Taiwan high school students top global math skills test

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_cont..._Society_TAIWAN

Taiwan high school students have better mathematical skills and greater scientific knowledge than students at the same level from other countries, according to the results of an international student assessment program aimed at testing how well students around the world are prepared for the challenges of a knowledge-based world in the future.

Lin Huan-hsiang, president of National Hualien University of Education who was responsible for the assessment program in Taiwan, attributed the good performance of Taiwan students to the success of a series of programs promoted by the government to reform Taiwan's nine-year compulsory education system.

Lin's project is part of the Program for International Student Assessment under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The survey is done once every three years among 15-year-old students from major countries around the world.

It was the first time Taiwan students had been invited to take part in the program to compete with students from other countries, including Finland, France, Belgium, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand. Greece, and Switzerland.

A total of 8,815 Taiwanese students from junior and senior high schools, vocational schools, and junior colleges were chosen to take part in the test of their ability to comprehend and tackle mathematics, scientific, and reading programs.

Their test scores were later compared with the results of tests carried out among 400,000 students in 56 other countries.

Lin announced the results of the global survey at a press conference in the company of officials from the Ministry of Education and the National Science Council who helped with the project.

Taiwan students ranked No. 1 on mathematical knowledge and skills, followed by students from Finland, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Japan ranked tenth and Sweden, 21st, in this category.

The top performer in science was Finland, followed by Hong Kong and Canada. Taiwan ranked fourth in this category, outperforming Japan, which placed fifth, and South Korea which placed tenth.

Although Taiwan students ranked 16th in the area of reading, their test scores were much higher than average among students from the OECD member countries. However, Japanese and South Korean students placed higher in this category compared to Taiwanese students.

According to the survey, South Korea's strong reading performance improved even further between 2000 and 2006 by 31 points, raising the level of the top performers. Finland's reading performance also improved my 29 points over the same period, the results showed.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria, who announced the survey results at a press conference in Tokyo, emphasized the importance of education to the development of people and societies.

"Effective and innovative education policies open enormous opportunities for individuals, Gurria said. "In the highly competitive globalized economy of today, quality education is one of the most valuable assets that an individual can have," he said.

Good job Taiwan!


I'm not at all surprised at these results. Though I'm suprised that is Taiwan's first participation--for this particular test anyhow.



Good job Finland!

In many ways, both Taiwan and Finland are underdogs.

I always root for the underdog. It's a fundamental element of my ethos.

For those who don't know, the Fins have always been regarded as the Pollacks of Scandinavia, looked down upon by the Swedes who often ruled them. Among the northern Europeans, the stereotype of Fins is that they are stubborn and very nationalistic--and inferior. These results throw a giant monkey wrench into that pile of bollocks.

Off topic, but during WWII, many say that Finnish pilots were the best fighter pilots of WWII.

No, Finland & taiwan are not underdogs of education. Finland always in top 5 ranks.
Generally Chinese are better at maths.

^ Eh, learn to read between the lines.

1. There's a northern Chinese vs southern Chinese stereotype on the beligerent part of the notherners. Genetically, the Taiwanese are southerners, contrary to their own long held beliefs.

2. Taiwan is an underdog when it comes to beligerent Beijing. In fact, the Taipei 101 building was important political statement in and of itself.

3. As for Finland, you obviously didn't read what I wrote about their history with the Saab-and-Volvo-drivng, Nobel-Prize-giving Swedes. (On a different note, the Polish have long had bad stereotypes about them particularly by their next door neighbors the Germans, but in IQ they are slightly on top--at least according to the scant evidence on both countries.)


P.S. Chinese northerners think they can look down on the descendants of the Yueh barbarians, namely the southern Chinese, but by all measures--from what I've seen, the southern Chinese are intellectually and economically dominant.

The southerners have long proven that they aren't inferior to northerners.

Haha.. Too bad my country did not participate in this year PISA test. Would be interesting to see how we compare.

once again, not surprised. and where did the u.s. rank? more than likely at the bottom.

Pls, pls stop to differentiate the northern or southern Chinese in this way. It's nothing of your business at all. It's so strange a non-CHinese comment in this way.

I am the third generation northern CHinese grew and raised in a southern city. There were never ever have the stereotype as you just talked about. There are some kind of the stereotypes and divisions exist between N or S Chinese, E or W CHinese, City or Rural Chinese, like who is more shrewd, who is more lazier, who eat dog or exotic animals or who is winpier... but nothing at the level you are talking about.

I have spent my most of the life time in Mainland China and have spent large chunk of the time in NE China. Even in the US, 99% of my free time here is with my all Chinese family, Chinese communities, and Chinese friends, which are equally divided into N or S Chinese... My kid is attending the Chinese School....and Etc.

BTW, Genetically N Han and S Hans have much much smaller differenceas as you thought, and it's been proven. And I can't tell whether a person is a N or S Chinese just by look. But I can easily tell who is a Chinese, and who is from the South or north or E/W of borders.

^ Touchee!

Ha Ha. Blame Titanium, for he is the bloke who told me about it 2 years ago when I first came to AF.

I'm also aware that there has been some viscious N vs S flame wars in past threads with the word "monkey" being tossed back & forth and bantied about.

Ha Ha. So funny how monkey-faced idiots always resort to that word. Trust me on this: Any idiot who goes around calling other people "monkeys" UNPROVOKED has a serious inferiority complex with white guys who look like Brad Pitt & Enrique Iglesias.

Ha Ha. Just before the second Gulf War in 2003, in high profile a Pan Arab meeting, an high level Iraqi diplomat lost his cool and cursed the Kuwaiti (or Saudi) diplomat calling him a "monkey". Ha Ha.

As for the genetics tests saying all Chinese are one, merely separated by locality rather than an actual north-south genetic split from thousands of years ago, I'm only aware of one study that says that. Many more say there is such N-S split. The recent DAB1 discussed by the NYTimes is suspect in the sense that the NYT may have misquoted the researchers, for DAB1 is "selective swept" in ALL Asian populations, not just Chinese. What that NYT article said specifically is that the Chinese allele (variant) for DAB1 is universal in Chinese but no other groups. This might be a misquotation--we'd have to look at the study itself to know for sure. The other thing is that we'd have to look at the population sampling for China: Was it really representative of all of China? Lastly, "selective sweeping" functions to improve "fitness", however, what exactly is this "fitness" has yet to be determined. It could make you smarter, or it could make you think that if your prof is from Cambridge then you too go to Cambridge, even though you don't.

Time will tell what is what.

Lets Review:

1. About 10-15 years ago, the consensus is that the N-S split was quite mindblowing where NE Asians were not in any way related to SE Asians, with southern China firmly belonging in the SE Asian camp. This was Cavalli-Sforza's original hypothesis.

2. About 7-8 years ago, Chinese geneticists confirmed the N-S split in China, but added that ALL Asians are decendants of proto Vietnamese, which begs the question: Whose yer daddy? (Sorry, but I couldn't resist.)

3. I know of one study, maybe two if the NYT's article is correct on that DAB1 study, which says there is no N-S split at all, not even in China. (Note: #3 only partly contradicts #2, as I have characterized/summarized things.) There are many more studies that confirm #2 than #3, regarding the N-S split issue.

A wise man once said...

Time will tell.



Well, remember, the northerners are still poor. But when they too become rich decades from now, we'll see who wins more Noble Prizes and whatnot. My bet is on southerners.

I fully expect the Vietnamese to be right in the thick of things.

? taiwanese are from fujian like myself 300 years ago

^ Maternal ancestry of Taiwanese is firmly southern Chinese, contrary to their long held beliefs. They are of Yueh ancestry. Ask Titanium, I've already posted a link to a genetic study on the subject matter, in an old Vietnamese Chat/Serious Discussion, for him. I'm not sure what the full story on the paternal ancestry of southern Chinese is.

Delete.

Good job China for providing Province of Taiwan our five thousand year culture.

The independent country of Taiwan excel in math, and economic all by themselves, without any assistance from anyone.
It is the repressive communist dictators of china that is trying to drag the country of Taiwan down into the gutters. Mainland china closed their country off from the rest of the world for 4 decades and in the cultural revolution, 30 million chinese died. It is only recently that china has opened up to the west.
Thank God Taiwan was never a part of the communist regime. Thank God Taiwan is independent from China.

Look, tell me how that "5,000-year culture" has done anything for Taiwan or has anything to do with Taiwan?

Taiwanese shine at 2008 American Math Competition

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/arc...4/07/2003408626

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Monday, Apr 07, 2008, Page 2

Taiwanese students once again gave an outstanding performance as 28 scored full marks at the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) this year, the sponsor said yesterday in Taipei.

Twenty-six of the 6,328 Taiwanese students who entered the competition for grade 10 got perfect scores, representing 55.32 percent of the perfect scores worldwide, up from 12.8 percent last year. Two of 6,075 Taiwanese in the AMC 12 got full marks, representing 18.18 percent of the total number of full marks received, up from 10.5 percent last year.

The AMC, which was established in 1950, includes three levels — the AMC 8, AMC 10 and AMC 12 — for students in grades 8, 10 and 12. The annual event is held by the American Mathematics Competitions organization.

Major universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are beginning to take AMC scores as an important reference in student applications, since the AMC tests a deeper level of math than the SAT and can help identify students who are ready for a rigorous undergraduate curriculum.

Mark Chen (陳信翰), from the National Experimental High School at Hsinchu Science Park, was the first Taiwanese to get perfect scores both in the AMC 12 and the American Invitational Mathematics Examination.

Chen, who was born in the US and came back to Taiwan to continue his senior high school study three years ago, has already been admitted by MIT and will enroll this August. The 17-year-old said he is interested in math.

“Math helps me think in a more creative way and to analyze things more deeply,” Chen said.

From what I've read, that "Single SE Asia origin" hypothesis is total bunk. iirc there were three major branches that went all over Asia and America.

The South Chinese are not inferior in IQ to anyone. The reason why they're particularly smart is because when Chinese people migrate, they tend to move in, marry into the upper class, and slowly strangle the stupidest natives to death with tests and the Chinese language.

My hypothesis is that the South Chinese are the descendants of the upper class Southerners (who weren't exactly dumb to begin with) and general Northerner migrants. After they mixed intermittently for a few thousand years, the South Chinese themselves began to migrate into Taiwan and elsewhere. The Miao and Hakka were also Northeasterners who migrated into the south, changing during their long journey.

In that sense the South Chinese are their own distinct group.

It's the Northeasterners who are relatively poor.. but that's changing. The coastal Northerners aren't bad off.

atleast we're tall n more girls prefer us

both have their advantages from what I've seen.. northerner reaction times are faster too.

wow really?

taiwan is an engineering and science nation. not surprise

Now I want a taiwan babe to shaq and make genius babies.

Skynet's single and female.

you mean shaquille o'neal?

he has an iq below 100 for a big person

I don't know how being good at math at the high school level has anything to do with race and IQ.

High school students in Taiwan are under tremendous pressure to study very hard. All you have to do is sacrifice your play time and hit the book more often. It sucks to be a high school student in Taiwan

It doesn't matter. Top students from China, India, Iran etc go study in the u.s. and later become u.s. citizens anyway.

Yeah, Taiwan's school system is a POS that was designed to treat everyone as if they had the same intelligence.

They need to set programs aside for people of each level of intelligence to save time and money.

Maybe he means he wants a Taiwan babe to "shack," not, "shaq." Shack = sex, I think.

its shag... not shack lol

Lol - thanks.

i got a D in calculus

I thought your major had math in it.

I can't even get passed calculus AB!

Why don't you yourself spending a few time reading their paper?

Talking about the DAB1 gene, you know, they are scientists, and they published the paper on a scientific journal, they sure wont mistake Asians for Chinese.

And you know, according to lynn's latest studies, IQ and Global Inqualities, your viets have a IQ of 94, which is significantly lower than us (105), and also lower than most of the whites.

The vastly majortity of southern Chinese came from the Ancient northern part of China, and you know, they dont share your crap yue gene like you suggest, the vast majority of them dont look like a monkey, you know.

If you are so into your pathetic yue crap gene, you can link yourself to many miniorties in China you know, anyway you are far more related.

Btw, I forget to mention, you viets have a much smaller brain capacity compared to the southern Chinese, according Beals's paper: "Brain Size, Cranial Morphology, Climate, and Time Machines", your average brain capacity is below 1300 cc, which is one of the smallest brain among all human beings, and comparable to africans.

While the southern Chinese have a brain capacity around 1400-1450cc, which is among largest brain among all humans.

^ it's interesting that you trash talk Vietnamese like that but in fact Vietnam has always ranked one of the top in the world when it comes to International competition in math, physics, chemistry, and even robocon

Do you have a proof of that? plz provide some link cuz i never see vietnam on the list

good for ya'll,lol