In my experience, by the end of undergraduate, you can be expected to have "mastered" the material you learned in highschool, at the master's level, you understand what you learned as an undergraduate (and are ready to do research) etc. I don't think this has changed in the 15 years since I took my PhD qualifier.
I don't think this exam is unreasonable for someone who's going to be teaching math, but I think someone with a background in humanities would find it fairly daunting, and justifiably so. My understanding is that all of the prospective teachers were made to take this exam.
Ummm.... before we get to high and mighty, perhaps we would like to take crack at this test ourselves:
http://www.mtel.nesinc.com/PDFs/MA_FLD009_PRACTICE_TEST.pdf
I would think it reasonble to expect a new undergrad in science or engineering to do this (before they start forgetting stuff). But this exam is non-trivial, and would be very tough for someone without several years of undergraduate math (like say, a humanities teacher).
Slashdot Mirror
In my experience, by the end of undergraduate, you can be expected to have "mastered" the material you learned in highschool, at the master's level, you understand what you learned as an undergraduate (and are ready to do research) etc. I don't think this has changed in the 15 years since I took my PhD qualifier. I don't think this exam is unreasonable for someone who's going to be teaching math, but I think someone with a background in humanities would find it fairly daunting, and justifiably so. My understanding is that all of the prospective teachers were made to take this exam.
Ummm.... before we get to high and mighty, perhaps we would like to take crack at this test ourselves: http://www.mtel.nesinc.com/PDFs/MA_FLD009_PRACTICE_TEST.pdf I would think it reasonble to expect a new undergrad in science or engineering to do this (before they start forgetting stuff). But this exam is non-trivial, and would be very tough for someone without several years of undergraduate math (like say, a humanities teacher).