Saturday, February 21, 2009

B is the new C.


The Rule for Multiple Choice Exam Questions:
If in doubt, choose C.
The Rule for True or False Exam Questions:
Bring a coin. Heads means True, tails means False.

Yesterday I had a midterm for my Marriage Prep class (don't laugh...you gotta prepare sometime). It was 95 questions long -- 40 of the 95 questions were True or False questions. All True or False questions are either patronizing or mind-numbingly stupid. And you can't just choose C and hope for the best. Take this story for example (refer to picture):


Response from the teacher:

Dear Michael, 

Every year I attempt to boost my students' final grades by giving them this relatively simple exam consisting of 100 True or False questions. For the past twenty years I have never once seen someone score below a 65 on this exam. Consequently, your score in the first in history and ultimately brought the entire class average down a whole 8 points.

There were two possible answer choices: A (True) and B (False). You chose C for all 100 questions in an obvious attempt to get lucky with at least a quarter of the answers. It's as if you didn't look at a single question. Unfortunately, this brings your final grade in this class to failing. See you next year!

May God have mercy on your soul.

Sincerely, 
Professor William Turner

P.S. If all else fails, go with B from now on.
B is the new C




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