At 2:28 PM -0400 4/14/08, André Pitanga wrote:
First candidate finished his exam:
Answer to 7) a= 0.5, b=1
I'm not kidding...
ps. I'm not hating. I'm sharing this with the
community because I think it's valuable info.
André:
I'm not saying that he shouldn't answered the
question as you intended, but let's stop and
examine this incident -- your question was:
7) a and b are variables.
a = 10
b = 20
a = b
The new values of a and b are, respectively:
And his answer was:
a= 0.5, b=1
Now, if you were looking at these relationships
as ratios, such as a:10, b:20, then what would be
the ratio of a:b ? His answer 0.5:1 would have
been correct.
I suspect that you confused the issue by using
the word "respectively". After all, that word
really didn't add anything to the question except
to add a bit of doubt as to what the question
actually meant. Using the word "respectively
means with respect to each other and thus one
could interpret that as a ratio question. As
such, his answer would have been correct.
If you had been testing for grammar, then he
could have corrected that for you for bonus
points.
I've seen a lot of trick questions in my day and
that word would have raised a red flag for me. Of
course, I would have still answered the question
the way you wanted -- but I would have never let
on that your question showed more about you than
me.
If it had turned out to be a trick question, then
I could have defended my answer well enough. But,
I have found myself in positions before where the
people who wrote the test knew absolutely nothing
about the subject and in those cases no one wins
except the dumbest -- try taking a civil service
exam sometime and you'll understand.
That's the problem with writing test -- not only
do you have to know what you are asking; but how
specific and clear the question is; what should
the answer be (acceptable range); and most
importantly why you are asking it. What value
does answering your question your way bring to
the table? After all, you might be wrong.
I applied for a position with a company and after
reviewing my resume they required me to take a
math fraction test. I asked them if they had
noticed my education (MSc) on my resume which
required math skills far exceeding fractions
(i.e., vector calculus, matrix theory, digital
processing). They replied "Yes, but we still
want you to take the test." I declined and we
parted company. So, what purpose did that test
serve?
In short, test generally suck as a measure of
anything more than common ignorance.
Cheers,
tedd
--
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http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com
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