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Comment by vardalab | Hacker News Reader

So, I grew up in the former Soviet Union. Starting with ninth grade entrance entrance and exit exams were like that. I remember I had to take university physics exam just to be able to qualify for a consideration. It was fairly rough, but I think in a way, good system because it sifted out the wannabes early on.

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Yes, I did Physics, Geometry infront of the committee to explain my answer. Language course was written under a dictation, one mistake would cost you a point out of 5. So you had to be flawless on everything, spelling, punctuation, structure, etc. I aced my physics and language, but got a C (3) in geometry, I fumbled on one question.

Same. The focus on written exams rated blindly and uniformly at the US higher education system always puzzled me. I guess that's the only way to scale things up when you pay professors and teachers living wages?

The blind aspect (I would assume) is meant to cut down on favoritism and discrimination. With the US I understand how that would come about.

Whether it succeeds in that goal is a separate topic.

It does indeed sound great except that everyone was corrupt to the bone

the STEM academic world in the Soviet Union was extremely meritocratic. largely shielded from outside influence and maybe the best talent pipeline anyone has ever invented to produce scientific expertise. Exception being biology as Lysenkoism at some point infected the field.

Corruption affected history or economics because it was ideologically relevant to authorities but math and physics proceeded on its own.

This is an oversimplification. Yes, there was corruption, but it was much less corrupt than the US system, especially today. The US system doesn't try to hide it either, everyone knows about legacy admissions and "school spirit"/donations.

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