I cannot judge my own performance

[trinityvixen]

So, apparently, the test was a psych-out. I did tolerably well--I got the exact class average--and all the questions that had me despairing were both misleading and evil. For instance, we were given a molecule made up of 10,000 glucose molecules and asked, given the way it was constructed, to number the reducing ends and determine the reducing power of the sugar. There were three or four questions in this vein, suggesting, if you read into the psychology of such a question, that there should be some complicated answer. You don't keep asking questions about this unless there's an interesting or varying answer. I kept looking and looking and looking and all I could come up with was that it had one reducing end and, as a result of having one reducing end to 10,000 glucose residues, it basically had a reducing power of 0.

Turns out, that's right. Do you see what I mean about it being misleading? There was another question where the bulk of the points went to drawing the molecule and then there were two more questions: 1) Are there any reducing residues? and 2) If so, which residues are reducing? To my logical mind, you don't ask that follow-up question unless there are reducing residues. But there weren't. So I felt like I must have been missing something major when I wrote 1) No, and 2) None of them. I wanted to write "...none?" 'cause that's how I felt. I thought for sure I'd screwed something up majorly. Nope. Psych!

I can breathe a little easier now that that worry is off my mind. Just in time to start panicking again for the next midterm! Joy of joys!
 

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

My high school European history teacher's favorite question to put on tests was, "Who was Boyle's Law of Gases actually discovered by?" Answer: Boyle.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

...that's just evil.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I had a differential equations final that made us prove the equation used in the patent of the hydrogen bomb.

...turns out that they got the equation wrong. The only way to get the question right was to have the courage to say the answer was different than what it says in a 50 year old legal document filed by nuclear physicists.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

At least now you have an idea of what to expect in future exams!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

...wow. I continue to be amazed at how low some of these tests can go.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It's definitely helpful. I'll know not to be so crazed next time. I lost most of my points on the last problem because I didn't have time to do it right...'cause I spent a lot of time psyched out by the questions.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Woots! I am pretty sure I also got around the class average -- unfortunately, from my informal poll, the class average seems to have been TOTALLY FAILING and idk if this guy grades on a curve at all.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

First of all, if your teacher sees that his entire class is failing and doesn't immediately change up what he's doing, then he's a bad teacher. The idea is to impart wisdom and understanding, and if you're not doing that, well, UR DOIN IT RONG.

Secondly, if he wants to just be a hard test-giver, fine, but he has to know that the test doesn't accurately reflect what people will actually know/be capable of demonstrating latter. Which means he better curve or he's a douche on top of being a bad teacher.

Best of luck, seriously, dude.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Well, I remember what Boyle's law is all these years later, so it worked!

Also, trick questions like that were all over most of my tests. That's what you get for going to a school with kids too clever for their own good. So I always had an eye out for trick questions.

One of my favorites--in physics the first question was "You are running to catch a train..." and it had relative velocities and angles and all that. Last question? What is the shoe size of the person in the first question? The teacher got back indignant comments that it was impossible to know from the information given, or one person tried to work it out from velocity, which you can't.

We were all smart asses, so it makes sense that our teacher's were.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I had a test in statistical mechanics in college where the teacher had left out a negative sign, making an equation unsolvable. I realized this while walking to the next class. When I went back to tell him, he looked at it and said, "Huh. You're right."

No adjustment to our scores even though a third of the test was unsolvable.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

First of all, if your teacher sees that his entire class is failing and doesn't immediately change up what he's doing, then he's a bad teacher.

HAHA. Welcome to the Princeton Chemistry department.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Ooh, we had one of those. They actually figured it out with ten minutes left in the test period. So they told us to go ahead and skip that one. Never mind, I'd wasted a third of the time trying to solve it instead of doing the other problems...

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

What a dickbag.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

It's actually a bit of a radical difference at NYU, where they want everyone to learn all of the material, and solve the problem of everyone getting As with a grade-deflation curve. The mentality at Ivy League schools seems to be that, if ANYONE gets 100%, then you've done something wrong. It's not about getting people to learn the material, it's about challenging the smartest person in the class.

(And possibly proving that you, the professor, are still way smarter than any of these young upstarts because, look, you can give a test that they can't beat!)

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

This explains so much of what I failed to learn in undergrad. I burned most of my study time just being psyched out by THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE.