Ok. so our engineering project teams are submitting exam questions on various subjects. A portion of these will be used on the final. Through the process of making the questions I've learned a few neat tricks about test questions and how to make sure the person knows the answer.
I've also learned, upon looking at the submitted questions, that some people reeeeally shouldn't be making exam questions.
For example- we covered a bit of programming in this class, since it's for CS/EE majors. It wasn't really enough to be interesting- besides a tiny bit of MATLAB and a C++ OpenGL project with most of the code already written for us, we used this horrible, horrible language called Jython. Python implemented in Java. I could go on a huge rant about how it sucks huge balls, but that isn't the point here.
In the Jython project, we covered basic stuff about loading and editing images by looping through all the pixels, doing basic math operations. At no point were we ever introduced to working with text, and we certainly didn't cover scan codes. Imagine my surprise when the document for questions about Jython and image editing contained this question:
X. ASCII defines the capital letter 'B' as:
A) 46
B) 66
C) 28
D) 2
E) 12
OK, wtf. Who in their right mind would submit a question that wasn't covered in class, and has absolutely nothing to do with the source material?! In addition, I'm probably one of the 1% of ppl in that class who's nerdy enough to memorize scan codes and can deduce that it's probably B, or maybe A. (It's B, to save the nerds amobg you the trouble of looking it up.)
Here's a little gem from our OpenGL segment:
X. OpenGL, standing for Open Graphics Library), is an interactive rendering
standard designed for ease of use and portability across a wide range of
systems. The interface consists of over 250 different _________ that can be
used to draw complex three dimensional scenes from simple primitives.
a. function calls
b. languages
c. commands
d. libraries
e. codes
OK, wait wtf? First, we have the close parenthesis without a beginning one- being a CS nerd that makes me cringe. Second, "OGL has >250 what" is completely useless errata that I would never bother remembering! Also, the horrible wording of the answers exacerbates the problem; the correct answer (copied word-for-word from Wikipedia, I might add) is 'function calls'. Function calls are not function definitions. A function call is a reference to a function within a program. I actually thought the answer was "commands" and that they got the term wrong.
I'll top this off with a classic mistake that I really didn't think anyone would be dumb enough to make...
X. Considering real world applications, what can OpenGL be used for?
a. All of the above
b. Video game graphics
c. Flight simulations
d. 2D graphics rendering
e. 3D graphics rendering
YOU. DO. NOT. PUT. ALL. OF. THE. ABOVE. AT. THE. TOP. OF. A. QUESTION. Especially if it's the right answer.
* Shivan Hunter hits that question's author over the head repeatedly with a header file
