Not equal to w
Oct. 26th, 2003 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyThe title probably requires some explanation.
You see, today was BCA's 2nd annual LKMC (Little Kids Math Competition (specifically 4th-8th grade)).
Last year I got out of grading these, since the competition was on a Saturday, so I was at SHP at the time. But this year it was on a Sunday, namely, today. And so last year I arrived after it was all over, and heard the tales of ridiculous answers... a person who answered "11" to a yes-or-no question, or more likely, it was the other way around (since I'm quite sure all the questions had numerical answers). The person who wrote "not equal to w" as their answer, despite the fact that they had been told to solve for w. The person who prefixed all their answers with "The number is". One question involved money; the answer was prefixed with "The number of dollars is".
But this year I ended up proctoring and grading myself. First was the seating. It was decided that, in order to prevent cheating, no two people from the same grade should sit next to each other - horizontally, vertically (oh, YKWIM), or even diagonally. Now, we had 5 grades (or colors, as each grade had its own color nametag), and this would be perfectly possible with only 4. However, the problem was that the people were just coming in, in no particular order, and seating themselves, and we had to move them around until the above conditions were satisfied, which sometimes meant moving them 3 rows or more. Eventually it was decided that diagonal is OK, making everything much easier.
Not everyone knew what everything on the test meant, and it was decided that it was OK for us to answer questions of definition or terminology. And there were a lot of questions. The most commonly asked question was "What does 'unattainable' mean?", or, alternatively, "What does question 45 mean?" (It was question 45 that used the word "unattainable".) The 2 funniest questions were "What does 'whereas' mean?" and, what with us being in the gym, "What's that little bench at the top of the rock wall for?".
Then came the grading. Everything had to be graded twice, for double-checking, unless the person scored less than 20, in which case it wasn't so important that we double check it. Some of the best answers:
"-1/1" - Right answer, but, um...
"66/3" - See above. However, "-1/1" was deemed acceptable, whereas 66/3 was not. Go figure.
"3+4+3+4" - Not even the right answer, I don't think.
"∞" - That's not even really a number. (The answer was actually "7".)
"The volume of the cube is equal to its surface area." - Thank you for restating the given information.
"16" - The problem asked you to pick which of statements I, II, III, and IV were true. (The person was obviously randomly guessing that whole area.)
"2√2" - One person used this as his answer for anything he didn't know.
"∞=e" - WTF? (The actual answer was "10101".)
"220" - The answer was "2:20 PM". It was decided that just "2:20" was acceptable, but "220"? (Actually deemed acceptable, IIRC.)
"2 hours and 20 minutes" - Sorry, no.
"3030" Er, the answer was "0".
"100 0/3" - And 0 pies and 0 percent signs and 0 orbles, as well!
"160 3/16.3" (not the actual answer, but it was something like this)
There was also one person who answered everything in complete sentences, though not by using "The number is".
Er. That's it, really.
-Sniffnoy
--
"It is the dice, in fact, that play God with the universe."
-King Luca
You see, today was BCA's 2nd annual LKMC (Little Kids Math Competition (specifically 4th-8th grade)).
Last year I got out of grading these, since the competition was on a Saturday, so I was at SHP at the time. But this year it was on a Sunday, namely, today. And so last year I arrived after it was all over, and heard the tales of ridiculous answers... a person who answered "11" to a yes-or-no question, or more likely, it was the other way around (since I'm quite sure all the questions had numerical answers). The person who wrote "not equal to w" as their answer, despite the fact that they had been told to solve for w. The person who prefixed all their answers with "The number is". One question involved money; the answer was prefixed with "The number of dollars is".
But this year I ended up proctoring and grading myself. First was the seating. It was decided that, in order to prevent cheating, no two people from the same grade should sit next to each other - horizontally, vertically (oh, YKWIM), or even diagonally. Now, we had 5 grades (or colors, as each grade had its own color nametag), and this would be perfectly possible with only 4. However, the problem was that the people were just coming in, in no particular order, and seating themselves, and we had to move them around until the above conditions were satisfied, which sometimes meant moving them 3 rows or more. Eventually it was decided that diagonal is OK, making everything much easier.
Not everyone knew what everything on the test meant, and it was decided that it was OK for us to answer questions of definition or terminology. And there were a lot of questions. The most commonly asked question was "What does 'unattainable' mean?", or, alternatively, "What does question 45 mean?" (It was question 45 that used the word "unattainable".) The 2 funniest questions were "What does 'whereas' mean?" and, what with us being in the gym, "What's that little bench at the top of the rock wall for?".
Then came the grading. Everything had to be graded twice, for double-checking, unless the person scored less than 20, in which case it wasn't so important that we double check it. Some of the best answers:
"-1/1" - Right answer, but, um...
"66/3" - See above. However, "-1/1" was deemed acceptable, whereas 66/3 was not. Go figure.
"3+4+3+4" - Not even the right answer, I don't think.
"∞" - That's not even really a number. (The answer was actually "7".)
"The volume of the cube is equal to its surface area." - Thank you for restating the given information.
"16" - The problem asked you to pick which of statements I, II, III, and IV were true. (The person was obviously randomly guessing that whole area.)
"2√2" - One person used this as his answer for anything he didn't know.
"∞=e" - WTF? (The actual answer was "10101".)
"220" - The answer was "2:20 PM". It was decided that just "2:20" was acceptable, but "220"? (Actually deemed acceptable, IIRC.)
"2 hours and 20 minutes" - Sorry, no.
"3030" Er, the answer was "0".
"100 0/3" - And 0 pies and 0 percent signs and 0 orbles, as well!
"160 3/16.3" (not the actual answer, but it was something like this)
There was also one person who answered everything in complete sentences, though not by using "The number is".
Er. That's it, really.
-Sniffnoy
--
"It is the dice, in fact, that play God with the universe."
-King Luca
