I remember many years ago reading a very funny “Pop quiz” that was taken from military sources but I imagine that some version of it exists in every educational forum. It leads off with a few simple questions to lull the student into thinking it is a real quiz before dropping the hammer on them. It’s been over 25 years but I still remember a few of the questions, for example:
(my favorite) Inside your desk is a disassembled M-16 rifle and 30 rounds of ammunition. Two Siberian Tigers have been released in the classroom. Reassemble your rifle. Be prepared to justify your actions in light of the endangered species act.
In the drawer of your desk is a scraping taken from the coffee pot in the faculty lounge. Create life.
Describe the changes in 19th century British gardening should this life have replaced the original source of life on earth.
Has anyone else got any good questions for a ‘pop quiz’ like this? Or have any good stories of such a quiz they once got handed in class?
Our high school bio teacher had a bonus question that consisted of a full page detailed diagram of the human circulatory and nervous systems; the actual question on the reverse side was “where’s Waldo?”
I seem to recall that the directions at the top of the test included “Read all questions fully before beginning to work” and of course, the final question was: “Ignore the preceding X questions. What is 1+1?” or something to that effect.
A high school teacher of mine told the story about a philosophy class he took in college. The final, upon which a good chunk of the grade was based on was one question. “Why?” He wrote “Because.” Handed it in, walked out and got an A on the exam.
My 8th grade science teacher did that to us once. She gave us this big lecture on reading all the directions first (especially since we’d be working with somewhat caustic chemicals and fire). At the end of the class she gave us a little pop quiz. I still remember rolling my eyes knowing exactly what was going to happen. I scanned the quiz and the last item said “Ignore all the previous steps and sit quietly at your desk” I looked up at her, she winked at me and that was it. Meanwhile the other students are hopping on one foot, drawing pictures of simple machines, counting how many light fixtures are in the room and a bunch of other pseudo-scavenger hunt type things.
I was even going to mention that I remember thinking it was BS. He told us about how other students wrote long essays on the history of the question. He said the were beautiful, well written essays but they didn’t answer the question so they failed…If he walked out how would he have known how long the other students stayed for. And who reads a fellow students failed final exam essay.
I think there were a few more flourishes in mine such as the lights are going to be turned out in 60 seconds and then the Tigers will be released and a final instruction that "Incidents of fratricide (in the military sense, i.e. friendly fire) will count against the firing student.
Final exam in one of my undergraduate economics classes. There were five questions and you were to answer any three. One of the questions was, “Explain how Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is a paradigm for the modern age. Use graphs. Be specific.”
Here’s one version in its entirety. A couple examples:
10. POLITICAL SCIENCE
There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its social-political effects, if any.
PHILOSOPHY
Sketch the development of human thought and estimate its significance.
Compare with the development of any other kind of thought.
In a long ago survey of ancient Western civ course, we faced a final exam that consisted of a single question:
“What happened between 3000 BC and 400 AD? Be complete.”
The course covered sociology, literature, and art in addition to straight history, and was taught by four professors in turn, so “complete” carried substantial weight. One of the profs (the joker behind the question, in fact) later told me that a passing grade was dependent on correctly covering a very small number of crucial points that had been emphasized in class. The rest of the grade was based on how many other elements you managed to cover accurately, regardless of how important they were. He said the secondary goal of the format was to learn which parts of the course students were absorbing best, with an eye to improving the class in the future.
It was relatively easy to pass, quite hard to get an A on, and undoubtedly pleasing to his sick sense of humor, too. He’s also the one who gave the class its first assignment (and incidentally, my first assignment in college): “Read the Iliad for tomorrow. It will be discussed in seminar.”
eh… in laymen’s terms, possibly. it’d be a stretch of an analogy though. not exactly a paradigm. information vs resources. correlations vs time. error vs data. you could BS your way through something, but you’re probably right. in the language used you could infer that the prof probably didn’t have a concrete answer in mind.
Darn, I don’t remember the specifics but there was an amusing example from the past before the 1860’s as a famous medical professor noticed a distracted student in his classroom, so the professor (with some anger in his voice) asked the student what was the pancreas for.
The student, not wanting to appear distracted, replied that he knew what the pancreas was for, but he forgot about it.
“What an irresponsible thing to do!” Said the professor, "You were the only one that knew and you forgot??!?!? :smack:
My current examples would be:
Are we alone in this galaxy?
Is there life after death?
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? *
Shamelessly stolen from a Sponge Bob movie trailer.
