questionable multiple choice..email professor? Forum

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PirateCap'n

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by PirateCap'n » Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:17 am

For what it's worth, our professor allowed us to "challenge" his questions. If we thought the question was poorly written/could have more than one answer, we just had to make a note of it in the bluebook with the reason why we thought so. He said he would go over them when grading the tests. I don't know whether your professor would mind or not, but I just wanted to point out that some professors realize their questions are horrible and want you to point it out.

Baylan

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by Baylan » Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:33 am

PirateCap'n wrote:For what it's worth, our professor allowed us to "challenge" his questions. If we thought the question was poorly written/could have more than one answer, we just had to make a note of it in the bluebook with the reason why we thought so. He said he would go over them when grading the tests. I don't know whether your professor would mind or not, but I just wanted to point out that some professors realize their questions are horrible and want you to point it out.
My torts prof also allowed this. He also said that if you did this and clearly missed the point of the question, it would be marked wrong regardless of whether or not you got the answer correct.

PirateCap'n

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by PirateCap'n » Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:43 am

Baylan wrote:
PirateCap'n wrote:For what it's worth, our professor allowed us to "challenge" his questions. If we thought the question was poorly written/could have more than one answer, we just had to make a note of it in the bluebook with the reason why we thought so. He said he would go over them when grading the tests. I don't know whether your professor would mind or not, but I just wanted to point out that some professors realize their questions are horrible and want you to point it out.
My torts prof also allowed this. He also said that if you did this and clearly missed the point of the question, it would be marked wrong regardless of whether or not you got the answer correct.
That's pretty harsh, but I'm sure it saved him the trouble of having to look at very many challenges to his questions.

Baylan

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by Baylan » Fri Dec 17, 2010 12:03 pm

PirateCap'n wrote:
Baylan wrote:
PirateCap'n wrote:For what it's worth, our professor allowed us to "challenge" his questions. If we thought the question was poorly written/could have more than one answer, we just had to make a note of it in the bluebook with the reason why we thought so. He said he would go over them when grading the tests. I don't know whether your professor would mind or not, but I just wanted to point out that some professors realize their questions are horrible and want you to point it out.
My torts prof also allowed this. He also said that if you did this and clearly missed the point of the question, it would be marked wrong regardless of whether or not you got the answer correct.
That's pretty harsh, but I'm sure it saved him the trouble of having to look at very many challenges to his questions.
My Torts prof was the most traditional, and socratic throughout the entire semester. No laptops. Pure socratic method. Didn't know any of our names, ignored us outside of class, and then gives us a multiple choice, t/f, short answer exam. It was entertaining. And brutal.

Kobe_Teeth

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by Kobe_Teeth » Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:24 pm

Before every exam we had an announcement that "any ambiguities should be taken as intentional."

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goosey

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by goosey » Fri Dec 17, 2010 3:58 pm

PirateCap'n wrote:For what it's worth, our professor allowed us to "challenge" his questions. If we thought the question was poorly written/could have more than one answer, we just had to make a note of it in the bluebook with the reason why we thought so. He said he would go over them when grading the tests. I don't know whether your professor would mind or not, but I just wanted to point out that some professors realize their questions are horrible and want you to point it out.
the classroom where the exam was administered was told this, however I took it in the library due to a time conflict and thus I never got that instruction :?

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by cavebat2000 » Fri Dec 17, 2010 4:06 pm

kcg171 wrote:Here is a lovely MCQ from my torts exam:
Which is not an element of false imprisonment
a. harm
b. confinement
c. awareness
d. purpose

purpose and intent are synonyms. harm is sufficient if the person wasn't aware. would i ever think i knew enough about the subject to tell my professor he didn't write the question correctly? no way. is it driving me crazy? sure thing.
HARM!
My guess because no harm need be shown to be falsely imprisoned.

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Tangerine Gleam

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by Tangerine Gleam » Fri Dec 17, 2010 5:36 pm

cavebat2000 wrote:
kcg171 wrote:Here is a lovely MCQ from my torts exam:
Which is not an element of false imprisonment
a. harm
b. confinement
c. awareness
d. purpose

purpose and intent are synonyms. harm is sufficient if the person wasn't aware. would i ever think i knew enough about the subject to tell my professor he didn't write the question correctly? no way. is it driving me crazy? sure thing.
HARM!
My guess because no harm need be shown to be falsely imprisoned.
I was about to say the same thing. For Cal at least, "harm" is nowhere in the elements.

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goosey

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by goosey » Fri Dec 17, 2010 5:58 pm

cavebat2000 wrote:
kcg171 wrote:Here is a lovely MCQ from my torts exam:
Which is not an element of false imprisonment
a. harm
b. confinement
c. awareness
d. purpose

purpose and intent are synonyms. harm is sufficient if the person wasn't aware. would i ever think i knew enough about the subject to tell my professor he didn't write the question correctly? no way. is it driving me crazy? sure thing.
HARM!
My guess because no harm need be shown to be falsely imprisoned.
+1 on harm...its willful detention without consent/authority of law, but the person needs to be aware of it

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themillsman22

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by themillsman22 » Fri Dec 17, 2010 7:33 pm

Baylan wrote:
sophie316 wrote:
Baylan wrote:
sophie316 wrote:Isn't this where the curve comes in handy though? If the question made no sense then surely everyone will have had the same problem, the professor will probably realise this and strike it. If enough people got it right, it probably made sense.
This is where the curve is really nice. Why would the prof need to strike it? If everyone got it wrong, its like everyone just has one less question on their exam.

It is extremely unlikely that the question is constructed so poorly that it can be answered two ways, or there is no "righter" answer. Knowing the material well helps figure it out. And if you don't understand the material fully for that particular question, odds are that you're making an educated guess.
Well I assume if it's multiple choice and the question genuinely makes no sense to the point people have to guess, then he'd strike it(as people would benefit from correct guessing vs any actual knowledge). If it's non MC then probably no reason to strike.
Have you ever taken a law school MC exam (or portion of an exam) before? It could best be summarized at somewhere between a giant clusterfuck and multiple educated guess. There are MAYBE 1 out of 3 or 4 that you can be "certain" on, and frequently the highest grade in the class will go to someone who got 60-70% correct. How is a professor going to differentiate between a hard question and good guessing? Its impossible.
There is actually a fairly simple statistical formula you can run to test for this, which the exam software probably runs automatically for professors. More or less, it's generally a bad question if the people who are getting 60-70% correct are getting it wrong at a higher rate than the people who are getting 30-40% of the questions correct (of course, it's a great deal more complicated than that). The main point is that this is not impossible, and it's in fact quite probable that professors (or even the registrar) are looking out for it.

Baylan

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by Baylan » Fri Dec 17, 2010 7:36 pm

themillsman22 wrote:
There is actually a fairly simple statistical formula you can run to test for this, which the exam software probably runs automatically for professors. More or less, it's generally a bad question if the people who are getting 60-70% correct are getting it wrong at a higher rate than the people who are getting 30-40% of the questions correct (of course, it's a great deal more complicated than that). The main point is that this is not impossible, and it's in fact quite probable that professors (or even the registrar) are looking out for it.
Because tenured law professors are actually going to do a statistical analysis of their MC questions.

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by sethc » Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:37 pm

If you find a typo or something you find to be a misprint, usually your school (or at least mine) has an "Exam Office" or something similar that handles those types of issues during/after exams - that's who I'd get in touch with first. Emailing the professor is bad karma lol and I think some places may constitute an honor code violation. Play it safe, at least until grades.

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kcg171

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by kcg171 » Sat Dec 18, 2010 12:44 am

goosey wrote:
cavebat2000 wrote:
kcg171 wrote:Here is a lovely MCQ from my torts exam:
Which is not an element of false imprisonment
a. harm
b. confinement
c. awareness
d. purpose

purpose and intent are synonyms. harm is sufficient if the person wasn't aware. would i ever think i knew enough about the subject to tell my professor he didn't write the question correctly? no way. is it driving me crazy? sure thing.
HARM!
My guess because no harm need be shown to be falsely imprisoned.
+1 on harm...its willful detention without consent/authority of law, but the person needs to be aware of it
my point was that a person can succeed in a claim for false imprisonment if he wasn't aware of the imprisonment but was harmed while imprisoned, making harm a possible element of false imprisonment.

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goosey

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by goosey » Sat Dec 18, 2010 1:20 pm

kcg171 wrote:
goosey wrote:
cavebat2000 wrote:
kcg171 wrote:Here is a lovely MCQ from my torts exam:
Which is not an element of false imprisonment
a. harm
b. confinement
c. awareness
d. purpose

purpose and intent are synonyms. harm is sufficient if the person wasn't aware. would i ever think i knew enough about the subject to tell my professor he didn't write the question correctly? no way. is it driving me crazy? sure thing.
HARM!
My guess because no harm need be shown to be falsely imprisoned.
+1 on harm...its willful detention without consent/authority of law, but the person needs to be aware of it
my point was that a person can succeed in a claim for false imprisonment if he wasn't aware of the imprisonment but was harmed while imprisoned, making harm a possible element of false imprisonment.
yeah I think your post also illustrates another point: when someone says their multiple choice was iffy and it makes sense to everyone else, thats not because the person just doesnt know the law--its because the person knows the law as their professor taught them, and from that lens, it is iffy. My professor taught us you absolutely have to be aware of imprisonment, and so for me, its not ambiguous. But if your professor taught you otherwise, then its a questionable....question.

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Re: questionable multiple choice..email professor?

Post by beach_terror » Sat Dec 18, 2010 1:32 pm

I'm probably wrong, but my gut reaction for the torts MC was purpose. For torts intent, you either need purpose to confine or to be substantially certain that you will cause the confinement (which is not purpose?).

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