Normally I would agree that I was being overly technical about following the letter of the directions, but that’s the smarmy little point to this exercise is it not? The teacher smugly tells the child that he/she did not follow directions properly. Well, I say that the teacher is wrong as well.
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
So if you follow the first direction and read the entire test first, the test ends up looking like this:
Read all directions before following any directions.
Sign your name to the top of the sheet.
Do not follow directions 3 through 9.
[/QUOTE]
So we get to #1 and I am supposed to read, but not follow any directions, correct? When I get to #9, I don’t post something silly on the SDMB because I am only reading and not following. You agree that this is correct and the teacher agrees.
So why when I get to #10, am I supposed to read that direction, BUT ALSO follow it by then skipping 3-9?
The lesser reason is that #10, like #1, is a global instruction, a meta-instruction, that informs the test-taker how to take the test. Global instructions are of a higher order than individual lines and take precedence.
The more important reason is that the intent of the test is clear to anyone who doesn’t suffer from pretty severe Autism Spectrum Disorder: the intent is for students not to follow the other instructions, and test-takers need to learn that the test-giver’s intent is what matters.
I recently gave students a district-mandated test on which there was a question along the lines of: “John and Shelby each had 10 apples. Shelb ate five of her apples. How many were left?” Technically the question is unanswerable, since we never find out how many apples Shelb had. However, the intent of the question is clear, and if a student refuses to answer on a technicality, it’s gonna get marked wrong, too bad, so sad, kid.
Finally, your description of the lesson as “smarmy” is inaccurate. A lot of folks, kds and adults, have a terrible time following instructions. Teachers can talk themselves blue insisting that students follow directions, but such talking can roll off their backs. This sneaky test, though? Notice how many people remember having taken it, even after decades have passed. It’s a lesson that sticks in your brain. I can use it as a touchpoint, a shorthand, later in the year to remind students of the importance of following directions. Whether or not a computer could parse the directions of the test doesn’t matter next to the fact that it’s an effective lesson.
Some versions of the test present the instructions differently. It may have
"Read all the following steps before performing them.
Sign your name in the upper right corner.
…
Sing the hokey-pokey, including doing all the gestures.
Now that you have read all the steps, peform step 1 and sit quietly until the papers are collected."
No numbering loopholes, clear iterative instructions. There will still be plenty of kids writing funny things all over their paper, and dancing the hokey-pokey. Well, maybe not item 10. By then, even the ones who are racing through it are getting suspicious that some of the others haven’t done step 5 yet, to stand on a chair and recite the alphabet out loud.
Because you’re supposed to read all directions first. When you read Direction #9, you haven’t done that yet. There’s still another direction to be read.
But Direction #10 is the last direction. Once you’ve read it, you’re done reading all directions.
So now it’s time to follow the directions. And one of the directions you’re now supposed to be following is to skip 3-9.
I had a high school history test with absurd, obscure questions that no one would know how to answer. But the correct answers were buried in other questions. Basically, it was a test of ability to take tests in which you don’t know the material.
Who was Chief of Police of Bumtown, Montana in 1995?
a) John Billings
b) Rory B. Bellows
c) James Pinkerton
In 1995, in Bumtown, Montana, Chief of Police James Pinkerton instituted a “tough on crime” policy. How was the local crime rate doing up until that point?
a) Average for the state
b) Below average for the state
c) Above average for the state
Which of the following Montana villages did James Pinkerton work in?
a) Snotville
b) Bumtown
c) Trashburg
How did Bumtown, Montana respond to the 1995 elevated crime wave?
a) Schools were locked down
b) Police were sent back to school for additional firearms training
c) A “tough on crime” policy was instituted
That is, we’re dealing with really obscure stuff (assuming that “Bumtown” is a small town far away from the context of the curriculum), but the questions answer each other. For example, question #1 asks you to identify the Chief of Police, but #2 gives you the name of the Chief of Police in the background information to the question. The answer to #2 is found in #4, which supposes that there had been a crime wave.
I realize this thread is a little stale, but I missed it first time around, and since it’s been bumped here’s my take on the Trick Quiz.
It sounds like those reporting their Trick Quiz experiences have either mis-remembered them, or the teachers who gave them didn’t word them correctly.
The way the quiz should be structured:
Instructions: Do not write anything yet. Read all of the questions, then follow the additional instructions at the end of the quiz.
Bizzare question
2- N more bizarre questions.
Additional instructions:
Do not answer any of the questions. Write your name at the top and hand in paper and hand it in.
There is no ambiguity if you read everything first.
