Mr. Schleicher says that while reviewing the test results. The LSATs, for instance, is a test that requires knowledge applied creatively, too, but it doesn't mean successful test-takers are able to produce Google or Facebook. In fact, successful test-taking implies conformity with the graded standard, and is intended to measure how students stack up against a defined standard.

Would you say the US-equivalent of Advanced Placement exams be a good measure of creativity? It requires creativity in solutions too--but the real question is, can you TEST creativity? Can you test the ability for people to see problems? A test, by nature, has already presented a problem. It doesn't test if they can see a problem and devise a solution.

With enough practice, you can answer every tested problem type on a "standardized" test. A Chinese student told me that when he was studying for the SATs he looked for every single problem type and that once he had considered every problem type, it was just a matter of applying the same strategy to the problem. The key is that since the test is "standardized," you can look for the standard types of problems.

I'm questioning the culture, I suppose. Not the people. The culture in China hasn't really changed.[1]

[1] An interesting tidbit: Mao observed the effects of Confucianism and how it stilted innovation in China and launched the "Cultural Revolution" as a means to deprecate Confucianism.