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The Impossible “Literacy” Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960s (2013) (slate.com)
7 points by Tomte 9 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments



This reminds me of the maths questions the Soviet universities gave to Jewish applicants, except the questions in this one are total gibberish:

>>> Draw a line around..

Lines don't go around things

>>> Draw 3 circles, one inside the other

That only accounts for 2 of them

>>> Print the word vote upside down but in the correct order

One word can't have an order

>>> Draw a line through the two letters that come last in the alphabet

???

It goes on like this.


The questions aren't quite gibberish, but they sure tried hard to make the meaning opaque.

> Lines don't go around things

Sure they do, just not straight lines.

> Draw 3 circles, one inside the other

Yeah not sure what they were aiming for here. This could either mean "two circles with one nested in the other, and also draw a third circle next to it" or "Draw three nested circles". I'm assuming the ambiguity is on purpose so it can always get marked as wrong just in case some savant manages to get everything else right.

> Print the word vote upside down but in the correct order

Words sure do have an internal order. e.g. "eesph" is sheep with a jumbled order. I figure the correct answer here is ʌoʇǝ.

> Draw a line through the two letters that come last in the alphabet

Figure out the letter that comes latest in the alphabet and cross it out. Repeat once for the remaining letters.

Of course doing that entire test flawlessly, let alone in 10 minutes, is absurd.


> Sure they do, just not straight lines.

Well yeah you could take it to mean that, but in plenty of other places they tell you to draw circles around things, so they must have meant something else here.

> Words sure do have an internal order. e.g. "eesph" is sheep with a jumbled order.

That's the order of the letters

> Draw a line through the two letters that come last in the alphabet

Only one letter can come last in the alphabet.

OK maybe gibberish was harsh lol but they definitely cannot be answered correctly.


They require some creative interpreting at the very least :P




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