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From: usenet@ucbvax.ARPA (USENET News Administration)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Exams vs. Programming Assignments
Message-ID: <10470@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 26-Sep-85 04:55:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10470
Posted: Thu Sep 26 04:55:49 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 07:31:10 EDT
References: <433@uvm-cs.UUCP> <236@uwai.UUCP> <1627@ihuxl.UUCP> <7@ubc-cs.UUCP> <659@bu-cs.UUCP> <2818@wateng.UUCP>
Reply-To: tedrick@ucbernie.UUCP (Tom Tedrick)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 29

>[... exams] don't really test whether you can program. 
>They test how fast you can think [... lots deleted]

Basically I think this type of problem occurs with exams
of all types, not just computer science. I view this
situation as a flaw in our educational system. Ideally
I would like to stop giving anything but oral exams,
to be given when the student feels he has mastered the material.
Then either he would pass the exam if I felt he had
mastered the material, or be given another chance to
retake the exam in say 6 months or so, until he
succeeded. The present system promotes quick thinking
and clever people at the expense of more methodical
types who work more slowly and carefully. It also
gives many students a negative self image that is
not reflective of their true ability, hinders the
learning process, etc. Some students become cutthroat
competitors who care more about grades than knowledge.

In practice when teaching large courses (like > 200 students)
what I do is give exams with no time limit. This has worked
fairly well since I have the patience to wait 4 hours for
the one student who takes more than 2 hours, but certainly
isn't ideal ... 

Good luck in solving this problem!

   -Tom
    tedrick@berkeley


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