In class final for a graduate EM class?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the educational value of final exams based on the Jackson textbook, highlighting concerns about the difficulty and integrity of the exam process. One participant notes that typical Jackson problems can take at least two hours to solve, leading to frustrations with grading and the potential for mistakes. The professor, inexperienced with the material, caught several students cheating on a specific problem, opting not to grade that question for those involved. The conversation raises questions about the effectiveness of such exams in fostering genuine learning, with some participants sharing experiences of less challenging exams in previous courses. Cheating methods included copying solutions verbatim from posted materials, which participants agree undermines the educational purpose of the exam. The consensus suggests that in a small class, such dishonesty is easily detectable, further questioning the integrity of the exam process.
ptabor
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
I question the educational value of such an exam. We've been working out of Jackson this year, and based upon my experience the typical jackson problem (just one) takes at least two hours, even if you know what you're doing and make minimal mistakes (ie dropping signs, forgetting terms in your algebra).

The professor hasn't done it before, but this year he caught several students (maybe 3 out of 7) cheating (on problem 5.26 - the prof has yet to work out the quoted solution). No, I was not one of them. I made a completely boneheaded mistake (calculated the integral of B*B between the two wires, as opposed to over all space). Instead of reporting the problem to the dept. chair he simply didn't grade the problem for those students (they got a score out of 30, the rest of us out of 40).

In any event, I'll quit ranting. To get to my original point, for those who have had to take an in class final for Jackson, was this educational for you at all?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
How did they cheat?

In fourth year, I took two 1-semester courses that had Jackson as text and assignment source. The final exams were four hours long, and the exam problems were somewhat less difficult than Jackson problems.

I would rate the value of this type of exam as about the same as most exams.
 
from what I understand, they copied from a posted solution, verbatim.

Personally, I think it's one thing to check a solution to see if you're on the right track. But to copy something is wrong.
 
ptabor said:
from what I understand, they copied from a posted solution, verbatim.

Personally, I think it's one thing to check a solution to see if you're on the right track. But to copy something is wrong.
And to think they could get away with it, in a class of seven people? If any two people in a class that small do a hard problem with exactly the same work and with the same writing, it should be pretty obvious that the professor is going to catch it.
 
After a year of thought, I decided to adjust my ratio for applying the US/EU(+UK) schools. I mostly focused on the US schools before, but things are getting complex and I found out that Europe is also a good place to study. I found some institutes that have professors with similar interests. But gaining the information is much harder than US schools (like you have to contact professors in advance etc). For your information, I have B.S. in engineering (low GPA: 3.2/4.0) in Asia - one SCI...
Hello, I’m an undergraduate student pursuing degrees in both computer science and physics. I was wondering if anyone here has graduated with these degrees and applied to a physics graduate program. I’m curious about how graduate programs evaluated your applications. In addition, if I’m interested in doing research in quantum fields related to materials or computational physics, what kinds of undergraduate research experiences would be most valuable?

Similar threads

Replies
2
Views
2K
Replies
7
Views
1K
Replies
3
Views
2K
Replies
54
Views
7K
Back
Top