back to the third page. A moment later he went all the way to the back of the book and began paging quickly toward the front, his eyes scanning the problems so fast, Brenda could hardly believe he was actually reading them.
“He’s not,” Engersol replied when she voiced her question. “He’s discovered one of the tricks, and I think he’s checking himself out.”
“Tricks?” Brenda asked.
“There are a lot of duplicate problems. Let’s see what he does next.”
In the room where he was working, Josh’s mind was racing. So far, the test had been pretty easy. He’d glanced through the whole thing, and immediately realized that if he were going to get through it in the required time, he’d have to work fast.
He’d started with the math, where he didn’t really have to think. All he had to do was look at the numbers, and the answers were pretty clear, especially since all he really needed was a pretty good guess. After all, who would really think the cube root of 27 could be 9? On a lot of the problems he’d simply been able to eliminate the wrong answers and mark the right one.
But there were so many of them …
And then an idea came to him. He was going at it the wrong way. He didn’t
have
to solve all the problems. If he got the hardest ones right, it would be obvious he knew the answers to the easiest ones.
He flipped through the booklet once again, searching for something he couldn’t solve at all.
He gazed at an advanced calculus equation, and his heart sank. He didn’t know anything about calculus at all.
Feeling the first twinge of doubt since he’d begun thetest, he kept going through the book, searching for questions that challenged his math, but that he at least knew how to work out.
And then he noticed that he was repeating a problem he’d already solved. He flipped forward, finding the same problem on the next to the last page. Frowning, he leafed through the book once again, quickly spotting more duplicate problems. He thought for a moment. Should he find
all
the duplicates, and make sure he put down the same answers on each of them?
But that was stupid. Once he’d gotten a right answer, why even bother to repeat it? He decided to ignore the duplicates, just leaving them blank.
He went back to work, solving one problem after another until he’d gotten down to the point where he didn’t have to think about them at all, then abandoned the math questions, skipping over them as if he didn’t even see them.
He went to work on the analogies, searching immediately for the most obscure problems and the words he couldn’t define.
While he puzzled out the analogies with part of his mind, he simultaneously leafed through thetest book, picking out his purely subjective choices in the aptitude questions, which were mixed in with the objective questions that dealt with his knowledge and ability to reason. Soon a rhythm developed and he was flying through the book, part of his mind processing the more difficult problems while the rest of his concentration focused on the questions that had no right answers, but were designed to build a profile of his talents and interests.
His confidence grew as his involvement in the test deepened.
He was going to ace the test, like he’d aced all the other tests he’d ever taken.
In Engersol’s office Brenda stared at the screen in puzzlement. “I don’t get it,” she murmured. “What’s he doing?”
George Engersol made no answer, for he, too, was staring at the monitor, his gaze seeming almost to bore right into the image on the screen. Josh MacCallum wasworking in a way he’d never seen before—he appeared to be flipping the pages almost randomly, as if he weren’t even bothering to read the questions anymore, but simply picking an answer at random from the multiple choices.
Had he given up?
But if he had, and was just marking answers at random, why was he even using the test book anymore? Why wasn’t he simply going through the
“He’s not,” Engersol replied when she voiced her question. “He’s discovered one of the tricks, and I think he’s checking himself out.”
“Tricks?” Brenda asked.
“There are a lot of duplicate problems. Let’s see what he does next.”
In the room where he was working, Josh’s mind was racing. So far, the test had been pretty easy. He’d glanced through the whole thing, and immediately realized that if he were going to get through it in the required time, he’d have to work fast.
He’d started with the math, where he didn’t really have to think. All he had to do was look at the numbers, and the answers were pretty clear, especially since all he really needed was a pretty good guess. After all, who would really think the cube root of 27 could be 9? On a lot of the problems he’d simply been able to eliminate the wrong answers and mark the right one.
But there were so many of them …
And then an idea came to him. He was going at it the wrong way. He didn’t
have
to solve all the problems. If he got the hardest ones right, it would be obvious he knew the answers to the easiest ones.
He flipped through the booklet once again, searching for something he couldn’t solve at all.
He gazed at an advanced calculus equation, and his heart sank. He didn’t know anything about calculus at all.
Feeling the first twinge of doubt since he’d begun thetest, he kept going through the book, searching for questions that challenged his math, but that he at least knew how to work out.
And then he noticed that he was repeating a problem he’d already solved. He flipped forward, finding the same problem on the next to the last page. Frowning, he leafed through the book once again, quickly spotting more duplicate problems. He thought for a moment. Should he find
all
the duplicates, and make sure he put down the same answers on each of them?
But that was stupid. Once he’d gotten a right answer, why even bother to repeat it? He decided to ignore the duplicates, just leaving them blank.
He went back to work, solving one problem after another until he’d gotten down to the point where he didn’t have to think about them at all, then abandoned the math questions, skipping over them as if he didn’t even see them.
He went to work on the analogies, searching immediately for the most obscure problems and the words he couldn’t define.
While he puzzled out the analogies with part of his mind, he simultaneously leafed through thetest book, picking out his purely subjective choices in the aptitude questions, which were mixed in with the objective questions that dealt with his knowledge and ability to reason. Soon a rhythm developed and he was flying through the book, part of his mind processing the more difficult problems while the rest of his concentration focused on the questions that had no right answers, but were designed to build a profile of his talents and interests.
His confidence grew as his involvement in the test deepened.
He was going to ace the test, like he’d aced all the other tests he’d ever taken.
In Engersol’s office Brenda stared at the screen in puzzlement. “I don’t get it,” she murmured. “What’s he doing?”
George Engersol made no answer, for he, too, was staring at the monitor, his gaze seeming almost to bore right into the image on the screen. Josh MacCallum wasworking in a way he’d never seen before—he appeared to be flipping the pages almost randomly, as if he weren’t even bothering to read the questions anymore, but simply picking an answer at random from the multiple choices.
Had he given up?
But if he had, and was just marking answers at random, why was he even using the test book anymore? Why wasn’t he simply going through the
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