[helene_t]

http://www.nytimes.c...ntemail0=y&_r=1

My favourite author, Steven Pinker, made a great quiz to test his students.

[kenberg]

 helene_t, on 2014-April-12, 05:30, said:

http://www.nytimes.c...ntemail0=y&_r=1

My favourite author, Steven Pinker, made a great quiz to test his students.

Definitely tougher than my exam in Psych 1 back in the 1950s. In that class I rarely came to class, never read the text, and got an A. Here I only get a B. I mostly had no idea what they were talking about in either case. For example, I plan to happily live out my life without ever learning what representativeness heuristic means. If anything.

[billw55]

Hm, not bad, 8/10. That includes getting #5 wrong, which is really a question about pop culture and not psychology.

[kenberg]

I am quite cynical about many exams. Here is an article, this one about the SAT, that makes my own cynicism mild by comparison.
http://www.nytimes.c...t-overhaul.html

Quote

More recently, Perelman coached 16 students who were retaking the test after having received mediocre scores on the essay section. He told them that details mattered but factual accuracy didn’t. “You can tell them the War of 1812 began in 1945,” he said. He encouraged them to sprinkle in little-used but fancy words like “plethora” or “myriad” and to use two or three preselected quotes from prominent figures like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, regardless of whether they were relevant to the question asked. Fifteen of his pupils scored higher than the 90th percentile on the essay when they retook the exam, he said.

I regard the OP exam as fun. I hope it is not used to decide anyone's future..

[PassedOut]

 kenberg, on 2014-April-12, 17:29, said:

I am quite cynical about many exams. Here is an article, this one about the SAT, that makes my own cynicism mild by comparison.
http://www.nytimes.c...t-overhaul.html

I regard the OP exam as fun. I hope it is not used to decide anyone's future..

Yes, students who think about test-taking strategy often gain an advantage over those who don't.

On a much simpler level, teachers often gave true-false tests in my elementary and secondary schools. Of course kids quickly catch on never to guess "false" because teachers don't want to be responsible for providing misinformation that might stick in some kids' heads. But I still remember one memorable question from Mrs. Kelley's English class:

1. Everyone has heard of William Wordsworth. true/false

When my choice, false, came back with a big red X marking it as an error, I indignantly marched to Mrs. Kelley's desk and demanded a correction. She pulled out the text book, turned to the chapter in question, and pointed to the very first sentence in the chapter:

Everyone has heard of William Wordsworth.

"Next time pay better attention when you read the material."

[Vampyr]

 PassedOut, on 2014-April-12, 18:23, said:

Everyone has heard of William Wordsworth.

"Next time pay better attention when you read the material."

A friend of mine recently watched a quiz show where university students (!) had a category of poetry. Apparently they didn't know of any poets except Byron, and he was their answer when they were given the first line of Daffodils

[mike777]

 PassedOut, on 2014-April-12, 18:23, said:

Yes, students who think about test-taking strategy often gain an advantage over those who don't.

On a much simpler level, teachers often gave true-false tests in my elementary and secondary schools. Of course kids quickly catch on never to guess "false" because teachers don't want to be responsible for providing misinformation that might stick in some kids' heads. But I still remember one memorable question from Mrs. Kelley's English class:

1. Everyone has heard of William Wordsworth. true/false

When my choice, false, came back with a big red X marking it as an error, I indignantly marched to Mrs. Kelley's desk and demanded a correction. She pulled out the text book, turned to the chapter in question, and pointed to the very first sentence in the chapter:

Everyone has heard of William Wordsworth.

"Next time pay better attention when you read the material."

wow does this bring back a memory of school.

I remember a similar discussion and I said proof it! Show me the evidence not some author's belief!

I did not get justice.

Such is the science of English and reading class.

In retrospect Wadsworth was not really taught in Chicago except as some throw away moment, yet another loss.

This post has been edited by barmar: 2014-April-14, 09:23
Reason for edit: fixed the quoting

[PassedOut]

 Vampyr, on 2014-April-12, 18:28, said:

A friend of mine recently watched a quiz show where university students (!) had a category of poetry. Apparently they didn't know of any poets except Byron, and he was their answer when they were given the first line of Daffodils

I knew I was right!

[kenberg]

An historical tidbit from my high school days.

The play I Am a Camera opened in NY in 1951. It was based on the novel Berlin Stories, and was the basis for Cabaret. Anyway, it tells the rather racy story of Sally Bowles, set in pre-war Berlin.

During my freshman year in high school, 1952-1953, the play traveled to St.Paul where it was denounced as obscene and promptly closed down. This caused some stir, with many letters to the editor. Somehow this came up in my Freshman "Orientation" class and the teacher explained that "camera" is another word for "prostitute" and so this horrible play really amounted to having the title 'I Am a Prostitute". Certainly the heroic mayor was correct in closing it down. Fortunately I had already developed the habit of deep skepticism about things adults told me.

If you ask "What is an Orientation class?", I have no idea.

[blackshoe]

From wikipedia: 'The title is a quote taken from the novel's first page: "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking."'

It seems your skepticism with respect to the teacher's claim was well placed.

[barmar]

 blackshoe, on 2014-April-13, 09:30, said:

From wikipedia: 'The title is a quote taken from the novel's first page: "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking."'

It seems your skepticism with respect to the teacher's claim was well placed.

I don't know -- that line seems like it could be a metaphoric description of a prostitute.

[kenberg]

 barmar, on 2014-April-14, 09:26, said:

I don't know -- that line seems like it could be a metaphoric description of a prostitute.

It could be. One can, just barely, imagine it. You also have to imagine St. Paul in the early 50s. Those New York people, bringing their smut to our fair city, talking about cameras, whatever they mean by that, probably....

Don't get me wrong. St. Paul was a great place to grow up in the middle of the last century and I still think Minnesota is a seriously good place to live. The New Yorkers I met when I was going to the university mostly fell into one of two very opposite camps. They loved it and were staying, or they thought that had somehow landed on the moon and could not wait to get back to civilization.

[blackshoe]

 barmar, on 2014-April-14, 09:26, said:

I don't know -- that line seems like it could be a metaphoric description of a prostitute.

Note that the teacher didn't say anything about metaphors.

[barmar]

 blackshoe, on 2014-April-14, 14:05, said:

Note that the teacher didn't say anything about metaphors.

Since a person cannot literally be a camera, it's obviously a metaphor. The only question is what it's a metaphor for.

[kenberg]

Sort of like hiking the Appalachian trail, I guess. I always take along a camera when I do that.

[Zelandakh]

 kenberg, on 2014-April-15, 10:51, said:

Sort of like hiking the Appalachian trail, I guess. I always take along a camera when I do that.

You must have a very tolerant wife!

[Winstonm]

 barmar, on 2014-April-14, 09:26, said:

I don't know -- that line seems like it could be a metaphoric description of a prostitute.

It sounds more like A Fish Called Wanda.