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denis
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Make-up Exam
« on: Apr 14th, 2007, 10:09am » |
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Four students went out to party on the eve of an exam. They imbibed enormous quantities of liquour and never made it to the exam the next morning. They later gave the excuse to the professor that they had a flat tire on their way to school and could not make it on time (the student are roomates and usually travel together to the university). Also, the University is in a secluded campus so taxis are not readily available.
The professor, being a kind gentleman, gave them the benefit of the doubt. He gave the four students the same make-up exam with each student sitting in a seperate room.
In the end, they all received a zero on the exam despite each student having answered at least 8 out of 10 questions correctly. None of the students appealed. (The professor did not base the zero mark on any outside information. He solely based his decision from the answers of the exam questions).
So what happened?
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| « Last Edit: Apr 14th, 2007, 10:12am by denis » |
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Icarus
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #1 on: Apr 14th, 2007, 12:57pm » |
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The students forgot to study a particular subject together before the make-up exam...
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denis
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #2 on: Apr 14th, 2007, 1:17pm » |
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Icarus' clever hint shows that he knows the answer 
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| « Last Edit: Apr 14th, 2007, 1:18pm by denis » |
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BNC
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #3 on: Apr 15th, 2007, 12:28am » |
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The version I heard talks about a single question.
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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denis
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #4 on: Apr 15th, 2007, 7:30am » |
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In this version *the* question came last. So the students did all the work on the other mondane ones before they got to it. So here the lesson sinks in much more....
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| « Last Edit: Apr 15th, 2007, 7:31am by denis » |
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BNC
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #5 on: Apr 15th, 2007, 7:42am » |
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A lesson I always teach to my student: read the whole exam first, then start answering! 
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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Archae
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #6 on: Apr 16th, 2007, 8:42am » |
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if you're going to conct a lie like that, you should really get your stories straight
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denis
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #7 on: Apr 16th, 2007, 10:50am » |
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Yes, Archae. That's the idea. So from that can you deduce what the last exam question was?
Hint: Only two words will suffice
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| « Last Edit: Apr 16th, 2007, 10:53am by denis » |
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towr
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #8 on: Apr 16th, 2007, 11:22am » |
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on Apr 16th, 2007, 10:50am, denis wrote:Yes, Archae. That's the idea. So from that can you deduce what the last exam question was?
Hint: Only two words will suffice |
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Who drove?
Whose car?
Which tire?
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Wikipedia, Google, Mathworld, Integer sequence DB
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denis
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #9 on: Apr 16th, 2007, 11:52am » |
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All three answers provided by Towr could work.
However I prefer the last one (its the intended) because it can't be guessed as easily. For the other two they can guess by virtue of an established routine that is used for their daily drive to school or by simply picking the last driving scenario that occured.
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| « Last Edit: Apr 16th, 2007, 11:58am by denis » |
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Archae
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #10 on: Apr 16th, 2007, 5:26pm » |
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I was aware of the solution in my post - or at least I had the third solution given by towr in mind; I'm not entirely sure of what the 'correct' answer is, but question regarding the false story would work in theory. Personally, I would try to cover all bases if I were one of the students, and make sure everyone knew the sotry down pat.
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Random Lack of Squiggily Lines
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #11 on: Apr 23rd, 2007, 4:36am » |
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they drove up in there car in a place where the car could be seen by the pro.
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You can only believe i what you can prove, and since you have nothing proven to cmpare to, you can believe in nothing.
I have ~50 posts to hack a "R" into a "D". Which one?
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denis
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #12 on: Apr 23rd, 2007, 5:20pm » |
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Tiber13, The professor did not base the zero mark on any outside information other than the answers provided on the exam. This is mentionned in the riddle.
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Random Lack of Squiggily Lines
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #13 on: Apr 23rd, 2007, 5:30pm » |
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Well, then the car fact would be no use.
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You can only believe i what you can prove, and since you have nothing proven to cmpare to, you can believe in nothing.
I have ~50 posts to hack a "R" into a "D". Which one?
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Icarus
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #14 on: Apr 23rd, 2007, 6:00pm » |
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The students thought the professor had bought their story, so they didn't bother to nail down the specifics of it with each other. But the professor was a bit more canny. One of the questions on the make-up exam was "Which tire went flat?" If there had been a real flat, the students would all know which tire it was. But since the whole thing was a lie, the best they could do was choose one on the spot and hope that by some miracle everyone else chose the same tire.
But at least one of the students picked a different tire, and so the professor had proof that they lied and gave them zeros.
Afterwards, the students called their parents, who called their lawyers, who sued the school for ruining their precious darlings future hopes with a bad grade. The dean immediately fired the professor (who was just shy of earning tenure) and gave them all A's instead.
(And I wish that last were only a joke, but it happened at a high school in my state, including the school caving in and the teacher losing her job. People like to laugh at Kansas education because of all the flak about evolution - which is actually much ado about nothing as evolution was never removed from the curriculum and Kansas actually has a strong science program relative to other states. But the cheating incident and some similar ones are what really deserve derision.)
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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Three Hands
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Re: Make-up Exam
« Reply #15 on: Apr 25th, 2007, 3:17pm » |
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Personally, I would be amused if the exam had been on car maintainance - clearly the students failed through their inability to sort out a simple puncture/change a tire in order to get to the written exam 
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