[sill: Re: [Tutor] help ;-)]

[dman]

On Fri, Oct 19, 2001 at 12:44:05PM +0100, alan.gauld@bt.com wrote:
| > I agree with most of your post. 
| 
| Me too, but less than you maybe :-)
| 
| > ... tests are a big mistake. It
| > does encourage the students to try to "get by" 
| > with as little as possible. 
| 
| I'm not sure I agree that tets per se are bad.

As I am currently a college student, I have the opinion that many
tests are bad.  Some tests don't really pertain to the course content
or they ask questions that weren't really covered in class or labs or
assignments.  (For example, a recent test in Distributed Systems
asking several detailed questions about COM even though COM was only
presented as an overview)  There are also many times that a test
poorly reflects the knowledge or abilities of the student being
tested.

I have a friend who is in several of my classes.  He works hard and
knows at least the majority of the material.  He can develop good code
as well as the designs and architecture.  His boss and coworkers at
his recent co-op job (where he still works part time) really like his
work too.  I like having him in group projects.  However, many times
on tests he doesn't get very good marks.  The tests don't accurately
reflect his knowledge and capabilities, IMO.

| What I don't like is the current trend to 
| multi-choice tests which can be passed in theory 
| by pure luck! Especially when out of 5 choices 
| there will usually be at least 1 that's obviously 
| dumb, another that's dumb with even basic 
| understanding - which leaves a 30% chance of 
| getting it right. Not much of a test.

My favorite kind :-).  Do you know how many people fail (or at least
do poorly) on mc tests?  (Some people call them "multiple guess")

| Good tests, which really do test understanding 
| mimic the real world which is full of tests:
| "Here's a deadline, if you don't meet it you're 
| fired and if you do meet it and it doesn't work 
| then you're still fired."

I like the no-tests no-grades perspective.  Instead the educator(s)
should be able to testify on the student's behalf to those who want to
know whether or not the student is capable of a given task.  The more
people a person works with/for the more people who know what the
person is capable of.  References are better than numbers, I think.

If I work with someone, I see what the person is capable of.  I don't
care what grades they got, I know what they can do.  Too bad the world
isn't honest enough to operate like this.

| That survival ethic has to be taught to kids somehow 

Don't you mean work ethic?  Survival can be achieved by being injured
while performing a crime, then suing for the incapacity to continue
with your "livelihood".  (ridiculous, I know)

This world is horrible, but we knew that already, (didn't you?).  The
Bible explains it all :-).

-D


PS.  sometimes the "off topic" threads are the most interesting