That's a hard test! It took me almost twenty minutes to do it, and I
had to use paper and pencil to get #40 (though I now see how to do so
without them). My usual factor for test time is three (the students
should take three times as long as I to write it).
I think this test is one of the best multiple choice physics tests I
have seen. It is not sufficiently difficult for a prize competition,
however, as the competitors' scores demonstrate. Nonetheless, it
will separate the sheep nicely from the goats, and I'd take any of
those prize winning students I could get. Our undergraduates would
not do so well as the prize winners after a year of college physics!
I want to call attention to question #33:
33. In the following problem, the word "weight" refers to the force
a scale registers. If the Earth were to stop rotating, but not
change shape,
A. the weight of an object at the equator would increase.
B. the weight of an object at the equator would decrease.
C. the weight of an object at the north pole would increase.
D. the weight of an object at the north pole would decrease.
E. all objects on Earth would become weightless.
I note approvingly that the item's author has been careful to avoid
the problem of an unfair bias against students who have been given
the misinformation regarding weight that we have talked about here
before. This definition of weight is *exactly* what I advocated. I
am glad that the authors of the test were so careful as to foresee
the possible problem and circumvent it.
Leigh
(Please excuse the cross-posting; many of you will be bothered by
seeing this twice. I did not notice that the original had been
cross-posted until after I had written this. I usually do not reply
to cross-posted threads. They are too confusing for readers who are
not members of both groups because of missing contributions, and
redundant for those who are members of both groups. I realize the
original posting was an announcement, not one meant to lead to a
discussion, so I certainly don't object to the cross-posting in
this case.)