Open Book Exam Fiasco: Thermodynamics Without the Book

[siddharth]

Today, I had to take an open book exam on thermodynamics without the book. And without a calculator.

Boy, what an experience. I sure wouldn't want to go through that ordeal again.

 

[Cyrus]

Dammit, sorry man.

It's a good thing your too smart for books or calculators.

How did you finish? I would just cry my eyes out.

 

[JasonRox]

Oh man, that must have sucked!

I forgot my calculator for a computer applications midterm, and that itself wasn't fun. I couldn't imagine a thermodynamics exam without a calculator! Forget the book, calculator comes first.

 

[FrogPad]

sorry man, that is horrible :(

 

[Cyrus]

Wait, it just hit me...how the hell did you interpolate the tables!?

Ohhhh mannnnnnnn,

 

[JasonRox]

I almost forgot.

I supervised a Statistics midterm last week, and I brought a calculator myself in case someone didn't have one. First come, first serve.

 

[FrogPad]

Wel at least you didn't forget to go to the exam :)

 

[FrogPad]

I almost forgot.

I supervised a Statistics midterm last week, and I brought a calculator myself in case someone didn't have one. First come, first serve.

You are probably the nicest teacher/superviser ever... hah

 

[rhuthwaite]

I feel bad for you. I guess we learn from our mistakes though.Surely someone had a spare? I always take a spare calculator and spare batteries into exams just in case they both stop working.

 

[siddharth]

Dammit, sorry man.

It's a good thing your too smart for books or calculators.

How did you finish? I would just cry my eyes out.

Needless to say, I completely fluffed it. I was only able to set up the equations for the questions and outlined how to solve for each variable.

Wait, it just hit me...how the hell did you interpolate the tables!?

Luckily, the tables were printed in the paper. Although, there was this problem on Vapour Liquid Equilibirium in which you've got to use Wilsons model. So, I had to derive that from the excess free energy. There are more logs in that thing than the whole amazon forest.

I feel bad for you. I guess we learn from our mistakes though.Surely someone had a spare? I always take a spare calculator and spare batteries into exams just in case they both stop working.

Nope, no spares. I was able to borrow a calculator for a minute or so. That helped a tiny bit.

 

[devious_]

That sucks man. It reminds me of that time I walked into a differential equations exam only to find that I had a pen - no pencil, calculator, nothing - just a pen! Needless to say, the.. aesthetics of my paper weren't what you would call pleasing. Plus I ran out of time and couldn't finish the entire thing.

I did learn to always pack a calculator, a pencil and an eraser from that day on, though.

 

[Gelsamel Epsilon]

I did that once, but it was in math methods so it wasn't that much of a handy cap.

 

[siddharth]

I got the results today I did really miserably. This is the lowest I've ever got in any test. This feels really terrible The final solution wasn't too hard either.

 

[Cyrus]

I got the results today I did really miserably. This is the lowest I've ever got in any test. This feels really terrible The final solution wasn't too hard either.

Don't worry, I am sure I will get a 40% on my electronics exam as well. We are in the same boat.

 

[Pyrrhus]

Well if it helps i got a 60% on my Reinforced Concrete Design II exam

 

[Moonbear]

How did you manage to show up to an open book exam without a book? I can somewhat understand forgetting a calculator because they're small and you can easily think you have it in your bag and realize you don't, but a book is hard to miss. Then again, those are the sorts of things I would be completely paranoid about when I was a student...check, double check and check again that I had a pencil and calculator and my student ID (we had to show our IDs at exams)...I was always more worried I'd forget my pencil or calculator than I was about the exams themselves.

 

[siddharth]

It was obviously very irresponsible of me. I was reading the book that morning, and I was convinced for some reason that I had put it in my bag. I'm usually very particular that I don't forget these sort of things. It just went horribly wrong.

The only possible consolation in all this is that I haven't wrecked my grades (yet!). I did my first exam kinda well, so overall I'd be around class average.

 

[Moonbear]

It was obviously very irresponsible of me. I was reading the book that morning, and I was convinced for some reason that I had put it in my bag. I'm usually very particular that I don't forget these sort of things. It just went horribly wrong.

The only possible consolation in all this is that I haven't wrecked my grades (yet!). I did my first exam kinda well, so overall I'd be around class average.

Aww, that really sucks. You were probably just sick to your stomach over it through the entire exam; probably even the stuff you did know without the book was a lot harder to remember as the panic set in. At least the grades are out, you know your current fate, and the worst is over (or at least it better be!) I'm confident you'll never make that mistake again of walking out the door without triple-checking your book is in your bag.

So, do you wish to teach some day? This will make one heck of a war story to tell future students.

 

[Cyrus]

Well at least you did not forget that there was an exam on that date, which has happened to me!

I would crap in my pants.

 

[BobG]

How did you manage to show up to an open book exam without a book? I can somewhat understand forgetting a calculator because they're small and you can easily think you have it in your bag and realize you don't, but a book is hard to miss. Then again, those are the sorts of things I would be completely paranoid about when I was a student...check, double check and check again that I had a pencil and calculator and my student ID (we had to show our IDs at exams)...I was always more worried I'd forget my pencil or calculator than I was about the exams themselves.

Yeesh! I just can't figure out how his book bag didn't fly up and hit him in the face when he tried to lift it. Books are heavy!

I think the worst experience I've had in a test was one where you had to solve the last problem on the computer. To log on, you had to remember your five digit student number. How do you do that at the end of a test that consisted almost entirely of calculations? Fortunately, the instructor decided letting me consult my notebook to find my student number wouldn't be cheating. In fact, he could hardly stop laughing at me - jerk! It wasn't that funny, especially since I'd already made the three allowed attempts before your account gets locked! Of course, fortunately, since I was using the wrong student ID, my account wasn't actually locked - just that particular computer for a couple minutes worth of "penalty time".

I think that's kind unprofessional to laugh at people when they're under stress. I only laughed at someone I was evaluating once. On the system we were using, you could build your own file of commands you wanted to send to the satellite. The guy I was evaluating named his file 'troy', since his first name was Troy. Unfortunately, during a satellite pass, you can only insert files with three letter names, and, being low orbiting satellites, you only have about 10 minutes to accomplish everything you want before the satellite disappears over the horizon - it was a pretty high pressure job. When he couldn't insert 'troy', he hopefully tried to insert 'tro'. When that didn't work, he less hopefully tried to insert 'roy'. All I could think while I was watching this was, "Gee, that would never happen to me."

 

[siddharth]

So, do you wish to teach some day? This will make one heck of a war story to tell future students.

Indeed! I got my final grade for the entire course today, and I ended up with an A
So fellow students, even if you completely bungle up one exam, there's still hope! Especially if you work your socks off for the finals

 

[Reshma]

Well anyway, I guess in India, most students are allowed to use a calculator only after High School. I still have some colleagues who use the logarithmic tables and stuff like that even in college.

 

[BobG]

Well anyway, I guess in India, most students are allowed to use a calculator only after High School. I still have some colleagues who use the logarithmic tables and stuff like that even in college.

That's good. People that get into the habit of just punching numbers into a calculator sometimes seem to lack a feel for gauging the reasonableness of their answers. Having to use trig tables, log tables (or a slide rule) seems to force people to look at the bigger picture just out of fear that their answer will be off by some power of ten.