Should I Be Mad? Reasons Why & What To Do

[cristo]

Poop-Loops. This clearly highlights the difference between the education system in the US and the UK. In exams here, in the UK, I would not imagine asking an invigilator to re-word the question for me. After all, why should he? He's written the problem in the way he wants it to be read, and he wants the student to understand what he is asking, and answer it.

In my opinion, by your professor telling you to "find x, dx/dt, etc.." he has told you what an equation of motion is. Something that a student attempting the exam should clearly know!

Finally, I will not accept such verbal abuse as you are dishing out here. If you cannot deal with being questioned, fair enough, but there is absolutely no need to launch into a personal attack.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Poop-Loops. This clearly highlights the difference between the education system in the US and the UK. In exams here, in the UK, I would not imagine asking an invigilator to re-word the question for me. After all, why should he? He's written the problem in the way he wants it to be read, and he wants the student to understand what he is asking, and answer it.

Want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one gets full faster.

In my experience teachers write the problems in ways they understand and since they are teaching, the students generally know what he is talking about. So it's coincidence that they understand him.

I've never seen a problem where wording had a major impact. That would be more of a riddle than a physics question. So if you're not trying to write a riddle, what's the problem in re-wording it? Or even elaborating on a vague part?

I mean, what you are doing in essence is saying that your profs are infallible and always communicate correctly. Somehow asking them to clarify is a sin because it never happens that they poorly word something?

In my opinion, by your professor telling you to "find x, dx/dt, etc.." he has told you what an equation of motion is. Something that a student attempting the exam should clearly know!

"Equation of motion" is just a term. It's a buzzword. I could know all the math and physics and just not know what the term means. Just like I know how to find the energy of a system, but when you say "Hamiltionian" I don't know what you mean. This happens a bit in all my classes, because they use terms from other math or physics classes. For example, in QM you have eigenvalues of a Hamiltonian. The eigenvalue also happens to be the energy. So if I ask the prof "what do you mean by 'eigenvalue?'" he'll respond "energy". It doesn't help me at all in solving the problem, it just tells me what the problem is asking.

This is especially true for foreign students. Math is universal, so x or dx/dt is seen everywhere. Why make them fail just because their English isn't up to par?

Finally, I will not accept such verbal abuse as you are dishing out here. If you cannot deal with being questioned, fair enough, but there is absolutely no need to launch into a personal attack.

Yeah yeah, I already got spanked for it.

 

[J77]

From the full question (pdf) that was posted, it seems obvious to attempt question 2 in the same way as question 1.

 

[bravernix]

If the original poster was the only student who had this trouble, there's not much of a case to be made. On the other hand, if most of the students in the class were not able to determine what the question was asking due to an ambiguity, then it is not the fault of the students.

OK, but the OP said that the average exam score was 76% and the question was worth 30% of the midterm. So, some students were obviously able to answer the question, which I would think makes this entire thread pointless.

 

[bravernix]

From the full question (pdf) that was posted, it seems obvious to attempt question 2 in the same way as question 1.

I agree, "You should be able to do this problem by the method of images in a similar way that we did the charge in the conducting sphere." I will say though, that sometimes I am not a big fan of connected questions. This one is not a great example of what I mean, but I have had exam questions which ask you to refer to the results from the previous problem. Of course if you have trouble with the previous one, that can be not so good, especially when exams consist of 3 or 4 questions.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Chain questions like that suck. I've been lucky though to get at least a few times where I can give the "general case" and not use the exact solution from the previous problem and still get full credit.

 

[asd1249jf]

Just to make a clarification, even in US, not all exams are reviewed by the department before they are handed out. I work with a professor as a grading assistant, and know that her exams are never reviewed by the department (Excluding the midterm and final).

 

[user101]

I second what l46kok says... I don't think any exam (including midterms or finals) are reviewed by the department. I know that semester exams aren't for sure, but there may be a possibility for final exams.

It's not that popular.

 

[JasonRox]

Chain questions like that suck. I've been lucky though to get at least a few times where I can give the "general case" and not use the exact solution from the previous problem and still get full credit.

Chain questions make it easy to go from one thing to another without creating too long of a question while testing many different things.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Yeah, but there are two types of chain questions:

"I give you [something], now tell me x, y, z about it"

and "Find out X. From X, find out Y. From Y, find out Z"

The former is okay, but the latter generally scares me haha

 

[cristo]

Just to make a clarification, even in US, not all exams are reviewed by the department before they are handed out. I work with a professor as a grading assistant, and know that her exams are never reviewed by the department (Excluding the midterm and final).

But anything other than a midterm and a final are not "exams" in my eyes. I understand that all class tests cannot be reviewed by the department-- that's just stupidly time wasting-- but "exams" that count for a large proportion of one's mark should be checked by the department. (Then of course, afterwards, the marking has to be checked by someone else i the faculty).

 

[Poop-Loops]

Lots of things "should" happen, but that doesn't mean they do. Honestly, any of my professors that have said anything about the exams have said that they make them up 2 or so days ahead of the test. They give them to their grad students and that's about it.

 

[PowerIso]

But anything other than a midterm and a final are not "exams" in my eyes. I understand that all class tests cannot be reviewed by the department-- that's just stupidly time wasting-- but "exams" that count for a large proportion of one's mark should be checked by the department. (Then of course, afterwards, the marking has to be checked by someone else i the faculty).

At my school the only exams reviewed by the department are the finals for Calc I-III.

After that, it's up to the professor.