The course description for an astronomy class I am taking states “Not open to astronomy majors. Appropriate for non-science majors.” The textbook we use is unabashedly unmathematical. There are no “useful equations” pages in the front or back covers. With the exception of one or two examples per week that we know can show up on the exams, the lecturing is also thoroughly unmathematical.
But the exam I took today asked me to remember equations that I haven’t had any reason to use in years. Volume of a sphere (4/3 pi r^2) and mass from volume and density (volume times density). I had a lurking suspicion while taking the test that my guess on volume was right (it was). But I just didn’t know, and when I asked the professor to confirm my guess, he simply said “it’s an equation that you should all know. It’s so basic.”
I am a PoliSci major, and haven’t taken any math in the past three years, as it is really not needed at all for my major. I can still do the actual numbercrunching work just fine, but after at least that long, I have not retained all of the memorized equations I once knew. Shocking, I know. But the fact is, this is not basic for me anymore. Ask me to compare and contrast Condorcet and Nash voting schema and that’s basic. Volume of a sphere is not.
I might not even be so angry over this if it weren’t for the fact that I needed these two equations for the first part of a three part question. The ultimate goal of part one was to find the mass of the sphere. Parts two and three, surprise surprise, required the value of the mass to answer (momentum (mass times velocity) and kinetic energy (.5 mass velocity^2)). I know those two equations because they have been gone over in class. The added wrinkle of finding the mass when given diameter and density had not been done in the class. For many people, not only myself, it had not been done in years. Without the correct answer for mass, a correct answer for momentum or kinetic energy is simply impossible. My equations for those parts, my method, my shown math skills, are impeccable. But, of course, the answer is wrong. So I have a sinking suspicion that my credit toward parts two and three of the equation are going to be wrong solely because my answer to part one was wrong. I have always hated when teachers create exams in this format. They are intrinsically cruel and unfair. Each question should demonstrate a knowledge of how to answer that question, not how to answer a previous one.
I agree with you 100% (I’m trying to offset all the math geeks that will be in here soon, telling you that every child of four should be able to calculate all that stuff that you were talking about in the OP.) I wouldn’t mind taking an astronony course, but I didn’t even understand your OP - if confronted by an exam like yours, I would have curled into a ball under the desk. Especially if I went in with the understanding that the course was not supposed to be math-focused. Your Prof sounds like one of those people who is so far into his field that he can’t relate to people that are just skimming the surface of it.
Well, to be fair, the volume of a sphere is something most people learned in high school. In principle I don’t think it’d be unreasonable to expect everyone to know it, but the state of recent HS graduates nowadays makes that unrealistic at least.
As for questions that build on other, previously asked questions: most professors I’ve had give at least partial credit for wrong answers got with the correct procedures. On a recent physics test I got an entire seven-part question wrong because the entire thing built upon the answer calculated in the first part. I received almost full credit. There may be hope.
Eh, I can’t feel too much sympathy over not knowing the volume of a sphere.[sup]1[/sup]
Momentum and stuff, yeah, I think it’s reasonable to at least be told that you will have to know that stuff.
As Cheese Monster rightly points out, if you screw something up early on and base several answers on that, most professors (excepting the asshole ones) will not take too many points off.
[sup]1[/sup][sub]Totally geeky footnote: One time, on a test, I had forgotten the formula for the surface area of a sphere, which I knew I had learned in middle school, and I needed it to finish a question. So then I realized that with my new-found knowledge of calculus, I could simply take the derivitive of the function for the volume of a sphere, which I did remember.[/sub]
If no one mentioned it, I think I would probably have a hard time recalling it. I mean, it has been years since I last saw or used it, so it ain’t like its something everyone uses on a yearly basis, let alone often enough to use it in class.
basically: did the Prof give any warning that you’d need to know this equation?
Did this class have any listed prerequisites? If not, the professor is an asshole. Wait and see what the other students have to say. Items on the exam most definitely should have been covered in the lectures, no doubt. Was this a 100 level class?
I agree with you. In my astronomy class (not for majors) all pertinent equations were listed on the test on a separate sheet. If you needed them you could use them.
The last time I had to find the volume of anything was in high school physics, five years before my astronomy class. Sure, I remember everything I learned in High School. :rolleyes: I took a calculus class in college, but I don’t remember any of it because I have no REASON to. If you asked me to calculate an f-stop given a number of footcandles and combination of filtration, I could do it in a heartbeat, but even basic higher geometry is beyond me at this point. Don’t even get me started on fractions.
It sounds like your prof is a bit far from reality these days.
I would not have known the answer to that question.
I did not take high school algebra (through no fault of my own, I wanted to, long story), and I’d have been pretty pissed off if it turned out to be a hidden prereq for a course.
I once had a prof explicitly say “Skip Chapter 5, you won’t be tested on it” - and then put Chapter 5 on the test.
And I had a multiple choice question on a final exam that went:
Math geek checking in here: I do not consider the formula for the volume of a sphere to be “basic.” It’s the kind of thing that can easily leak out of ones brain if not used. I’m not sure I would have known it offhand; it falls into the category of “things I can easily look up if I need them.” Though I would at least have known that, since volume is measured in cubic whatevers, the formula would have to involve r^3 rather than r^2. So I fully agree that unless the prof told you ahead of time that you would have to know this formula (directly or indirectly—like “know how to…” do something that requires this formula), it was unfair to expect you to know it.
I also think you should have gotten full credit for the remaining parts of the question if you did everything right but used the (incorrect) numerical answer from part (a).
I had a minor in math in undergrad and my graduate work was in economics (basically applied math), and I certainly wouldn’t have remembered the volume of a sphere off the top of my head.
I was a double major in Physics/Astronomy. I needed one final random elective to graduate and picked an Anthropology class because it sounded interesting and I knew very little about it, great learning experience I thought.
Well, the professor was an elitist nazi, who taught with the assumption that people taking the class were expected to have read National Geographic since kindergarten, in spite of the class being open to all majors and having no prerequisites.
The final exam (essay) involved comparing the field research that the professor himself had done and we had been studying to, to the Leakeys (Mary and Richard IIRC).
We hadn’t studied the Leakeys at all during the class and I hadn’t the faintest clue who they were. I raised my hand during the test asking “Um, who are the Leakeys?”. I received several snickers from the class and the professor said “If you don’t know then why are you in this class?”
I realized about 30 seconds after posting the OP my typo. Of course I meant r^3, not r^2. But I figured that it wasn’t worth correcting. If nothing else, people would take my typo as my ignorance and take the chance to insult me. And that could be fun to read.
Well, to be fair, it’s not something I’ve used since high school. Of course I used to know it, and as the OP pointed out, I still had the impression I was guessing it right.
[qoute=smiling bandit]basically: did the Prof give any warning that you’d need to know this equation?
[/quote]
Nope. None. It was “so basic” that I should know it in any case.
It was a 200 level class w/ no formal prereqs. As I said in the OP, it was explicitly listed as being for non-majors. I know this is college, I know that we’re supposed to be smart little monkeys, and for the most part, I am. But the problem is that a formula I had not had any recourse for even thinking of fleetingly in the past 3 years was required with no prior clue that it would be included. I would have spent 10 seconds remembering it from an old math book if I had known I had to. But it was completely unprecedented.
Well, I think everyone should remember that, but I know I’m dreaming The prof.'s an asshole for not mentioning which formulae like this would be necessary - he must have known most people forget them.
Also - you say you might have got the first part of a three part calculation wrong? Do you know how they mark? When I was at school you’d have got about 2/3 of the marks, losing marks on the first bit, and one or two for overal answer, but it depended on the teacher.
I think you can take two things out of this experience. First of all, any college science class is likely to have math in it that you might have seen in high school. Even if it says non-mathematical – because to us science geeks, that IS non-mathematical. I don’t think you were severely put upon in this case just because an equation you’ve forgotten came up. On the other hand, I don’t think you should lose more than a point or two if you did the problem correctly otherwise. I don’t think it’s worth whining about if that isn’t the case, and it certainly isn’t “cruel”.
The other thing is the importance of explaining your steps as you go. If you make sure to write down each step, you are more likely to get partial credit for all the things you did right. If you did everything right but the formula, and you miss out on the whole problem, it will be easier to talk your professor into giving you more partial if you can demonstrate why. Something like that happened to me in a class (it was even an astronomy class, come to think of it) – I received only 1 or 2 points on a (15 point!) problem because I had written down a formula wrong at the very beginning. I was able to take it back to the professor and show her that I had done everything else right, and she gave me almost full credit – she just hadn’t graded very carefully the first time through.
The prof.'s an asshole for not mentioning which formulae like this would be necessary - he must have known most people forget them.