Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!ccncsu!handel.colostate.edu!kolb
From: kolb@handel.colostate.edu (Denny Kolb)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Exam Files
Message-ID: <1121@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Date: 2 Feb 89 16:47:08 GMT
References: <1461@trantor.harris-atd.com> <19554@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <27541@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <15993@joyce.istc.sri.com> <429@laic.UUCP> <19810@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <9388@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
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Reply-To: kolb@handel.colostate.edu.UUCP (Denny Kolb)
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In article <9388@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> timlee@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Timothy J. Lee) writes:
>>(it's really quite amazing how many professors will give essentially the
>>same exam year after year, at least in terms of general content).  For
>
>Not just fraternities...  many other student groups maintain exam files.
>Perhaps the visibility of some such files ensures that instructors
>don't give the same question (or variation with different numbers) twice.


  The technique also works for many laboratory courses.  When I was an
undergraduate Chemistry major, it was well known that the Chemical
Engineers had stacks of old P-chem (Physical Chemistry for the 
uninitiated) lab reports.  If memory serves me, one could purchase a
complete set for $45.

  The is some danger in relying on these however.  One summer, the
people in charge of P-chem lab decided to change one of the laboratories.
However, they kept the title the same.  Some poor fool didn't really
bother to read the new assignment carefully, and handed in a copy of
the OLD assignment.  According to the fellow who was T.A.ing at the time,
it was one of the easiest lab reports he had ever graded!  :-)

Regards,
==========================================================================
Denny Kolb                   |             Computers are my job,  
kolb@handel.cs.ColoState.Edu |             they are not my life.
hao!handel!kolb              | ===========================================