Poorly designed Math questions misconstrued as tricky

[dimsum]

Can someone enlighten me how to obtain "3" for Example 1?

[Brenda10]

Brenda10:

ksi:

[quote=\"Brenda10\"]
Thank you ksi. I hope my eyesight is still ok.

Can you explain the lines and the curves you see? I am baffled myself.

My vision told me:
Straight lines - face outline (4), nose ( 8 ), mouth (2)
Curve lines - eyebrow (4), eye (4), ear (4)[/quote]Dear KSI

Just curious to know is the answer correct ?

[snowman.022851697]

ksi:

Sun_2010:

[quote=\"verykiasu2010\"]my england is bad


not drawn to scale and not drawn to purported shape / lines are two different things

can accept that the angle / degree / length is not to scale......but cannot accept a straight line to represent a curvy line....that is not a matter of scale....if the teacher who set the question were to explain away the bad question like that, it is just like telling the students that black is white and white is black

Exactly.

In this instance the shortest path should be
tiger -->Deer--->Monkey--->Elephant

where as a logical thinking child would say
tiger -->Deer--->Elephant
since the diagonal would be the shortest path

So this is not a trick question - it is incorrect.

As ksi pointed out, there is no point in making a question confusing and unclear just for the sake of making it difficult.

Agree with all of you, this way to trick children is like bad tricksters. I welcome challenging Math not bad trickster Math. It is like bad taste versus good taste as another form of analogy, no offence to anyone in particular just wanted to explain the difference. I feel that parents are reasonable, most of us don't mind subjecting our children to difficult adventures in Math as they learn but not in this way and I don't wish my child to learn this because later she has to UNLEARN![/quote]Agreed- for my maths prelim paper they drew a parallelogram and some lines which is an impossible arrangement in real life! I also know of my past year papers whereby 'not drawn to scale' is written sooo small that many students fail to notice!

[Augmum]

ksi:

I am always happy to solve challenging Math questons as I enjoy Math alot throughout my academic years. :love:


However, in recent years as I get more involved in my child's syllabus, I find that teachers are probably so pressured to set challenging questions that under pressure, some questions became absurd instead of challenging.

ksi,
this new thread of yrs reminds me of one of my gal 's lower primary CA2 Maths test paper.
when the paper was returned, rather surprised that she had gotten 3 questions wrong,
usually for Maths, she often scored full marks....
(no wonder when i asked her, ehy gotten them wrong, she said \"dun know\")

upon \"closed study \"of the 3 Questions,
2 of which were really absurd and non-sensical and the other 1
which was a pattern continuation, could have more than 1 correct answer.

i rang up the HOD of Maths to clarify,
and u know what her reply was......
haha........her reply was the setter of this Maths paper was an inexperienced teacher
and she apologised for not spotting the mistakes made by her....... :!:
i was dumbfounded for a moment :roll:

[livewith_vanilla]

I know this is a topic abt poorly designed maths question, but I would like to share about my Science prelim paper.


The paper was too tough. I mean, in the real PSLE, there would be at least some EASY questions. But no, the whole paper was full of complicated questions.

To make the question seem tricky, the teacher set the questions like grandma story. One question was even repeated!

The booklet B was full of 2m questions and illogical ones too.

The question said 2 iron nails.

We had to draw some circuit.

But they provide us with ONE steel nail and ONE iron nail.

Couldn’t clarify cause short of time.

half my class girls didn’t finish the paper.
3/4 the class failed booklet B.

This is coming from the top class.

SA1 this year also similar.The science questions were more like puzzles instead.

Why did i say the paper was tough? reason being, my science teacher even admitted that the paper was of a higher standard than PSLE.and my science teacher is the HOD for Science.

So i really wonder the need for such grandmother story. if want to set tricky questions, is there a need to write stories for us?

[autumnbronze]

Blobbi:

I don't see it as blaming the teacher either. But I'm sure they'd like to know that the questions can be misconstrued easily too. Don't think they planned for it to be wrong or unfair. We all make mistakes mah. What's important is to fix it and git on with life :).

Whether the teacher is being pressurized or not, that is why the vetting of exam/test papers is a very fundamental process in the setting of assessment papers - the concept of a third (unbiased) party coming in to provide constructive feedback.

If poorly designed questions are allowed to be set without prior (strict) vetting, and I mean vetting the paper a couple of times because feedback has to be provided and the questions in the paper reconsidered/rephrased/changed etc ... and the paper usually goes/should go through several such cycles, before it is finally approved for printing, then something is wrong with the subject department concerned. I do believe this happens across the board in some educational institutions and yes, it could necessarily not be intentional too.

At least the HOD in Augmum's DD's sch admitted the mistake. By right, it was HER mistake for not being vigilant enough, more so because the teacher was inexperienced, which meant that she should have been provided with a mentor in the first place to guide her.

So if such a practice is becoming too prevalent, apart from ksi's good intentions to alert Maths teachers, perhaps the HODs should also be informed of this (like what Augmum did) and/or hopefully, they will be alerted via this thread too. After all, its the pupils who are/will be at the 'losing end' if this is not rectified.



Just sharing my humble 2 cents ....

[corneyAmber]

dimsum:

thanks for sharing, ksi. It's a poorly set question.


Yes, not drawn to scale has nothing to do with the diagonal line possibly being a curvy line.

:hi5: dimsum!

[corneyAmber]

dimsum:

Can someone enlighten me how to obtain \"3\" for Example 1?

Yes anyone? I also cannot figure out.

[corneyAmber]

Brenda10:

Brenda10:

[quote=\"ksi\"]
Can you explain the lines and the curves you see? I am baffled myself.

My vision told me:
Straight lines - face outline (4), nose ( 8 ), mouth (2)
Curve lines - eyebrow (4), eye (4), ear (4)

Dear KSI

Just curious to know is the answer correct ?[/quote]Dear Brenda,

Sorry I have embedded my reply in one of my response to Jedamum, the answer is 3 and I do not know how it is derived. But I like your systematic way of explaining why it is 2 except the picture is really bad if children have to second guess if the distance between 2 points is a curve or line.

[corneyAmber]

snowman.697:

Agreed- for my maths prelim paper they drew a parallelogram and some lines which is an impossible arrangement in real life! I also know of my past year papers whereby 'not drawn to scale' is written sooo small that many students fail to notice!

Hi snowman, so for your prelims, was that question considered as invalid? Did you raise your hand during exam to question them? Did you in turn get points awarded as it was a bad question? Would be good if you can share with us the outcome of an unrealistic question for exam. Thanks.