Standardisation of Maths Teaching: 5*3 != 3*5 ?

[Geoff Quickfall]

As a marker of exams and lab instructor at university I was always amazed at how badly an exam question may be written; how vague the English language can be and how an intelligent student can be mislead by said question.

Many times I stood at the front of the class, pointed to a question and substituted a word in the question for a synonym.

Ex). Idea versus concept.

The math question has two answers and should be written as such: list the two possible additive ways to produce the correct result. That is, unless it was stressed in class that there are always two methods to arrive at the same result using the additive method (see Curta).

As an undergrad I remember being told in a botany class the ten reasons a rose is a rose. The prof explained in detail in a specific order; descending importance (unbeknownst to me). Come midterm time the following question was asked and assigned 5 marks: list 5 reasons a rose is a rose. I responded with the bottom (least important) 5 reasons and was assigned a 2/5.

A Teaching assistant explained the politics and game involved in university over beer and Star Trek (TOS). Improved my GPA immensely.

Geoff