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From: junkmail@moreira.mv.com (Alberto C Moreira)
Subject: Re: Grading
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Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 00:18:35 GMT
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In article <5hqcsd$skb@dfw-ixnews12.ix.netcom.com>, kaynjay@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>In <E7xrL1.DFu@mv.mv.com>, junkmail@moreira.mv.com (Alberto C Moreira) writes:
>>In article <333eaf6a.3253758@news.csuohio.edu>, scott@math.csuohio.edu (Brian

>>This is a problem with grading, I'm often bothered by it. When we grade 
>>a course, we cannot avoid the fact that we're also grading the student's 
>>retention of previous courses; my intuition is that it's hard, specially 
>>in science or mathematics, to get a good grade in a discipline without 
>>being just as competent with the prerequisites.

>Why is this a surprise or a bother??  What should one expect for a discipline??

>Can you factor a polynomial without knowing your multiplication tables??
>
>Too many people come into classes believing that once a chapter is finished 
>and tested, they can relax and move on to the next one.  Surprise!!

My computer can factor polinomials better than I can; that's not the 
point.

Say I'm teaching Theory of Computation to a Computer Science M.Sc. 
class. I would have expected, maybe naively, that every student enrolled 
in that class knew at least a minimum amount of set theory and logic, so 
that they won't cringe when I talk about universal or existential 
quantifiers, or recursive functions, or recursively enumerable 
languages. Guess what ? I've often had to give a remedial course on set 
theory in parallel with my Theory of Computation class.

Not fun.


Alberto.



