The Taylor Swift exam question Everyone’s Talking About

[@lucksker]

I am currently a student at Univeristy of Sao Paulo and from what i can tell, this question was part of the English section in the exam. Usually English FUVEST tests try to measure the capacity of the student of not only reading and interpreting the English language, but also understanding it and thinking critically about it. To add to it, they try to use texts that somehow makes the student engage in some sort of ambiguity that involves a deeper knowledge of the English language and its use, using problems that involve grammar and syntax. Overall, a pretty tough question, even if the student was to a fluent english speaker and someone who has the ability to interpret various texts. I'm glad i already passed. Fun fact: I'm a business student, it was interesting to read the question that involved the"finance guy".

[@gownerjones]

I don't quite understand how this is achieved in a multiple choice test. To me, there are 5 subjective interpretations there, one of which was arbitrarily marked as "correct." Something like this has to be an essay assignment, so you can explain your reasoning and so that multiple interpretations can be awarded full points.

[@lucksker]

@@gownerjones Yes, there is quite some critics about questions involving poems. Truthfully, i think the exam is selective in many forms. The obvious selection comes from the fact that that are 7000 spots yearly for more than 100.000 students, but more than that, when you are doing an exam to an university in Brazil, the university is also testing if you are culturally apt to be a student. We study years and years trying to intuitively find the correct answer, apart from normal obligations (grammar, math, physics, geography, etc.). That first Taylor Swift question has some of that, where you kind of understand what is the expected answer, even if there is space for interpretation.

[@gownerjones]

@@lucksker So, you guys study the psychology of the testers as much as the material itself to be able to sort of intuit what the testers want to see?

[@lucksker]

@@gownerjones Usually we study what the university expects of us. And after that much much practice to understand patterns. Many many exercises from past tests.

[@adamnevraumont4027]

​@@lucksker if a question is pure luck, it makes the test more "selective". Poorly written questions can make exams more selective even better than well written ones, because what exactly is selected isn't part of selective.

[@crhea]

I feel like it’s a fair enough question. I don’t listen to Taylor Swift often and I had never heard of this song before, but I was able to deduce the correct answer with context clues.

[@Nicoder6884]

Yeah, part of the skill in text interpretation is being able to apply it to stuff you've never seen before.

[@luccaemmanuel4012]

Brazilian here, it's not that uncommon to see "fun question" involving mainstream cultural references in Brazil. I remember that on my ENEM (our version of SAT), there were a couple of question involving well known video games like Minecraft and singers as well.

[@qwerfy34567894749]

That seems fine to me, but they should still be answerable even if the student hasn’t ever heard of the reference.

[@rodolfofrancisco]

@@qwerfy34567894749they are. The sentence clearly has a meaning on its own, you don’t need to know Taylor swift nor the context of the song to answer

[@Pjbfrrr]

Sat isn’t equivalent to Enem btw

[@user-yg6ki7ou2y]

@@Pjbfrrr how? Besides the fact that some universities arent really taking it into consideration anymore and the fact that one is made by the government and the other by a corporation, what's the difference?

[@spoonietimelordy]

I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift and for now i’m at question 2 and i was correct on both. And i think, as someone doing an MA in english, i can explain why. So, there is multiple types of textual analysis. One type is asking the reader to contextualise the text, to analyse it in relation to things from outside the text. This is the type of analysis that fans will do, like you did here. But in this type of questions where the reader cannot have access to further information, you have to analyse the text on its own. And the answer will often not be the same for both types of analysis. One is not better than the other, they're just different. Just know that in this type of test you are rarely asked to contextualised.

[@topherthe11th23]

spoonietimelordy: Please remove the apostrophe in "on it's own". This is the only time in my life I've ever so advised. But you say you're doing an MA in English, so, please. What if it comes back and damages your career? Also, "english" should have a capital "E" and "I" should be capitalized.

[@fluffsquirrel]

​@@topherthe11th23 The word "but" is a coordinating conjunction. I don't believe one ought to use it to begin a sentence fragment. Also, it would seem you forgot to include a noun, such as 'it', in your comment on potential career damage due to a punctuation error. The rules apply to you as they do to everyone else, so please do take the time to obey them by fixing glaring errors before submitting a reply correcting another's mistakes. Additionally, could you explain to me how a mistake written by an anonymous account could adversely affect that person's career?

[@marigolden_mariposa]

​@@fluffsquirrelI would assume they didn't mean the comment itself would hurt their career but that if they continue to make that mistake going forward they may make it somewhere where it does matter. what else could they possibly have meant by that?

[@breno.mp4]

In my opinion, these questions are not unfair at all. All you had to do is understand the connotation of "poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy", and the meaning of the word "construct". No context needed whatsoever.

[@adamnevraumont4027]

I mean (C). That line is nothing about past eras. It isn't about managing frustrations. It isn't about myths and rituals. It isn't critical about breaking personal boundaries. The overall text is clearly about frustration with being trapped in the wrong context, and this line is supportive of it.

[@lumer2b]

@@adamnevraumont4027 This is crystal clear and if someone cannot infer this they need to work on their text reading skills.

[@KarlLew]

(C) This a test about English comprehension, not about knowledge of Taylor Swift. An excellent question!

[@fluffsquirrel]

@@lumer2bA bit of a snobby approach

[@adamnevraumont4027]

@@fluffsquirrel I think saying that failing a test of English comprehension means they should work on English comprehension is reasonable, no? In my case, what makes this at all hard is the awkward writing in the answers. I suspect the answers are translated to English? And semi-poorly.

[@asilvap]

I agree, C. You can understand it only by using that line. No other context is necessary.

[@itchy7879]

I'm trying to imagine answering questions like this in my own second language (Spanish, 7 years in with decent fluency). I don't think I would be able to answer these kinds of questions: it's pretty hard to even in my native English. Just puts into perspective how hard students have to work to do well on this exam

[@marcfirst9341]

They can even force you to answer political and debatable questions based on their own political point of view, if you give a diferent answer based on our own perseption , you fail!

[@Pfh3dk]

@@marcfirst9341 No, they don't. This sounds like the whining of someone who failed the exame out of sheer incompetence. If you own "perseption" goes against basic human rights, I'm sorry, you are just wrong. And yes, I took this entry test back in 2012 and passed without much effort.

[@finlandtaipan4454]

Your voice is super relaxing and comforting!

[@pixselious]

She has an ASMR style video!

[@MatematicaRio]

Agora perceba!

[@MrEdenBezerra]

Oxe, homem! Tu também está aqui? Grande professor! 👏👏👏

[@senhorfarofa8246]

BRASIL MENCIONADO

[@averagestudent1158]

Totally fair questions. How does it matter if the passage is TS or Shakespeare or anyone else. I've had questions like these where the passages were by some poet. These lyrics can also be considered poetry.

[@jh5401]

this exam looks so fun! maybe not if i'm doing it for 5 hours, or my future depends on it- but it does look really fun nonetheless. i think the fact these questions were put into multiple choice makes it into more of a question of what the test writers and experienced literary academics would make of it, rather that what you make of it. it institutionalises it, which feels weird when you're adding a middleman between the art and the audience suddenly

[@umaaah.13]

exactly! Pop songwriting is meant to leave room for the listener and putting it into multiple-choice format feels really ill-fitting for the genre.

[@TheZestful12]

The main goal with the English Language questions is to evaluate the student's language proficiency in English, which is not their primary language. Frequently there are more than one answer in FUVEST that seem correct. Nonetheless, it's the "best fitting" one that is the correct. Caetano Veloso, a very famous brazilian songwriter, had one of his songs in a question on one of those exams and even he didn't know the correct answer when asked! FUVEST is a very decent exam, but the multiple questions test is just the first phase. The second phase takes place a couple of weeks later with the best placed candidates, and it consists of an essay and dissertative questions. So the first phase is just to select the top candidates.

[@patriciagigileva]

Not fun at all. And I failed it 😂

[@Dnomyarification]

@@TheZestful12 Futility of asking the question in the first place, and certainly not fair to suggest there can be a best answer for it in multiple choice. You can only give an answer and arguments for it, but questions of interpretation, the author is authoritative, so the only correct answer is ask the author. We can only speculate on what they meant.

[@TheZestful12]

@@Dnomyarification I see your point, however each question has one correct answer only, and even though you could argue that it makes sense for you, each correct answer has its own reason for being correct, and this is demonstrated afterwards. When a question is dubious or has not been well formulated, the question can be revoked and does not count towards final scores. The argument for it being "interpretative" must observe the phrasing of the question. The author's ownship of interpretation is a foolish assumption, as any sort of art is only fullfilled when in contact with a viewer.

[@cavvieira]

More than most things, these admission exams shape high school curriculums and methods, to prepare students for the exams. These top Universities are state sponsored and tuition free, so they are a very real chance of social mobility for a lot of people. So you're correct that there's a lot riding on the results of the exams for the student, and also in how they promote learning as something more than dry texts and unrealistic scenarios.

[@DaviLopes-y4e]

Try to solve ITA exam

[@DaviLopes-y4e]

ITA is like the JEE of Brazil

[@narcisoneto7651]

she did

[@jonaskaita9092]

for all the people saying these questions aren't ojective, they genuinelly are. The english questions are not only made to exam your capacity to understand the English language, but also your capacity to understand what the text's >author< meant by that, so it's not your personal interpretation that matters, but the message's writting context, social situation and intentions. This happens in multiple ways, for example, sometimes they combine history and english elements to elaborate a question. They once made one question that presented a poem about colonization, it was "The white man's burden". If you trusted the text, you would fall for colonialist ideas and get the answer wrong, but if you read the date and analised the author's intention behind the text, you would get to the answer that >the text< was trying to convince it's readers that colonization was good and that the "civilized" nations had the moral obligation to bring technology and industries to "uncivilized" countries. By getting the historical context and some of the text's cues, we can get to this answer, independing on the student's opinions.

[@treverthetree]

In my final high school biology exam, I had questions like this. It was really interesting to learn about different topics and see how my learning was far more applicable than some people realise.

[@thiagovillardecarvalho]

As a Brazilian, I feel comforted watching a video from you about the exam I've taken 🤚🦆🤚🐥🎉

[@suckedintothevoid]

I worked at a newspaper as a copyeditor and used to change the text of the horoscopes around for fun. Part of me wonders if this was just someone like me who was writing the exam and wanted to leave a part of themselves in it to amuse themselves, but unfortunately it happened to gain a lot of attention...

[@faizanahanger636]

Pop culture is talked about a lot and many people don't like those discussions. It is logical for song lyrics to be in an English comprehension test even though a lot of people might not like it.

[@ereder1476]

Not when it have a whole lore behind it. A context that you don't have if you are not a fan. Here: none of the answer fit if you have no context. It seems to be more akin to the loss or inability to showcase poet/dreamy mind or thought in a very rational/math like society. The spirit vs the rational mind.

[@ereder1476]

And before you complain: you get to that answer by defining the terms. What is a poet. What is a finance guy. What does trap means (IE lack of freedom/expression) etc..

[@CorporateZombi]

You don't need lore to solve this, but I still find these forms of comprehension questions hard, because you have to look at each word used in the answers to rule out which ones they are trying to trick you with, because they don't quite fit.

[@coachtaewherbalife8817]

I found the context of the first question to lead students to the wrong answer. Without knowing context I made the right choice.

[@faizanahanger636]

Trying to figure out a writer's borderline cryptic messages is very common in English tests, or really tests for any language. "The Road Not Taken" being a metaphor for life choices may not be obvious to everyone but if you are giving an English exam you are expected to understand that. I personally don't like them but I won't complain when the writer is a singer instead of old poet.

[@arthur1102r]

0:15 I know you've changed the translation of the bad words hahaha

[@lsk8275]

I was expecting you would also go through one really controversial question, which is about Quincas Borba and a The Illistrious House of Ramires. Many Cram School teachers disagree with the official answer, evend demanding it to be changed. I think it really goes to show how subjective interpretative questions can be

[@caseyf6513]

The first questions answer makes sense. But the second one is just wrong. In the line “if comfort is a construct, I don’t believe in good luck” interpret it as; if comfort is just something made up as luck is, and she doesn’t believe in luck. Then true comfort doesn’t really exist. It only exists in her mind ( secret gardens, better planet, lunar valley, 1830s ). Those places she also mentions are not apart of “society” as stated in answer E. Society has not created the places she’s escaping to to find comfort. Society didn’t create the 1830s without racists or the planet where only the gentle survive. Those places only are mental spaces. E has to be eliminated. But also the word appease doesn’t work in answer A. She’s never appeasing the pressures and discontent of life. In the lyrics she is trying to escape them in a world of fantasy. As a big fan of this song (my favorite Taylor swift song) I wouldn’t be able to choose between A or E because both are only incorrect because of a singe word error. Appease should turn into escape in A. Society should turn into the mind in E. Ugh literary questions are always too subjective and infuriating in exams lol

[@danteregianifreitas6461]

You're quite right on the relationship between luck and comfort. She's indeed saying that if one doesn't exit, then the other mustn't either. But what she means when she says "construct" isn't that it is something in her mind. She means that it is something made up. And she clearly didn't come up with this idea, society did. So she's saying, if comfort is a construct, something made up by people just as good luck is, then I don't believe either

[@coachtaewherbalife8817]

I agreed with your interpretation, and I said "appease" was closest to what she was doing. So I got it wrong. I still wouldn't choose E.

[@HopeRock425]

In Ireland we have similar exams for English class and I appreciate it because it is kind of fun, it shows how what you learned in class can be applied to modern life eg song lyrics and also this means the test it testing your comprehension of what you learned and how well you can apply it to actually usefull topics, instead of testing that you know the material. It is important that schools adapt and show the usefullnes of what we learn. Personally I'm a physics student but I enjoye aplying poetic analysis to the music I listen to (metal).

[@Atlashands26]

I believe Choice A was referring to past eras like the golden era of greek art, not personal eras

[@HugeRademaker]

It wouldn't be fair to assume all candidates have deep knowledge of miss Swifts' private life. I hardly know who miss Swift is and still answered both questions correct. I wonder if there were less correct answers in the Swift-fan group because they wondered off too much trying to find the correct answer instead of just analysing the words.

[@schwamforfreedom]

I think that is the basis for the negative response. A failure to understand the goal of testing the ability to answer the given question rather than get confused by the entirety of the material presented and any preconceived notions about the material.

[@schwamforfreedom]

Other than it's modernity, I don't see any difference between using Taylor Swift lyrics for a reading comprehension and interpretation question than using the writing of Shakespeare or any other classic author as some of the test takers will have read the work and have to put the overarching themes out of mind to properly answer questions about specific lines. I wonder if the reaction would have been the same if the lyrics were written and performed by a less popular artist who isn't consistently the topic of conversation by both fans and critics as the use of examples from popular culture seems to be a theme in the exam.

[@Lssj100]

Yah I dont know, I think she has a point that if you can use sometime current to more stimulate the mind then why not use it. As long as the question doesnt assume you know anything about the person quoting it

[@gyrateful]

As an older American male that has never listened to Swift, how did I know the answers to those two questions?

[@schwamforfreedom]

Because you read the question and answered it, unlike many here who seem to think the artist and her life are relevant to the question. lol.

[@_ClericalError_]

@@schwamforfreedom Indeed, if understanding the text requires external context of the author, there is a problem with the text. I'm pretty sure the challenge though is in pulling out the specific information to answer the isolated question, which is rather specific and pointed. The difficulty of this is going to be at least partially determined by the level of the language you are regularly exposed to. If you are in say, the US workforce or a US high school, you probably only encounter usage of the language up to around 5th grade level, in this test they are wanting a higher level of understanding. It is definitely a demanding set of questions for a non-native English speaker, but I would expect most US high-schoolers to be able to answer successfully. If they cant I would recommend reading better books.

[@wonderbucket1242]

Yay! I was right, C stood out as the best answer.

[@Tinman_56]

I'll have to go back and 🤣🤣🤣🤣change my answers now!

[@jdos2]

Calvin and Hobbes: "Ya know what seems weird? Nothing changes one day to the next but suddenly everything is different."

[@The2wanderers]

Poetry interpretation as an exam question - particularly a multiple choice exam - is always like this. There is one "right" answer, but in fact the interpretation should vary between listeners. Even the poet's personal interpretation isn't the *right* answer, just one of them. I don't see that using Taylor Swift lyrics is any different than using any other poetry on an English exam. A Bob Dylan lyric would have been less controversial, but no different in its function or ambiguity. I definitely had high school exams that included Beatles lyrics and similar music from pop culture, if somewhat more dated pop culture. As someone who only passively enjoys Taylor Swift, and had never heard either of these songs before, I could have gotten them both right just using my knowledge of English and the process of elimination, since many answers didn't fit at all. I imagine this would be harder if my first language was Portuguese, but when a school is filtering out 93% of test takers, being a tough exam is to be expected.

[@jaspermcjasper3672]

There's a school of thought that says poetry should NOT be interpreted in light of the poet's life. You should, it is argued, be able to discard the author, and then that is what the poem means. In other words, the test shouldn't create any bias towards admitting Taylor Swift fans who "correctly" interpret her lyrics in light of her life. To ensure that that doesn't happen, the test's authors should have made up their own English passages that never existed any before but in the test, and tested students on their ability to comprehend those English passages. There's going to be a huge storm about this.

[@1Clavdivs]

Creating a bias toward Swift fans is discrimination based on culture and race. The University should be investigated for breach of equal opportunity legislation.

[@tayloruth]

it would be really cool if you would work out the physics and/or math questions in FUVEST also! i know they're probably too simple compared to the ones you usually cover on your channel, but it'd be so fun to watch. me and lots of other brazilian friends of mine love your vids :)

[@andreborges2881]

As a Brazilian I’m proud to see Edmund Husserl being cited in-exam. Phenomenology is absolute gold in philosophy form. And I guess Swift’s inclusion is ok too

[@ProGlory777]

I am glad you are alive and healthy

[@ecopennylife]

It's a personal thing how you interpret a song, it's a fuzzy area with no definite right or wrong answer ..

[@Sett86]

Nah, there are definitely some wrong answers there. But the "correct" ones are quite debatable alright.

[@schwamforfreedom]

@@Sett86 Really? It is common for multiple choice exams to ask for the most correct answer and it seems to be the case here that the correct answers are pretty obvious to someone with a strong command of English and the ability to think about the line in isolation from the rest of the song.

[@AndreeaDiana]

Tibees, I know it’s not your niche but maybe as a special request once every few months would you be willing to do a “get to know me” video or a what’s in my bag. Even if it’s simple and boring; it’s for your amazing ASMR VOICE❤

[@albertmiller2electricbooga897]

Glad to see geography and history included on one of these exams, I'm certainly not a maths or science guy and I get so annoyed when the humanities aren't taken seriously by uni admissions exams

[@louwrentius]

The comments are full of anxious reply guys who can’t deal with ambiguity, yet the answers to the Taylor Swift questions seem so simple if you have some empathy. These questions, may actually be perfect for selecting the right candidates. 😂❤

[@ahmed51988]

Reading comprehension questions are almost always about discerning the most accurate choice among plausibly applicable alternatives (or where's the challenge). Without overthinking, the answers are not ambiguous at all. If you know what "construct" means, you can easily answer the second one. The first one clearly depicts someone trapped in a social role that does not align with their true poetic self. Knowing all the drama and stories surrounding the song, or not knowing any of it, should have no influence on one's ability to read a sentence and understand it. And the idea that song lyrics can be interpreted in different ways does not mean one cannot be sure about any meaning at all. Song writers convey their ideas in a language we can understand. The meta stories the song hides might be obscure but the metaphors and images should not be so. We don't know who's the poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy is but we know it's a person trapped inside a role that does not allign with who they are.

[@christopherfaytvlarknsassi9013]

At question 42 the test's authors clearly assume that "is a construct" means "is a 'social' construct". But if the phrase meant "is a 'personal' construct" (which is equally plausible) then "(E)" is not the right answer. Also, most of the multiple-choice answers there are littered with grammar and usage mistakes.

[@Sett86]

If you are willing to sabotage yourself fot the sake of sending a message (to no one), that in itself is a test failed and you deserve to lose the points. I don't understand the hate against her. It's not a music I would ever want to listen to, and I do have an opinion concerning most of the fanbase. But she is obviously talented, smart, hardworking, not to mention successful in spite of boycotting the corporate machinery that is usually necessary to achieve any success in music industry. From what I can tell she doesn't seem to be pandering to her audience either. What's not to like?

[@constructionsite8407]

We want un popular einstein research papers.

[@noahhosking495]

Oooh, agreed, that would be cool 😎

[@HugeRademaker]

We? You mean you want that, no?

[@A31415]

@@HugeRademakerno, it’s we

[@kiwi920]

All these people who are bummed about having a taylor swift lyrics in the questions have a frail ego. If i didn't know who taylor swift is i would read this as any other comprehensive reading question, and no, you don't need to know an author's or artist's life to interpret their work. Get a life. I think having questions related to the contemporary world is important and should be in every exam as it is important for students to be aware of current world affairs, instead of being heads deep in irrelevant books and out of touch with the world.

[@topherthe11th23]

@kiwi920 - But if you can't get the right answer if you've never heard of Taylor Swift or ever listened to one of her songs, then the test-question is NOT a reading-comprehension test! And the use of vague-and-fuzzy words like "contexts", "expectations", and "cultural elements" makes it impossible to interpret the answers objectively. Notice how many of the verbs, adjectives, and nouns in the test-answers refer to an emotion or satisfaction that a person feels, as opposed to what happens when they train their eyes on a measuring-device and it gives them a number. You can't put a feeling on a scale or perform a spectrographic analysis on it. That doesn't mean feelings are unimportant, but it does mean we can't share them in the way that we can share an understanding of numbers, geometries, and inanimate physical objects. Which means we can't really have them in universities. I'm not saying that Historians should not attempt to say that something happened because people had feelings, but they should accept the impossibility of gaining an ULTIMATE understanding of what those feelings were.

[@kiwi920]

@topherthe11th23 firstly, you don't need to have heard of any taylor swift songs to answer those questions. It's merely understanding words and their meaning with regards to the whole piece of writing. That is what essentially reading comprehension is. You saying that we can't "measure" when it comes to context, expectations or cultural elements, im curious to know what you think language degree students or literature students take which kinds of exams. There's a world out of STEM fyi. If words have a definite meaning, then so does these questions have a definite answer.

[@topherthe11th23]

@@kiwi920 I'm not talking about Swift's lyrics. They are fairly clear. It's the multiple-choice answers that don't actually state clear ideas. What does "romanticiation" or "idealization" mean? It's something that goes on in someone's mind, whereas a billiard-ball bouncing off a cushion is something that happens on a billiards-table and can be seen. What is a "feeling" of dissatisfaction or inadequacy? What are "personal boundaries"? What are "cultural elements"? Nobody knows, and that's why this is an unfair test. Those aren't questions about what Swift said. They're questions about your familiarity with the empty jargon of high-brow pseudo-intellectual posers in fields famously lacking in rigor.

[@kiwi920]

@@topherthe11th23 let me introduce you to a dictionary: Romanticization meaning: deal with or describe in an idealized or unrealistic fashion; make (something) seem better or more appealing than it really is. Idealization meaning: regard or represent as perfect or better than in reality. Feeling meaning: an emotional state or reaction Personal boundaries meaning: limits and rules we set for ourselves in relationships Cultural elements meaning: major elements of culture such as symbols, language, norms, values, and artifacts

[@SylvesterAshcroft88]

That's a pretty intense exam, reminds me of some of the harder a-level exams here in the uk.

[@keir92]

I always interpreted it as something awful as in something someone you don’t like would say, like the kind of guy who says he’s a poet but is actually a finance guy and that that poet is trapped in there.

[@theAiEducationGuy]

Tibeeeeees! proud of you

[@SwissPGO]

On the first question, I have absolutely no knowledge of Taylor Swift's songs or her life, but I selected C for that first question - but I agree, that's an odd question indeed.

[@Betweoxwitegan]

I would've said C for the first question but you could make an argument for any of the options other than D imo, this is the problem with standardised test, they assume that everyone views an interperatable line the same way which defeats the purpose of music and other fields themselves. Always pick the answer you think the test maker is looking for in a non binary interperatable question and not what you see individually (it's not what your used to and it's generally bad but hey) the answer is typically the most direct Like for example in the final question, the student is not necessarily challenging the teachers authority but it's the only viable answer given the clues, if "the student is confused and sought help" was a contender up there then its more of a toss-up but this made-up answer is more direct and representative and would likely be correct.

[@ticijevish]

Brazilan education has long been plagued by rote memorization. I think this test is part of an effort to weed out those who just memorize knowledge and promote those who understand the curriculum and can think analytically and critically.

[@marcfirst9341]

Questions like that "taylor Swift" one is often found in many exams here in Bazil...the funny part is that sometimes the songwrites says that the answer is wrong or that the interpretation of their lyrics is totally subjective and each person can give it's own interpretation...a lot of people get pissed on that!!😁😁

[@autofel]

This question was so successful! You're telling me that people have been tested for years in literacy, interpreting poems, comics, art pieces and what not; but only now we are seeing this outburst of "art is subjective" statements? It just goes on to prove how important it is to relate the school topics to contemporary culture, so learners can actually connect the dots and apply their knowledge and skills -- instead of compartmentalizing these things that are actually intricately related. Taylor's lyrics are subjective? Well, guess what, so as Clarice Lispector's texts, so as Fernando Pessoa's poems. A good communicator should be able to understand the most probable intent behind language (be it artistic or not), which, in this case, has two layers: Taylor and the examiner.

[@topherthe11th23]

@autofel - Taylor Swift's lyrics aren't the problem. They are fairly clear. It's the multiple-choice answers that use opaque language. Since you can only guess what each prospective answer might mean, you can only guess what the correct answer is, even if you understand Taylor Swift's lyrics perfectly. And you're right, this is as old as the hills. Nothing in Homer or Shakespeare is difficult to understand. Nothing coming from the mouths of people spouting off about Homer or Shakespeare makes any sense at all. It's obfuscation. That which cannot be understood cannot be shown to be false. So, if you have no idea what is true, but cannot have the job you want (or even be the kind of person you want to me) if you say something later refuted, safety lies in carefully constructing nonsense that of its very construction is neither true nor false.

[@SpocksCat]

These seem like standard reading comprehension test questions. It doesn't matter that the text is contemporary.

[@northbot]

Hypothesis: T Swift lore and lyricism is pure and by definition, a branch of mathematics.

[@RedPowerSchool]

I love your videos! ❤

[@wildmanofthenorth1598]

Pleasure to the eyes as well as the ears ❤ nice video! 😊

[@skarphld]

A poet trapped in the body of a finance guy refers to TS Eliot, and the passage means that Taylor Swift has no patience or sympathy for those of us who suffer the great misfortune of being a finance guy trapped in the body of a finance guy

[@txvestyrke]

i'm a swiftie, i heavily dislike this song so i never listen to it, and i got the question right using by elimination (most interpretation questions in tests like this are less about which answer is right and more about which one is the "least wrong")

[@txvestyrke]

it was a fun exam to take though, even if i didn't make it to the second stage because of one question😭

[@vanhaven7331]

Text comprehension is inherently about the application of logic. Many college students sadly lack comprehension skills, and thus logic skills, being instead mindless robots trained to memorize and apply formulae.

[@Robwyattjr1]

Interesting questions. They seem to touch on some deeper philosophical and spiritual questions. That’s a good thing

[@Dnomyarification]

I really like the exam, it's really quite relevant, and you can see how the questions would relate in the real world. Much the same as any literature exam, I've always found trying to guess what the author is saying futile. So many songs, and probably Shakespeare or older poems and literature, I don't think there is a right and wrong answer for how you interpret it - you can reason and give examples for why, but to say in multiple choice that one answer is better than another, this I strongly disagree with. I've heard of so many songs interpreted the wrong way, then years later somebody actually asks the artist and you find it was about something else entirely. tldr - the only way to find out what the author meant is to ask them.

[@coachtaewherbalife8817]

But the point isn't to understand what the author wanted to say. It's to interpret what the author actually said. In that regard, I found this to be an excellent test.

[@topherthe11th23]

@Dnomyarification - Okay, genius, please explain to us how a multiple-choice test works if there are no right or wrong answers. I mean you literally said you like the test, and then you literally said "but to say in multiple choice that one answer is better than another ...". Do you think the test administrators are just going to decree that no matter how anyone answered these two questions it's going to be counted as correct? Why would they put the questions on the test if it was not for the purpose of telling some applicants that they answered incorrectly and telling others that they answered correctly?

[@topherthe11th23]

@@coachtaewherbalife8817 No. I'm perfectly capable of figuring out what the lyrics mean, and I don't need to know anything about Swift to do that. It's just that nobody knows what any answers mean, because their language is fuzzy rather than concrete. This isn't an English-comprehension test of understanding lyrics. It's about understanding jargon that is current in the literary-criticism industry right now. And if you understand that jargon, then you're wrong. Because it's all carefully constructed in such a way as to avoid meaning anything, because using words in such a way that they actually mean something makes a commitment to a point of view, i.e. takes a stand on a proposition, that is hazardous to academic careers.

[@coachtaewherbalife8817]

@topherthe11th23 Tell me you're a nihilist without telling me. "Words have no meaning."

[@topherthe11th23]

@@coachtaewherbalife8817 Who are you quoting when you put in quotes as a complete sentence "Words have no meaning"? That's not in any comment I wrote. Do you read sentences or just spot buzz-words in them without seeing how the little words connect them together? What I wrote is that people in academic careers without a standard of rigor can carefully construct sentences out of words in such a way that the resulting sentence has no meaning, which gives them the safety of knowing that the thesis they just got published can never be proven false. If they used words in such a way that there was a MEANING, their publications could be refuted. I believe it was Bertrand Russell who said that was harder to prove that something was meaningless (i.e., avoided making a statement at all) than to prove that it was false (makes a statement that actually means something, but means something that is not true).

[@BENHUR.]

Unless these questions and the answers were directly taken from an interview to Taylor Swift I don't see what's wrong with them.

[@aidanmilton9742]

That Husserl quote is really profound

[@tj2375]

In my opinion, these kind of exams are completely wrong for accessing university.

[@arthur1102r]

Why? What is your solution?

[@topherthe11th23]

@@arthur1102r The solution is having exams with objective right/wrong answers that don't depend on your acculturation or point of view. What is 2+2? If someone says it's 5, don't let them take a seat away from someone who says it's 4. By existing, a university rests on the premise that there exists some body of knowledge that is true. If you don't go to a university to learn stuff that passes the test of being true, what's a university for? If everything is equally true, what is it that universities and professors are supposed to sort out?

[@schwamforfreedom]

If you think these questions are wrong you may not understand the goal of the question, which is to test the ability of the test taker to isolate the specific line from the rest of the material presented and choose the most logical response from the given choices.

[@topherthe11th23]

@@schwamforfreedom No, the goal of the question is to identify those applicants most comfortable swimming in a sea of meaningless academic jargon.

[@rodolfofrancisco]

@@topherthe11th23there is an objective answer there. Humans sciences are not just about opinions. The fact that you can’t see it just shows you wouldn’t be a good candidate for them anyway.

[@tomprice5496]

Finance guys can also be good poets. Those are not mutually exclusive talents.

[@_ClericalError_]

I guess they are in the mind of Taylor Swift, which probably tells us a lot about how she looks at the world. :)

[@sparemedat5453]

@@tomprice5496 yes. That’s not what she’s saying in the song.. at all. She’s describing the feeling of being trapped under society’s expectations, forcing someone to pursue what seems to be a more “successful” career path when that’s not what they truly *want*. She’s never mentioned that finance guys can’t be poets lol, just a dab at society’s expectations and reforms and looking down on the less-payed jobs. It’s a feeling of entrapment and wanting to escape from it

[@tomprice5496]

@@sparemedat5453 I think you're reading too much into it.

[@sparemedat5453]

@@tomprice5496 wdym that’s literally just the meaning of the text lmao. that’s the answer to the question in the exam too. you are misinterpreting the lyrics and Taylor’s intentions with them, what’s so hard to comprehend?

[@FScott-m1n]

That's a lot of thinking for a exam, especially for 18 year olds.

[@Ty-1452]

Well, I got both answers right. But seeing those pages reminded me of the horror and the pressure I felt during tests.

[@NlGHTSKY]

Honestly I think it's a bad idea to introduce this song in these kinds of test, but at the same time these two Taylor Swift related questions were easy. I never listen to Taylor Swift and still got the two right only by reading the questions themselves and not the text. Either I was lucky with both my answers, or this really isn't that hard.

[@JOAOPEREIRA-nu5rw]

Thanks for this one ... Brasílian students are usually targeted for bad results on the PISA. I think it is just that the examination stlyles are different. What do you think? Warm regards from Rio

[@MrNobodyAttn]

I love you Tibees! Happy thanks giving!

[@pedrocavalcante5822]

Could you give some tips to the student who always got bad grades on math exams?

[@MiriamLevenson]

meanwhile the SAT keeps asking me to interpret data about crops 😭😭 i’d rather take this lol

[@abw979]

Well im watching your videos from I think from 2 years and I find the knowledge you provide here very useful and I think you should be in my subscription list obviously you are in that list ,thanks for the knowledge you provide here ❤❤

[@rosscoepcoltrane36]

Here's a question. If a 600 pound piano fell on Taylor Swift from a height of 20 feet..would she make a sound?

[@esce69]

You already showed the answer to 42 while showing the answer to 41.....not that this matters

[@transklutz]

Knowing nothing about Taylor Swift or her music, I'm happy that I got the first question right. Because I thought she was describing me lol.

[@akankshapawar9609]

No...songs which are taught in schools should be part of the exams...not song from popular singer...some students may not know the exact meaning. 😢

[@viniciusnoyoutube]

Remember, this is the English section of the exam, designed to test your knowledge of English-not text interpretation. Even native speakers struggle with this question, which shows that it's more about interpretation than language skills. While it's fine to include some interpretation questions, they shouldn’t be so difficult that even fluent speakers find them confusing. There is already a separate section for text interpretation in the grammar part of the exam. In my opinion, most of the questions are poorly constructed, as tends to happen.

[@philip281]

To interpret the meaning of a text in English is English knowledge. The whole puporse of languages is to convey meaning.

[@pedroff_1]

I think you miss the point on this one. Generally, the idea of the English section in such exams is to test if your comprehension is nuanced to the point you can make literary analysis in said language. That's true for FUVEST's English questions and ENEM's Spanish and English sections

[@viniciusnoyoutube]

@@philip281 You don't even know the difference between the meaning of words and text interpretation. I recommend studying a bit of grammar and text interpretation first, then rereading my comment.

[@viniciusnoyoutube]

@@pedroff_1 Recomendo você primeiro estudar inglês e depois pesquisar sobre sistemas de avaliação.

[@philip281]

@@viniciusnoyoutube I just ignored it because the difference doesn't matter; both vocabulary and text interpretation are English skills, both are necessary to convey meaning and consequently both can and should be tested on a English exam.

[@PowerChannel88]

Regardless of it being Taylor Swift, I find the concept of interpreting lyrics in a standardised test setting questionable in general. Any lyric worth reading will have a large subjektive component for interpretations, and thus does not really have a right or wrong kinda answer and needs context and explanation. And this context should then be what is evaluated, by a human. Not an answer sheet.

[@flyingpinecone]

Happy for the hard-sciences/math parts because I swear everything else is pretty pozzed. I would rather take a dry test than a pozzed one but maybe I'm in the minority.

[@johnpaulson996]

Do you have a link to the English version of the exam?

[@AusNetFan13]

I miss you so much Toby. What do you think about the latest discoveries by the James Webb Space Telescope on distances discovered by the JWST?

[@DanFrederiksen]

Was this video a shameless ode to Taylor Swift? :) I didn't like the options for 41 and would disagree with 42. Lyrics are often incoherent and ambiguous to allow freer association and evade accountability. Some of her stuff can be interpreted, some cannot. Poet inside the body of a finance guy is just exposition, telling a story with possibilities. Partially a continuation of the previous line, partially a departure. A superposition, if you will :)

[@PlaAwa]

i settled on (d) for the first one then hedged my bets with (a), (c) and (e) on the second, leaning more towards (c). sounds like quite a deep educational experience.

[@dcy665]

You dressed up for the exam. You look gorgeous Thanks, that was fun. I hadn't heard about the test. Quite interesting

[@berentlabrecque4641]

This is cool (and I wish I had access to the English version!)

[@davidrudpedersen5622]

Let's be honest, this is not how an exam should be structured. Questions should have objectively correct and incorrect answers. Otherwise you're essentially selecting people based on their opinions.

[@LNVACVAC]

Enem was planned to randomize who enters university despite it leftist bias.

[@Ta2dwitetrash]

That's exactly what they are doing. A very large % of college students end up having a specific belief structure. And they are shaping the future by only accepting like minded individuals. No one wants to believe these types of things are happening. But they are. Because money and power will always be the highest motivator.

[@mennonis]

You often just have to find the answer that fits the question the best. Doesn't matter if it's perfect, or aligns with your beliefs. You just try to understand what the question is hinting at, and find the closest matching answer. I think you should be able to leave your personal opinions behind if you want to learn new things

[@schwamforfreedom]

@@mennonis Exactly, I find many of these responses disheartening as though people don't understand that part of the question's purpose is to test the ability of the test taker to isolate the line from the rest of the presented material and discern the most logical answer of those given.

[@lumer2b]

They have a clearly correct answer, there's nothing maybe here. If you don't have the language skills to gasp that it's a you problem

[@purefoldnz3070]

that hair looks like it must be at record length now.

[@sparemedat5453]

Tibees x Taylor? Someone pinch me am I dreaming

[@ewasteredux]

Can ASMR be part of an equation? If so, I believe Tibees has solved that as well.

[@darrenbrown3687]

Love Tibees.❤

[@eudaenomic]

She's not only lovely but intelligent also.

[@ezequielmeira4068]

Pelo que vejo as questões do ENEM foram semelhantes as do CPNU, muitas questões com respostas subjetivas. Aí complica.

[@Mark8v29]

... and which reveals more to the student and teacher; questions or answers!?

[@justaguy3518]

BRASIL MENTIONED!

[@WhiteGandalfs]

Oh dear! Those provided choices are completely off the track. They are outright idiotic. Well, maybe not absolutely in Q42, but still very far fetched.

[@gulfbreezediver]

C. Its referencing walt whitman

[@gownerjones]

Imagine trying to go to college and being deprived of a good entrance exam grade because you don't know the minutia of Taylor Swift's private life.

[@ayasugihada]

actually, I don't know much about Swift's life, other than she's politically active and dating a footballer & the C answer was kinda obvious to me. Prolly because I didn't go into overthinking mode - ruminating about how her lyrics relate to her relationships and life stages. Curse of knowledge, I guess.

[@vshade]

From the video, knowing the minutia of Taylor Swift's life seems counterproductive, I`ve listened some of her songs but not this one, and got the right answers just thinking a couple of seconds.

[@gownerjones]

Maybe I'm just not good enough at analyzing lyrics but to me, all of the answers seemed like word salad and equally likely.

[@jaspermcjasper3672]

@@gownerjones Agreed that Swift's lyrics aren't the problem. It's the answers that are the problem. What does "highlights" mean, and what does "role in" mean, in "highlights the role of blah in blah"? In answer (C) what does the phrase "in relation to" even mean? Any thing you pick can be argued to have a relation to every other thing in the universe, even imaginary things. Whatever the right answer is, you're supposed to be able to get it WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING about Taylor Swift, without knowing one biographical fact, or else it's a test of "what do you know about Taylor Swift" rather than a test of "can you understand English"? For that reason, just sticking with "the poem itself" as the anti-biographical anti-historical critical school once called it, (B) is what I'm banking on will be revealed to be the correct answer. Having a job in finance is the "external context". Having the soul of a poet is the "frustration". But why the verb would be "managing" rather than "creating", well, that's just the sort of sloppy use of language the non-rigor academic disciplines always give us. But (C) is also too good a candidate for me to believe this is a fair question that can be answered only by reading the lyrics, with no knowledge external to the lyrics. And what is a "context" anyway? These words are big and fuzzy and vague compared to "proton", "hypotenuse", "sum under the curve", and other terms that have exact meanings.

[@sparemedat5453]

@@gownerjonesso your problem is with the answers not the lyrics. Actually that song has basically 0 ties to her personal life, you can easily analyze her lyrics without knowing who she even is

[@AyanMandal-pk8jm]

Also check iit varanasi semester question on avengers endgame

[@HarvestStore]

Great video.

[@lesselp]

Meditation is at 12:26

[@jaspermcjasper3672]

4:20 - No, Tibees, if you're using biographical knowledge of Swift's life to try to answer the question with some specialized meaning of "eras" that would be her private use of the word, it's no longer a question of comprehending English. It's a question of "how much do you know about Taylor Swift, and do you know enough to get this question correct?". That's a fair entrance-exam for a later-than-introductory course ON Taylor Swift, but not for admission to a University. Why should the taxpayers of Brazil who fund this university care 2 cents whether people on whom they pin a sheepskin know anything in particular about any celebrity to the extent that those who do should be deemed to be "more qualified" to study Incan Literature or Cambodian Archaeology? Comprehending English is a fair demand to ask, but knowing dish about Taylor Swift just isn't. That's why the test's authors should have made up their own sampled of English and asked what they meant.

[@rodolfofrancisco]

The exam wants to test knowledge applied to the real world. We don’t live in a bubble of carefully fabricated situations. That’s why they use modern real world examples.

[@jaspermcjasper3672]

@@rodolfofrancisco Your comment is based on your view that "real world" means what you think it means. Song-lyrics are not part of the real world. Song-lyrics are part of the synthetic world constructed by humans.