Exam blues
AAAaaarrrgghh! :O
Stage V just sat their Javascript exam and I invigilated it. Let me tell ya, it was terrible.
Warning! Rant ahead.
I tried to prepare them for anything. The proverbial anything that might befall. Anything could have come up on the exam paper. This is what the syllabus says:
Syllabus
Introduction and overview: What is JS, competing technologies.
Fundamentals of JS: The JS programming model, JS syntax
Writing client-side JS: Creating eye-catching animations and graphics, utilizing browser objects, handling browser events
Creating intelligent forms: Creating intelligent forms, client-side form validation, adding interactivity to forms
Developing server-side JS: Overview, building applications for Microsoft and Netscape web servers
Integrating databases: database fundamentals, integrating techniques provided by Microsoft and Netscape.
Complimentary technologies: Controlling Java, ActiveX plug-ins, Survey of IDE tools
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is all we get from the University who run the diploma programme. No notes, no teaching materials, no recommended texts, no guidelines on what to cover and what not to bother with, no revision materials, and **no fucking idea what’s going to be on the exam!**.
Looking at past papers I’d say event handlers, form validation, comparison with competing technologies and using pop-up dialogue boxes were **in** while working with images, and server side JS were out. They came at us out of the sun with questions on GET and POST methods for submitting data (arguably not part of a JS class though necessary knowledge to work with forms), asked for **flow charts** to explain a gratuitous nested loop thing, and a load of difficult arithmetic questions that require knowledge of the precidence of operators:
y = 10 % 6 / 4 ^ 2 ^ 3 - 4
AAARRGGHH!! Nobody should ever have to learn that shit! That’s why god invented parenthesis: so that programmers can make the meaning of their programs clear, not so they can learn a load of complex and sublte rules that allow the elite to comprehend the opaque!
And here’s the rub: this exam is written, in a hurry (oh I forgot to mention all the typos and grammatical errors in the paper, incomplete, syntactically incorrect program fragments, and the like!) by someone at the university but will be marked by a bunch of other guys, who might not even know the language. The marking is subcontracted at so-many-shillings-per-paper to someone from one of the 17 colleges who offer the programme. He will then subcontract the marking to his colleagues, family and people he met in the local hotelli for considerably fewer shillings per paper. There is a marking plan, alledgedly, but if the marker doesn’t know the subject, and is in a hurry to make a bob or two, answers that don’t look like those on the plan will just get no marks.
Frankly I’m not optimistic about this. I tried to prepare them for anything, I tried to give them understanding of the principles so they could answer any question from their understanding rather than just preparing some set answers to cliche questions. But the paper was rigged with lots of nit-picking detail that needed to be remembered. Precious little that understanding the principles would helpwith. Some of the questions I myself do not know the answer to (and some I contend there is no correct answer to). What **are** the names of the two types of javascript event handler and how **do** you distinguish between them? I dunno mate, I haven’t seen your textbook.
I was looking forward to a sense of releif and relaxation after this morning, but instead I feel like workin on the revised javascript notes as a kind of pennance for not adequately preparing my girls for their exam. It could have gone better, oh so much better. If the questions had been different. I believe they really **were**/**are** prepared for questions on dynamic HTML with Javascript.
I have never had this little control over a subject I have been teachin. I have complete freedom to teach what I want, and the examiner equally free to ask any old bollocks he chooses. The content of the exam cannot even be divined from the syllabus and if we were to take an inclusive interpretation of the syllabus, then the time available is not sufficient to teach the subject. It’s catch 22.
Drew Says:
**Sympathy** Ohh I so understand
your students don’t know how to answer the wrong questions, sounds like you’re doing pretty well.
So the system is pants.
and
and you are teaching them how to learn and how to think for themselves. (and how to swing.) and not how to pass badly worded exams.
Good on ya chief
have some * * hugs *
Drewx
Rant…. ? hope you’ve been for a good run/cycle/dance and got it out of your system:
http://www.explodingdog.com/january2/ohmanihatethatmountain2.html
April 7th, 2004 at 3:12 pmChris Says:
Oh dear!
Makes you realise the importance of all those pain-in-the-arse things like internal review of papers, external examiners and stuff, eh?
Sounds like you did everything you good to help the students in what’s by the look of it a very very poor situation from their point of view. How does anyone actually PASS this? And do the marks actually count for anything, or is it just a matter of pass/fail?
Poor buggers. And poor Mark! I’m sure you’re finding this very frustrating indeed.
Are you going to confront someone over this, or swallow your bile (ugh!) and think of it as a learning experience?
< sigh >
Got your letter this morning, BTW - thanks!
Just sent you a long mail back.
Love, Chris
April 7th, 2004 at 3:14 pmExploding Chris Says:
Hey Drew! ExplodingDog is splendid! Just what I need in my life today.
Kewl! 8^]
. o O ( I’ve been too grown up recently to say that.)
April 7th, 2004 at 3:19 pmExploring Chris Says:
Here’s a handy Public Information Film about Kenya. You’ll need sound turned up (and will probably wish you hadn’t).
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/29/
(Yes, I’m finally realising that Flash probably is the Antichrist.)
I obviously need to concentrate more on getting some work done…
April 7th, 2004 at 4:13 pmMark Says:
No, not been for a run. Had lunch with the sisters and went through the progression regulations again: they need 50% overall which is comprised of:
Exam 60%
CAT1 10%
CAT2 10%
CAT3 10%
Assignments 10%
Their CAT (Continuous assessment test) retults and assignments are generally quite good so most of them have a chance. Needless to say the weaker ones have lower coursework marks and will be most challenged by the exam. The implication of this is clear to us but a bit tough on them as this is stave V: they have been slogging it out here for at least 5 terms, and stage VI is industrial ‘attachment’ what we call placement. They can come back and re-sit once (they get charged an exam fee, which goes to the University who set this up, of course).
In fact the whole thing makes no sense in terms of education: we ough to be getting materials and all sorts of help considering the large fee our students pay to the university to study here at college. All that money and still no help!
But it makes good sense if you think about it from the point of view of money — this came to me only after conversations with the staff and the sisters today. The students pay us whatever (I know Cyka asked me this, and I have had the figure but cant’ remember at the moment) and we pay pretty much all of that to the university, but not for any kind of teaching support, just to licence their diploma programme. Its a franchise… but without the three-ring binder ( for which you might want to check on Snow Crash).
I have been consoling myself by trying (without success) to send mail from holy rosary by tunneling SMTP through SSH to bitterjug.com. That geeky enuff for ya?
April 7th, 2004 at 4:38 pmDrew Says:
Wwwwwwwwooooow.
April 7th, 2004 at 5:21 pmChris
KEWL^10
ahhh, the cutest little lion nibbling on a giraffe leg
!!I HAVE ALREADY FORGOTTEN NORWAY !!
Cyka Says:
you mean that nearly the full tuition the girls pay is going to J.Kenyatta university??? the secretarial course tuition for one term is about one-tenth what your satellite costs per month, and is nearly twice what a laro ranger makes per month. unbelievable.
can you not put together your own ‘textbooks’?
don’t beat yourself up too much about the exam, if even one of them ‘got it’, you’ve been successful, because that’s one more kenyan girl that has a chance to make something of herself.
April 7th, 2004 at 7:53 pmChris Says:
Regarding resources, if you have machines in the classroom then the W3 Schools site comes very highly recommended… they have quizzes online and great "live" examples that you can fiddle with (at least for HTML and CSS anyway).
Their JS section is at
http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp
Have fun!
April 7th, 2004 at 9:38 pmCyka Says:
throw my recommendation for W3 in as well. i’ve been using the flash and several other tutorials…easy to read and understand, sections short enough to keep my attention without getting frustrated or bored.
has a lot of advert links, but W3 should be in everyone’s bookmarks.
April 7th, 2004 at 11:57 pmMark Says:
Hi Guys, thanks for that; the hugs and all the recommendations. Im looking at w3schools now, very nice.
Yes, Cyka, Im putting together or rather updating, our own textbook. Its good because we can include things that address the stuff in past papers (though future papers still have thepossibility to supprise us). The previous volunteer wrote some good JS notes based on the slyabus, but the past paper questions show we need broader coverage and my experience suggests we need some things explained in more detail.
April 8th, 2004 at 10:50 ammisstiamaria Says:
GEEEEEEEK ALERT!!!!
i don’t know why you’re so upset!! if i could understand one word off that JS list (whatever js is…)i’d be impressed
April 28th, 2004 at 11:28 pmmisstiamaria Says:
GEEEEEEEK ALERT!!!!
i don’t know why you’re so upset!! if i could understand one word off that JS list (whatever js is…)i’d be impressed :crazy:
April 28th, 2004 at 11:28 pm