Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!uflorida!gatech!mcnc!ecsvax!hes
From: hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Becoming CAI literate
Summary: exams with/without calculators
Message-ID: <4618@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 16 Feb 88 20:13:03 GMT
References: <776@zippy.eecs.umich.edu> <3316@killer.UUCP> <3221@arthur.cs.purdue.edu>
Organization: NC State Univ.
Lines: 24

One can try to meet multiple needs when constructing an examination.  Before
calculators existed (B. C. E.?) calculation was included as part of the exam
because it was part of ensuring that the person could solve the problem in
real life.  With calculators, the requirement for hand calculation has
changed - and therefore the exam can change.  Emphasis can be removed from
the calculation, per se, to the principles.  Fine - but how can this be done.

One way I have used is to give exam questions which were simpler numerically -
in which the numbers were (small) integers - so that the arithmetic became
simpler to do - but the decision on *what* to calculate was no easier than
before (and so it is now a larger part of the total work - of course it can
also be made more difficult.)  One can also pretty much leave out even that
smaller amount of arithmetic and ask for the answer to tell what calculation
has to be done.  I was able to change my exams in this manner, and then it
didn't make any perceptible difference whether or not the student brought a
calculator to the exam.  (In fact I used to warn my students that they would
probably work more slowly with a calculator unless they had become fairly
proficient in the use of all the functions they might have to use.)

This does not address the question of whether proficiency in non-calculator
arithemetic is desireable.  (I personally am in favor of it - but perhaps I'm
just being old-fashioned.)

--henry schaffer  n c state univ