farcical exam drama
Nov. 23rd, 2006 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dafjust got out of my binary mathematics exam [read multiple choice test].
igot into an argument had an academic debate with both the exam invigilator and the course leader concerning the answer to one of the questions.
now as most of you will know, the way you do well in a multiple choice question exam is by choosing the correct answer out of a group of potential answers of which all bar one are erroneous.
well, you can imagine my reaction to the assertion of my lecturer that "Cable" is not represented in ASCII as 43 61 62 6C 65.
here's the table they provided us with to decode "Cable"
The only answer on the test possibly derivable from the code given was 61 43 23 1B 53
which after about 10 minutes, both of them conceded was wrong.
</geek>
suffice it to say, i have made the exam slightly easier for the other students [there's now one less question to answer] and have asked difficult questions regarding the teaching of the module, because the lecturer responsible for teaching us ASCII has fucl<ed up big style.
in other news, the coursework i thought i'd missed the deadline for has been extended owing to similar answer issues...
lucky old me :)
i
now as most of you will know, the way you do well in a multiple choice question exam is by choosing the correct answer out of a group of potential answers of which all bar one are erroneous.
well, you can imagine my reaction to the assertion of my lecturer that "Cable" is not represented in ASCII as 43 61 62 6C 65.
here's the table they provided us with to decode "Cable"
The only answer on the test possibly derivable from the code given was 61 43 23 1B 53
which after about 10 minutes, both of them conceded was wrong.
</geek>
suffice it to say, i have made the exam slightly easier for the other students [there's now one less question to answer] and have asked difficult questions regarding the teaching of the module, because the lecturer responsible for teaching us ASCII has fucl<ed up big style.
in other news, the coursework i thought i'd missed the deadline for has been extended owing to similar answer issues...
lucky old me :)
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-23 04:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-23 06:05 pm (UTC)they seem to take great enjoyment in teaching us almost nothing of any practical use.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-23 06:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-23 07:17 pm (UTC)but i saw through their plans.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-23 09:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-24 09:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-24 11:11 am (UTC)you've got your i's and e's all muddled up.
Mmmm smug mode ;)
Date: 2006-11-24 03:41 pm (UTC)you're wrong
Date: 2006-12-03 11:22 pm (UTC)I digress.
My real bone of contention lies deeper. I would hope that someone on your course would be at least semi-aware of ASCII and therefore roughly knowledgeable in its makeup to the point of knowing that letters appear in sequential order. It would therefore be evident that the bits were listed right-to-left rather than left-to-right. Traditionally the LSB is generally given the lowest number and MSB the highest, so the column headings should also have been a give-away. Even if this were missed, a series of consecutive binary values (even if left-right flipped) should have been easily spottable to someone with even minimal exposure to binary.
Besides - this is an exam. Trick questions are unusual so had it been me taking the exam, before assuming it was a fault I'd look for a more likely solution.
Re: you're wrong
Date: 2006-12-04 03:16 pm (UTC)the lecturer who taught us hadn't bothered to check more than the letter A [1000001] which when reversed is the same.
anyway, the result of their error was award of full marks for everyone for that question due to it's unanswerable nature.