<p>Lately, I've been doing the problems here <a href="http://www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu/practice.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu/practice.html</a> after finding the link on a discussion of linguistics majors (which focused on those intending on computational linguistics). They clearly stated that you could solve the problems without any previous training in linguistics or computer science. I've -tried- about a dozen of them, but only been able to solve about 3 or 4. I find it interesting, since I prefer the more mathematical/theoretical aspect of linguistics to the applied/social science-y. But if I'm not adept at solving these sorts of problems, should I scrap my dreams of majoring in linguistics? Does it mean I wouldn't qualify as a good student, let alone a good computational linguist?</p>
<p>You’ve got to be kidding me. I visited the same site earlier, tried the problems, and was frustrated at how few I could solve. </p>
<p>I have the same worries. Don’t know what to think of them, really.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should give up being a linguistics major just because of some questions. If you couldn’t solve them after years of study, that might be an issue. But right now you haven’t had any training, and the way you think might not be the way the problem intends for you to. </p>
<p>I’m planning on majoring in linguistics or cognitive science also. Those questions were very interesting though. I especially liked the braille one.</p>
<p>Right, arashi, but the site said that you should be able to complete the riddles without any former training or experience.</p>
<p>I looked at the answers after doing the problems, and some of the answers mentioned knowing the definitions of terms that I doubt people would know without having studied at least some linguistics. </p>
<p>I think it’s mainly that the approach for solving the problems is different than one might be used to. It’s a different way of thinking, and if you happen to think about the problems in another way, you’re out of luck. </p>
<p>They also could be looked at as purely riddles, all linguistics aside. Since this is true, someone who is good at riddles would be able to get many right, but someone who is not would need some experience in linguistics.</p>
<p>It definitely seems ridiculous to me to decide not to major in linguistics because of a contest.</p>