<p>I'll thow this out to you folks that actually live with it and see what your take is. I was in a conversation recently and it came up that often the average score on exams given at MIT may be 60 or 50 or something else alarmingly low, on the surface. When asked what the benefit of such ridiculously tough exams might be I was at a loss to explain, even to my own satisfaction, why it is a good idea. Soooo, Why do YOU think exams are so tough? What's the point? Is it a good idea? What would YOU prefer?</p>
<p>i have some same questions too: how many test takers in each exam actually get A's? B's? are most tests open-book or open-notes (that's what I heard)? do professors ever use curve on tests in which majority of the people failed?</p>
<p>Well, the benefit is that it's possible to create a more broadly-distributed curve, thus distinguishing much more readily between grades. If class average is a 90, how do you distinguish between people who did superbly versus people who merely did well?</p>
<p>Most tests at MIT are graded on a curve anyway, so it really doesn't matter to the individual whether class average was an 80 or a 50.</p>
<p>I have to admit I don't see the utility in taking a deliberately easy test, because it favors people who memorize and regurgitate over people who can reason through the material. One of my classes this semester gives (closed-book) multiple-choice tests, and I hate them, because I have to just spit back facts from my notes rather than taking the time to really reason through an answer. A good number of the tests I've taken at MIT have been learning experiences, and I like that.</p>
<p>MIT2010, what I said in my blog was that most biology tests are either open-book or open-note. I think a lot of upper-division classes allow note sheets, but it's something that varies quite a bit by department. The percentage of students who get A's and B's also varies considerably by department (and by professor!).</p>
<p>Most tests at MIT are already curved -- class average is approximately a B or B-; students who get one standard deviation above the mean get A's and students who score one standard deviation below the mean get C's. In curved classes, it is statistically impossible to have a test which the majority of people fail.</p>
<p>This is why curving >>> straight-scaling.</p>
<p>I went to MIT over 20 years ago as a grad student and the grading was just as tough then. Part of the reasoning behind extremely difficult problems is that it teaches a certain amount of humility and recognition thet real life problems can be extremely complex. It is also the case, that MIT teaches reasoning and problem solving not recitation or number crunching. You have computers for that. Actually in many classes they give you the formulas up front in the test, because knowing the formula is not the purpose of the test. In many cases, you can actually bring your textbook and anything else you want which confuses may students initially. The purpose of the course and the tests is to understand how the problems can be expressed in terms that it can be solved. Finding which formula can be applied and under what circumstances, that is the hard part. This is also why the psets are often handled in groups as they would sometimes be insanely difficult for a single person to solve in a reasonable time. </p>
<p>In many cases, the results are curve adjusted so a 60 may actually be a good score with maybe only a few people got over 80.</p>
<p>One of my friends met a well-known and very well-liked physics professor here at some kind of colloqium and they were chatting it up about a recent 8.012 test.</p>
<p>My friend revealed that the average on said test was a 78 and poor Lewin was flabbergasted. "But how do you tell the A's from the B's from the C's?!"</p>
<p>If the test average is higher than a 70 the class is too easy :)</p>
<p>are there more multiple choice questions or free responses questions for 18.01, 18.02, 8.01, 8.02, 5.11, 7.01?</p>
<p>is it easier to earn A's in these GIR's classes?</p>
<p>ha there was a test where the average was a 50 :-P</p>
<p>
[quote]
are there more multiple choice questions or free responses questions for 18.01, 18.02, 8.01, 8.02, 5.11, 7.01?
[/quote]
Free-response, without a doubt. There are very few multiple-choice tests at MIT.</p>
<p>Whether you earn A's in GIR classes, particularly first term, depends strongly on your high school background. This is why pass-no record first term is a very good thing; it's a bit of a playing-field leveler.</p>
<p>I've found it much easier to get A's in upper-division classes in my majors than in GIR classes, but I also had a particularly weak high school background in the sciences.</p>