Re: 1998 AAPT/Metrologic Physics Bowl

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

> At 10:59 AM -0800 1/27/98, Leigh Palmer wrote:
> > > Hmmm..generate interest in physics with a timed multiple choice exam paper?
> >
> > My sentiments, exactly! What could be more wrong-headed? The organizers
> > of this event demonstrate clearly their lack of both intellect and taste.
> >
> > Leigh
>
> Granted, I may not have been a typical student, but I took tests like this
> (mostly chemistry) in high school and thought it was fun and motivating.
> Lots of my high school colleagues went and we all had a good time.  Such
> chemistry tests are still being offered and are still good motivation for a
> certain student population, IMHO.
>
> Larry

Perhaps I should explain my extreme disaffection for multiple choice
questions. It is well founded and almost lifelong.

When I was a schoolboy in Los Angeles in the forties and fifties I
must have written twenty or more standardized multiple choice tests
(IQ tests galore - UCLA was always on the lookout for test subjects,
some yearly attrocities called "The Iowa Tests of General Educational
Development", & more). The only thing those tests ever did for me was
to teach me to be very good at taking multiple choice tests. The last
test I wrote was while a student in grad school at Cal, perhaps the
very first Physics GRE. It was administered for the purpose of giving
the NSF Fellowship Committee a quantitative excuse for awarding their
fellowships without working too hard. I got the only NSF given in
Berkeley Physics that year. I wrote a *perfect* GRE paper. Because I
was a test sophisticate I used my tricks, and I didn't have to
calculate more than a third of my answers. Unlike my colleagues (many
of whom are now very successful physicists) who calculated everything
and had difficulty finishing the exam, I had time to check over every
one of my answers and finished a couple of minutes early. That exam
was a stupid (and cruel) way to select NSF fellows.

I left Cal in 1966 (ahead of the tear gas) and moved to Canada to
raise children and teach at the new Simon Fraser University. I didn't
give another multiple choice question until 1982 or '83, when I began
to teach an astronomy course for Arts students. I still use them in
that course, but in no other.

Back in the seventies I conducted a competitive physics examination
(the Canadian Association of Physicists Prize Examination) for
grade 11 and 12 physics students in the province of British Columbia.
There were no multiple choice questions at all. I restricted the
competition to three or four students in each high school who were
to be selected by their teachers as being their best, and I marked
all of the exams personally. The problems were creative, and given
three hours to write the exam I typically asked one open ended
question (e.g. "Explain the functions and advantages of derailleurs
and toe clips on bicycles."). Some of the teachers hated my
examinations because they couldn't "solve" the problems. They were
nonstandard, and sometimes treated topics not covered in the high
school physics curriculum. School prestige was at stake, however,
so they continued to participate year after year. Many of the
teachers were relieved when, in 1979, with my own son becoming
eligible (and likely) to write the examination for his school, I
graciously turned the task over to a committee.

During the period in which I composed and conducted the examination
we attracted many bright undergraduates to our physics programs at
Simon Fraser University, then a new and growing institution with a
prestigious established crosstown competitor for good students. The
reason I took on the task of administering the exam was for purposes
of extablishing some contact with the province's high school teachers
(many of whom actually liked my exams) and to get an early idea of
the talent in the schools for recruiting purposes. We got some superb
students this way, students who enjoyed a real challenge.

I am intimately acquainted with the genre of multiple choice
examinations. Familiarity has bred true.

Leigh