toughen up its standards. I dont remember it being hard at all.

PaulVB

July 10th, 2009 at 10:33 AM ^

I was hoping this was going to be like the bit that Cowherd ripped off from MZone.

I think I did pretty well on the questions though…

pz

July 10th, 2009 at 11:10 AM ^

that the intent of his post is to bash anyone.

In another thread, folks were asking for sample questions to see what was going on. I think it is at worst a bit more information for people who were wondering what was up.

I went to HS in Ohio, and yes, I had to take that set of exams, and yes, I was fortunate enough to attend a school where most took and passed them early on in their HS years.

However, many schools lack the resources to properly prepare students for said tests. The review of the test itself reflects more poorly on our education system as a whole than on the individuals who have difficulty with the tests. I hope for JT's sake that he will pass the test cleanly and take advantage of the tremendous opportunity to further his education at UM.

Michiganguy19

July 10th, 2009 at 11:20 AM ^

I agree with this response from - pz. We took the Michigan Merit test our Junior year and our school was well prepared to pass each student. It seems that schools have an incentive for students to pass, if they get funding based on their success.

In general I have heard about more of these tests popping up around the country and I was responding to other board requests to see some sample questions.

I firmly believe that the tests should at a minimum help identify students that need some extra help, and hope that they get those resources.

pz

July 10th, 2009 at 11:51 AM ^

Having taken the tests myself, I had forgotten exactly what the questions were like (yes, some much easier than others), but to be honest, in agreement with msoccer below, these were harder than I remembered.

Blue boy johnson

July 10th, 2009 at 8:32 PM ^

I said in a post that I would love to see a sample test. Yesterday there were rumors that Turner did not pass the test. I was curious, because everyone said if he concentrated on the test he should be able to pass it, so I just wanted to see for myself what others were referring to.

In short, take a chill, we are all rooting for Turner. I think you have misconstrued the motive of this diarist totally

With a moniker like ISH I thought you'd be a bit more lenient.

Elno Lewis

July 10th, 2009 at 11:38 AM ^

No way am i going to put up with 4 years of high school and be made to take that stupid test unless I could cheat.

wolfman81

July 10th, 2009 at 1:06 PM ^

75%

D
B
D
C

I had to look the last one up myself to be sure, but from what I remember...

17. Two processes that allow cells to
release energy from food are
A. mitosis and meiosis.
------------> Mitosis is cell division for regular cells, and Meiosis is cell division for sperm and ova. (So not A)

B. excretion and diffusion.
------------> Diffusion is transmission (of nutrients, oxygen, CO_2, etc.) through a barrier, excretion is usually something like pooping or peeing.

C. fermentation and cellular
respiration.
------------> Winner by process of elimination. Also makes sense. Fermentation, makes energy by converting sugars to alcohols (BEER!). Cellular Respiration is converting food energy into ATP, which starts ATP->ADP conversions, which makes us go.

D. osmosis and spontaneous
generation.
------------> Osmosis is diffusion of water, this rules out D

Wouldn't my HS bio teacher be proud?

Touchdown... N…

July 10th, 2009 at 2:13 PM ^

I know in the age of internet recruits check message boards yada yada. All Michiganguy19 is trying to do is provide a little background knowledge of a test that we recently just heard of due to JT's issue with it. So let's enjoy it(or skip it) for what it represents, which is background info. I doubt JT or any potential recruit would look at this as bashing...

cargo

July 10th, 2009 at 2:22 PM ^

This was suppose to be a reply to PZ

Thats actually a different test the OGT, they implemented this the year after i graduated. The one your thinking of the proficiency tests were given your freshman year and had 5 subjects. This one is given as a sophmore or junior i believe, and less subject. They are supposed to be harder then proficiency ones and were added when bush passed the no child left behind act.

Blue in Yarmouth

July 10th, 2009 at 2:27 PM ^

read in other places they said this test was essentially a formality but if those sample questions are any indication I could see lots of people having trouble with it. I majored in Bio and the science questions made me take a minute to think.....though that was 10 years ago.....
Also, I am wondering how this could be considered bashing?
If you told me you had to write a test and I said, "Let me see what I can find out about that test so I can better understand what you are going to be tested on". Would you consider that bashing?
I think I am speaking for most people (Wolverine fans I should say) when I say we want Justin to qualify as he will be a huge presence on our defence. I don't think taking an interest in how he is progressing toward becoming eligible is that terrible.

ShockFX

July 11th, 2009 at 1:32 PM ^

But it's ridiculously easy by process of elimination. The first three answers are, essentially: A. Smooth, B. flat, C. polished metal. D. Is porous walls and cloth. It's kind of obvious at that point no?

BlueBulls

July 10th, 2009 at 4:06 PM ^

I usually did pretty well on standardized tests like that and although the first 2 questions were jokes, the second 2 were pretty tough.

Imagine that you're just a random hs student that doesn't have experience going to a nice theater like Hill, and therefore no point of reference for Q3. Q4 also requires specific knowledge.

I don't think he was trying to bash anyone, in fact, I now have more empathy for the kid (if he truly did/does have problems with it [I'm still unclear about that]). I could easily see someone going into the test thinking it was a formality and getting totally blindsided.

jmblue

July 11th, 2009 at 12:36 AM ^

Math:

1. D

6. B

3. B

Science:

2. D

17. C

I think I got them all right, although I'm not positive about the last one. They were a little tougher than I would've guessed.

nmwolverine

July 11th, 2009 at 8:34 AM ^

Despite being an ace at stupid useless standardized tests, I would have struggled with this one. Who wrote this thing, the same people that used to have a math section on the LSAT?