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Re: [Phys-l] 1869 MIT Entrance Exam



On 10/02/2007 09:32 AM, Bob Sciamanda wrote:

http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/exam/

Very cute, and interesting.

My neighbor Simplicio says this goes to show how much the high
schools have deteriorated over the years, and how much we need
to punish the schools and teachers for doing a bad job.

=========

Kidding aside, it is remarkable how some aspects of test-making
and test-taking have /not/ changed over the years. For example,
look at algebra problem #4.
1) At first glance, this looks like a hard problem. This
is what I call the booga-booga factor, i.e. tendency of
some people to make things /look/ scary, just to see if
you flinch. If you flinch, you lose.
2) If you survive to this point, you apply the test-taking
principle that it "must" be an easy problem. Any
difficulties "must" be superficial.
3) Therefore there must be a "trick" way to solve this problem.
4) The most obvious first guess is that the numerator is a
multiple of the entire denominator. Alas this trick doesn't
work.
5) There is an obvious second guess as to what the trick might
be. In fact this trick works. End of story.

From a test MAKING point of view, I don't approve of questions
like this; it makes the test unrepresentative of real-world math
and physics problems. OTOH from a test TAKING point of view it
is a useful tactic to look for trick questions. The tactic is
useful because there are so many bad tests out there.

On the third hand, maybe schools /should/ train people to deal
with the booga-booga factor. I see many examples of this in
the real world; for example the President goes "booga booga"
and Congress flinches. Or workers send up a budget request
or staffing request and their boss's boss's boss turns it down
for some bogus reason. (It's a test, to see if you come right
back with a counterargument; if you accept the turn-down
meekly, that counts as a flinch. You flinch, you lose.)

Nobody ever taught me this principle; I had to figure it out
on my own. Merely putting it on the test is not the best way
to teach it.