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Comment by voakbasda | Hacker News Reader

The advanced students looking to boost their grade could easily lower their score intentionally, so they get sorted into the beginner group.

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There is a solution to that too: Have the placement exam counted as a proficiency course in the student grades, like foreign language requirements or scientific prep courses in graduate-level schools for those majored in a different field.

My school is a public university. They’re not allowed to introduce mandatory placement exams like that. They have to work within the government-set high school curriculum.

They also don’t want to allow the advanced students to “test out” of the intro course, as some schools do, because the advanced students may be highly skilled at programming but totally lacking in introductory CS knowledge.

I went to a public university and they determined which mathematics class you started in by your ACT/SAT or AP test scores. I guess I'm just struggling to see why a programming course would be any different, or why a placement test would be prohibited when they're already using the standardized test scores as a placement test of sorts. Unless things have changed in the last five years.

Yeah, it's extremely common for people to be extremely prolific programmers in high school, without having much knowledge of foundational computer science or algorithm concepts.

Source: Am a high school programmer

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