Jewish observance and higher education converge with the introduction of a traditional-religious preparatory course for the widely-required Psychometric test.
For the first time, a course has been designed with the religious student in mind, including gender-separate classes and sample questions that do not invoke images of immodesty and the like.
By law, nationally-recognized institutions of higher learning must require their prospective students to take a standardized test known as the Psychometric Entrance Test (PET), colloquially known in Hebrew as "the Psichometri." Administered by the Israeli National Institute for Testing and Evaluation (NITE), the PET covers three areas: quantitative reasoning, verbal reasoning and the English language.
Because the test is so critical to prospective students, most of them spend months and thousands of shekels taking courses preparing them for the test. PET preparatory courses in Israel are now a 300-million-shekel-a-year business.
Rabbi Chaim Fogel, founder of the national Tzviya network of religious girls’ high schools, is a driving force behind the new program. “Our goal as religious Jews is to improve all areas of life,” he told Israel National News. “The PET courses as they stand now are lacking. For one thing, their classes include both males and females, which has been proven to be detrimental to the students’ education success. In addition, their sample question booklets present situations which are simply not appropriate for young religious men and women: ‘Seven men kissed nine married women… A girl went out driving with her boyfriend on the Sabbath… Maria said she's pregnant, and Magdalena said she must have met the holy spirit...’ - these are typical scenarios in the sample questions.”
The Hakima PET preparatory school, on the other hand, has published some 30 books and pamphlets for its new preparatory course, with questions dealing with Hassidic music, common religious items, and situations that a religious Jew might encounter in the course of daily life.
Research Shows: Separate is Better
Hakima has also taken upon itself to research the entire subject of Psychometric study, and is preparing to release top-level research on the topic. The identities of the top-notch professors behind the study and the actual results are still being kept under wraps, said Shai Cohen, the school’s Director-General, “but it shows clearly, among other things, that males and females studying separately receive higher scores than when they study together. This is something that every student, religious or secular, would likely want to know.”
“If we can bring about a situation,” Rabbi Fogel said, “where young men and women who have just spent many years in a religious environment need not be subjected to immodest dress and a secular and sometimes heretical atmosphere, then why not?... Not to mention that there are some who simply would not take the course under the existing circumstances.”
Rabbi Fogel was asked: “But they will end up learning in schools and universities that are mixed, immodest and secular in any event, so what are they really gaining?”
His answer: “Aside from the months of study in the course itself, there are many hareidi-religious and religious schools in which they can study, and they also require a Psychometric. There is Machon Lev (Jerusalem College of Technology), and its Machon Naveh, and Shaarei Mishpat (Gates of Law) Law School in Hod HaSharon, and Kiryat Ono…”
The Best in the Field
Cohen told Israel National News that in formulating the new course, his school set an objective of being the best in the field – “not only for the religious community, but for everyone. That is why we consulted with the top experts in this discipline in preparing our books.”
“We do not see a contradiction between higher education and academic research, on the one hand, and Torah life, on the other,” Cohen said. “As Maimonides wrote, the more we study the world, the more we will recognize the greatness of the Creator… However, the educational material must be appropriate for our beliefs and life styles.”