From Rate Your Students, via Ernie’s 3D Pancakes:
My classes are large, so I mostly use multiple-choice tests. One day, being one question short of a nice round number, I used this question: “The answer to this question is D. Be sure to mark D on your answer sheet.” The offered choices were: (A) This is the wrong answer. (B) This is the wrong answer. (C) This is the wrong answer. (D) This is the correct answer. Be sure to mark it on your answer sheet. (E) This is the wrong answer.
About 20% of the students got it wrong. One possibility is that they couldn’t read any English. Another is that they didn’t care. But one student had the courage to admit that he always marked B for every answer (true, that’s what he did) in hopes that all the answers were B.
One wonders how these students would have performed on Jim Harrick Jr.’s basketball exam?
Studying physics and maths requires the student to study him/herself. They have to learn to do that.
Here in Holland the educational system has been changed a bit because students had to finish their studies faster. This has led to more structured courses where students have to hand in assignments on time etc. (a bit like the US system). This has had a very negative impact on the performance of students. Even though more students finish their studies on time, their level is much lower than it used to be.
What happens is that the more intelligent students are not given the freedom to study by themselves and the less intelligent ones don’t learn to study for themselves.
And if you look at the situation in the US, you see that what they learn in their first year is the same as what high school students here know when they graduate. Some time ago, Clifford posted here about a new first year physics class he is teaching. I.m.o. this class should be taught to 15 year olds, not to 18 year old university students.