Walter Bright wrote:
Sean Kelly wrote:
I definitely would try to avoid universities where multiple-choice
tests are the norm
(oddly, I've heard that UC Berkeley falls into this category, and as a
result it's also
apparently a haven for cheaters). I went back to finish my undergrad
degree recently
and despite being at a large state school the classes were all a
reasonable size and
the grades derived from a combination of homework and actual
problem-solving
quizzes and exams. Now a prospective employer may not know or care
what format
your classes followed, but I'd personally put more stock in a degree
that was obtained
from as few multiple-choice tests as possible.
As I said before, as a matter of school policy, Caltech did not allow
multiple choice exams. It also, as a matter of policy, did not allow
homework to be part of the grade (unless the homework was the whole
point of the course, like a lab course). The homework could only be used
as a bias in case the grade was on the edge or there was some special
circumstance.
In other words, the grades were based on the midterm and final. This
naturally made finals week very, very stressful. On the other hand, if
you never went to class, never did any homework, never saw the
professor, swooped in and aced the final, you got an A. There were some
that did this <g>. I was in awe.
I managed that for one CompSci subject. It was called "System
Structures". I have no idea what the subject was about, since I hadn't
attended a single lecture; but I came first in the exam.
At the same time, I got 12% for one intermediate exam in Organic
Chemistry, which I'd been very diligent in -- I was dreadful at rote
memorisation.
