There’s a grammar test making the rounds on the Internet that supposedly can be solved only by people with “above average IQs.” It’s a straightforward multiple choice test in which the test-taker chooses one of three words to complete a sentence and have it make sense.
One question reads, “She went ______ yesterday,” and the choices are “they’re, there, and their.” The other questions are similar. The challenge is to pick the correct word from among a pair or trio of commonly confused words, like affect/effect or capital/capitol.
As can be seen, many of the words are homophones; they’re words that sound alike, but have different spellings and meanings. Two, too and to are examples of homophones, as are capital and capitol. Homophones are often confused with each other.
The test doesn’t require a high IQ; it requires a good vocabulary and some knowledge of grammar. Specifically, it calls for the ability to recognize contractions—which is a skill people should have learned in grade school. That’s about the same time people should have learned about homophones. Given that Common Core was adopted by most states around 2010, anybody much over 15 who is trying to blame it for their ignorance is making excuses.
The idea behind Common Core is to make state educational standards more uniform. On paper, at least, this sounds like a good idea. A student from a state with low standards often gets a nasty shock when he goes to a college or gets a job in a state with higher standards. The implementation, however, has been problematic: The tests are absurdly long, and the assignments often add steps that do nothing but make the task needlessly complicated.
