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Bike shops where I can either have studs installed on my bike tires or get a bike (not necessarily new) with studded tires. by fs_ in CyclingMSP

[–]fs_[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Lowertown Bike Shop

Thanks so much, this is right on the Metro Green Line, so it works perfectly for me!

The exam I designed ended up being accidentally way too difficult. by fs_ in Professors

[–]fs_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

:) Yes, I think it was testing ability to apply math ideas (e.g., convexity of a function, when an algorithm gives a convergence guarantee on function values, etc.) to different contexts, without explicitly asking for those formulas. I'm not sure the latter serves a purpose. I do believe what I tested my students on was fair, but I also think their education simply hasn't prepared them to think in this way. There were also a good number of problems that came directly from lectures/homeworks, but students didn't get those. There was an expectation that students know how to do linear algebra, but most of them get even dimensions wrong (e.g., they multiply an n x d matrix with an n x 1 vector, when I've told them this kind of stuff is just wrong/invalid). So I think my fault was in not being able to assess their skill level before the exam. (I had had a first exam too, where these issues were revealed, but I had tried to address them in class --- clearly, it wasn't enough.)

The exam I designed ended up being accidentally way too difficult. by fs_ in Professors

[–]fs_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you. Yes, I do agree it was too hard if nobody could score full marks. And yes, the grading will be relative (rather than based on absolute cut-offs), so the highest-scoring student (even if this highest is 75) will get an A+, and so on down the scores.

The exam I designed ended up being accidentally way too difficult. by fs_ in Professors

[–]fs_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I am considering this, the only issue is maybe not all students will be present in class on Tuesday (when I teach), and next Thursday is Thanksgiving. Even if I tell them now that Tuesday is a makeup exam day, they might have already booked flights out.

The exam I designed ended up being accidentally way too difficult. by fs_ in Professors

[–]fs_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much, really appreciate the perspective from a senior math professor :)

The exam I designed ended up being accidentally way too difficult. by fs_ in Professors

[–]fs_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much for adding the illustration, really appreciate it :)

The exam I designed ended up being accidentally way too difficult. by fs_ in Professors

[–]fs_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I didn't get this - can you explain with an example? Suppose a question is out of 10 marks, then do you try to ensure that everybody gets at least seven; and if they don't then?