[HPCC-Conf] Unusual Calculator

Tue Oct 1 05:41:01 2002

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Tony Duell wrote:
> 
> > Yesterday at Starbuck's I observed a young lady working with a bright red
> > calculator.  It was a five banger with memory.  At the top it said, "CPA
> > Examination".    It this the ultimate tyrrany of the educational
> > establishment?   Is the the ONLY calculator one can use in the exam?
> 
> I know that some UK universities only allow one (or perhaps 2) models of
> calculator to be used in their exams. It's not that they limit the
> functions that said calculators can perform (e.g. 'Not programmable' or
> 'Not graphical'), they actually specify the model (often Casio fx100).
> You couldn't use an HP21, for all it does less.
> 
> IMHO this is bias against RPN users, but...
> 
> If _I_ was setting an exam, BTW, I'd let you take in any calculator you
> wanted. And any books/notes. And it would still be fair-but-difficult.
> Limiting what aids you're allowed simply means the examiners can't set
> proper questions IMHO.

IMHO, I had a professor that settled this problem once and for all
already 20 years ago:
He simply prepared two part exams:
1. A theoretical, "knowledge" part: only pen and paper allowed.

After a break, 
2. A more practical, "show me how you can use your knowledge" part:
You could bring along and use any piece of computation equipment for that part
(even a PC, or a CRAY for that matter, if it would have fitted on your examination desk at that time...)
and have access to all of the course material to solve the problems presented.

I fully agree with the statement of Tony in that respect:
It's up to the examiners to design proper questions
that allow them to discriminate whatever they want to find out
about the result of their teaching...
In my experience, resistance against that kind of examinations
mostly comes from examiners unwilling to put a serious effort
into designing such exams...

I had a steady state electronic circuit analysis program on my HP41C at that time,
and was allowed to use it during one of his exams.
He even questioned me about parts of the code to prove him that I actually 
understood what the code was doing (I designed the program myself,
so that was not a problem).

> -tony
> 
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