Welcome to blog help for PHY 122! Here's how it works.
For each homework question and lab report we will make a post, this will probably contain a few tips on what the problems are about and how to solve them. If you are stuck on something then instead of emailing us directly you should post a comment in reply to the relevant post. We will try to guide you through tough points and help you understand the problems and the concepts behind them.
Email from a student: "I am confused about Q9, Form 2, regarding the RLC circuit. Hopefully someone will be able to aid me. Thank you in advance."
First, note that this problem involves exactly the same concepts and calculations you did on several of the homework problems in chapter 21, and is virtually identical to example 21.4-21.5. Following the steps in 21.4, X_L = 565 Ohm, X_C = 354 Ohm, so the impedance Z = 234 Ohm. I_rms = V_rms/Z = 0.0427 Amp. Power in the resistor is I^2*R=0.18 Watt.
HOW MANY PAGES OF NOTES? UTILITY OF MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAMS?
In the afternoon before the exam, I was bombarded with requests to change the policy of bringing one page of notes to the exam. The following message is typical:
"I am a student in your Physics 122 lecture. I was emailing you about a concern that I have about the final tomorrow. I have been studying for weeks now and have been trying to put my one sheet of equations together and ready for the final. I understand we're only allowed 1 sheet for this exam, but I feel that it is not enough to have all the equations and formulas from Midterm 1, 2 and things for the final all on this. I also learned that in the past Physics 122 classes, students were allowed 3 sheets of paper to bring into the test as it was sufficient enough for them to use for the final exam. I also learned that some of my fellow classmates who are taking Physics 121, are allowed to bring 3 sheets of paper for their final exam. I understand Physics 121 is another course and taught by another Professor, but the point I am trying to make is that it is much harder to study for this exam or as well take the exam only having 1 sheet of equations. I was hoping if you could consider the possibility of letting us have 3 sheets of paper to write our equations to use for the final exam. I can speak for many students of our class that we would be deeply grateful and use this advantage greatly to excel on this final exam. Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you soon."
I answered all such queries with the reminder that in the Physics 121 class that you took before this one, you were not invited to bring any notes into the exam. And in any event, could anybody seriously expect to change a policy that's been announced for several weeks just a few hours before the exam. I think that most students had been reviewing somewhat longer, and had already organized their notes onto a single page.
My answer prompted the following response. "We weren't allowed any sheets, but the style of the exam was different. It was a written exam in which we received partial credit on the work we wrote for each exam question. This format of the test is multiple-choice exam. It's either you receive full credit or no credit. With the limited time we have for the exam, the work we put out for each question we may not finish on time. Thus we would not receive for it. The time constraint is difficult for us on this exam. However last year's exam, even though we were still pressured with time constraint, the fact that we had partial credit gave a greater advantage to everyone even if there was no equation sheets in front of us. The fact that we are only allowed one sheet for this exam, in which we have to condense an entire semester worth of equations and notes on a multiple choice exam creates a greater difficulty in performing well on the exam."
I believe instead that a multiple choice format guides you towards correct answers. If you work a problem and do not come up with one of the offered choices, you know that you have made an error and you have the opportunity to correct it, which is information not available in an exam where you write out full answers.
Also, consider the issue of covering the entire material of the course. If there are, say, five problems on a conventional exam, that cannot cover the fifteen chapters of a course like this. If such an exam skipped, say, geometrical optics, you get no partial (or full!) credit for what you have learned about that topic. If there is a question on a topic that you did not study as well, say relativity, 20% of your exam grade is at risk.
If you look at the broad distributions of grades from the midterm exams, you'll see that the exams in this course have not been "all or nothing" grades.
In general, I think we can all agree that people with higher scores on the exams were better informed, better prepared, and demonstrated that they knew more of the material than people with lower scores.
If you are near graduation and interested in medical school, one of the next important exams you'll see is the MCAT. So you can't complain that multiple choice exams are a uniquely unfair component of your physics course.
that's the problem with this school. Every class is a "med school weed-out" class. I'm much rather peruse that and just get taught. I don't think that the "people with higher scores on the exams were better informed, better prepared, and demonstrated that they knew more of the material than people with lower scores." I just think that those individuals just "understand" physics, much like students just "understand" organic chemistry, while the rest suffer through trying to learn something all on their own because their professors lack the proper methods of "TEACHING"
In regards to your first post, thank you for answering my question. I had calculated X L and X C correctly, as well as impedance. However, I fell for a trap and calculated Irms as Vrms / R (of the resistor). I had caluclated the power according to the equation P = I rms V rms cos theta (I actually don't know what greek letter is used), were theta =inverse tan of (X L - X C) / R.
I understand my error now, and I believe I understand my other errors as well. Thank you again.
Science courses are difficult, and they're what you make of it. I was a teaching assistant for a course, general chemistry, and it was only when I had to teach the material did I realize how difficult it was to teach new/foreign concepts to people who did not know them. It made me realize that there's not enough time in the day/week to step through the process of teaching difficult material to students (especially such a large number of them). Professors do their best, but you have to work at it yourself a lot. How can people expect to understand difficult topics such as electricity, magnetism, optics, and modern physics with only 3 hours of instruction a week? You have to work at it. That's why we have the book and weekly HW problems to keep us on track.
Most people are probably complaining about the final because it was harder than they expected. If this was a course such as Biochemistry, or Cell Biology, people would've probably said "Wow that final was hard" but they wouldn't go so far as to call it unfair, because they know the class is hard. It appears that many people didn't expect Physics to be another difficult course, but it is.
Could we all please be mature and not attack the professor (especially behind "Anonymous" posts?). We had a number of resources available to us: the physics help room, review sessions, the course blog, physics warm up/end of chapter problems, and the HW. If you did poorly but you did not avail any of these opportunities, then who is there really to blame except yourself? It's easy to blame the professor, but difficult to admit your own faults and shortcomings. If you don't do well on the MCAT (or DAT) or in graduate school, who will you blame then?
While it may not be said, I am quite sure there are people who work together on the HW, or rely on others who know how to do the HW (or tutoring services)/lab quizzes to get the answers and boost their course grade. While that may help you in the short run, in the long run it won't because you won't know how to do problems yourself. It takes longer, but doing all the HW and the lab quizzes for yourself is what helps you in the end and is what helps you do well on tests. Seeing solutions done by others, or watching/going to review sessions doesn't help you learn much, if at all.
I believe that the Practice Final was challenging and indicative of the real final. Maybe if you had gone to the review session without working through the final, you would have seen all the solutions and thought "Wow, seems easy" or "Seems doable." But working through that actual final was time consuming and difficult, in my opinion, but it was helpful.
But I think that final was unfair, and while I appreciate your lengthy, if not redundant statement, I do feel as though many of these students have a right to say such things. Its the internet dude, wake up.
I was also a TA, for human anatomy. A science course, if you will. Yes, it was hard instructing the students, and yes it was what they made of it, but the wonder of it all was that the students were taught by the professors and lab instructors.
Of course it's not easy teaching a lecture course and giving out a final exam that can fairly evaluate 200-300 students. But if Professor Hemmick could do it, why not our Professors?
Not everyone is planning on taking the MCATs. Some people just need this class for their major. So, isn't it kind of unfair for a professor to assume that the whole class is going to use this class as a practice for the MCATs?
Can you please post an answer key with the worked solutions? I did much worse than I thought I did and I would just like to know what specifically I did wrong. Thank you so much.
You've made an insightful post, but speaking of anonymity, why did you choose to also remain anonymous? Just out of curiosity, how did you perform on the final exam?
My previous message about errors from the opscan center was incorrect. I misunderstood how to read some of the info they provided, and the grades were much lower than we expected. Scores are in Blackboard now. I'll post more info, including solutions as soon as I can, but in the meantime, I can tell you that the average was about 11 out of 30.
By the way, I really do believe in the validity of multiple choice exams to assess students' degree of mastery of the subject, even though I do not care to respond to all of the posted complaints in detail. One specific charge I would like to answer: We did not assume that this course serves only as a preparation for the MCAT, and we certainly did not teach it as such. Nor do we teach a "med school weed out" course. Professor Koch and I are both much too interested in physics to engage in such a task.
Adding something about midterm 2. For the practice midterm review, unfortunately because of Echo recording problems, it only recorded up to question 13/14 out of total of 20 questions. For the real midterm 2, I received a 12/20 score. Mainly the questions I got wrong was because I couldn't see the explanation for the remaining problems. I approached Professor Stephens and he said, "Oh well, not much we can do about that now".
Thanks.
I mean, I'm sure out of few hundred students, I can't be the only student that did poorly because they couldn't see the video. I attended the review session, but at the end I couldn't understand minor parts, thus needed the video to go back and try to comprehend, which failed.
Anonymous, The SAME EXACT THING happened to me for exam 2 (I got the same grade as you too!). I was unable to attend the review session because I had to work, and I missed the optics questions on the exam because Prof. Koch's explanations were cut out of the ECHO. Obviously I'm not asking for the professor to do anything about it, but still, it's nothing short of frustrating. ::sigh::
Regardless of it is a "weed-out" class or not, the fact that so many students got less than half of the questions correct says something about the teaching, the final, and the course itself. That's pretty ridiculous, considering that so many students are more than capable and have put in the time and effort. What a horrible experience, to put in that much work and end up doing poorly, as was the case for so many students.
You honestly believe that a 36% as an average on a final is OK??? That's not a good statistic. That either means that you had a really dumb class, or the final was way harder than it should have been. Call me crazy, but I find it hard to believe that there were that many stupid students.
yea... I think we as students should "shape up" and study at least 22 hours a day 6 days a week instead of what we are doing. Obviously we are really stupid and we don't know anything. Who said we were supposed to be taught?? The syllabus did not mention such a thing so let us not kid ourselves.
Oh my god!I got a 12/30! above average! YES! I GUESSED MY WHOLE WAY THROUGH!!! apparently that is the technique for taking this final! Highly recommended! I didn't know anything! Thank God!
I hope you take into consideration how hard the majority of the students worked this semester and realize that this final was not a fair assessment of what we know.
I walked into the final with a 95 average and still failed the exam, even after countless hours/days of studying...that should tell you something...
I spent one day studying for the final and I got a 12/30, pretty good compared to others who studied for days and weeks. I'm glad I didn't waste time studying for an impossible final. However, I do regret taking this course because I learned absolutely nothing and I will not recommend these professors to anyone.
As we stated from the beginning, the letter grades are determined by the curve of the class performance. So half of the class has earned some flavor of A or B.
I just want to thank both Profs. Stephens and Koch for being so helpful throughout the semester. And especially for holding review sessions during the weekend. I'm pretty sure that's not a job requirement. I just wish more people would be appreciative of their efforts and not take their anger and frustration out on them.
Thank you very much Profssor Stephens and Professor Koch for this semester. I also didn't do well on the final exam but I know you two professors enoughly showed us enthusiasm. Thank you. I think I am between boarder of the grades. Good luck to everyone !
11/30 is the average...Statistically speaking guessing would've resulted in 6/30. NOT BAD CLASS! Professors...Thank you for continuing with keeping me and many others entertained. There are enough opinions on this blog for you to be led to the correct answer:
This student is: a) Gibberish b) Gibberish that could be correct c) gibberish that could be correct d) This would be put in here to trick you e) Gibberish that could be correct
Strategy for the final: Narrow it down to the three that are closest to each other. You have just increased your chances of guessing to 3/5. If you did that for most of the questions and then guessed on the remaining ones... You should've been guaranteed an 11/30. But at least you were led to the correct answer ;)
"I just want to thank both Profs. Stephens and Koch for being so helpful throughout the semester. And especially for holding review sessions during the weekend."
Yes I am very thankful for review sessions that gave me a completely incorrect idea of what would be on the exam. So helpful, especially when I couldn't make it because I'm a commuter and then the echo is cut off before al the questions are explained. If the aim of these reviews was to assist the student and prepare them for the real exam, then CLEARLY this failed. If anything, it threw students off.
I chose to stay anonymous because I was afraid of backlash. I didn't want people to discount my opinions. I supposed I'll just be honest, so people don't get the wrong idea about who "Concerned student" is. It's me, Muntazim Mukit. Did I do well on the final? Yes, I did quite well (some may say very well), scoring 27/30.
It's unfortunate to hear that the average was so low :(. This fact means that the final was too difficult (or unfair in some way), probably.
It's a free country, everyone is entitled to express their opinions. Perhaps it is especially hard for me to disrespect professors or teachers because of the way I was raised/my culture. I was born here, but my parents brought me up to be pretty respectful with elders, parents, professors, etc. So that may explain the way I feel or my explanations/behaviors. Even if I were upset with a professor, I'd probably explain my frustration to my professor directly, instead of posting sarcastic, anonymous comments (or even sarcastic, non-anonymous comments).
While I felt the final was definitely very challenging,I would like to thank both professors for all they have done this semester. Overall I had an enjoyable time in the class and I felt I learned a lot about physics. I believe that people should voice their opinions and concerns however they should do so in a respectful manner.
It's not that the students don't have respect for the Professors (I think both did a good job of teaching) it's just after being in Stony Brook for such a long time, it becomes extremely tiresome when you are simply a number and there is nothing you can do about an exam that evaluates you unfairly. And at the end of the day, one obtains a letter on their transcript which only shows the results of your performance but not the time and effort the student put into the class. I did't do as well as I wanted to in this class but I gave my heart and soul and studied. But are the professors going to listen to my story. Most likely not, because understandably, there are about 300 students. Maybe that's the punishment for us going to a state school.
218 students in this class. And we certainly do respect your efforts. I think I made that fairly clear in my closing remarks on the last lecture of the class, as well as the efforts that both Professor Koch and I made to present the material in an interesting manner throughout the semester.
The use of grades to assess student performance is not restricted to large state schools. And course grades are quite specifically intended to assess student performance. I'm not sure how to measure time and effort that people put into a class, nor what one would do with that information. The option to take a class P/NC is available to anybody who wants to learn what they can from the course without being graded.
"Are the professors going to listen to my story?" How many times did you come to the help room during the scheduled times that Professor Koch or I was there? It is indeed a shame that I don't know everyone in the class by name and face - I hope you fare better in that regard in the upper division classes in your major.
Again, the claim that the exam evaluated you unfairly! Undoubtedly it was hard, but how was that unfair in a course graded on the class curve? Everybody took the same exam. It was based on course material that you had already seen, and were frequently advised would be on the exam. If you take the time to look, you will see that every single question on the final exam was closely adapted from either a clicker question or a homework problem. Every single question.
The Kalpha-Kbeta question comes from question #8 of the chapter 28 homework assignment. Determining the accelerating voltage of an x-ray tube from the spectrum was the second clicker question on November 23rd. By the way, the average score on the final exam was 39%, not 33%.
While you are correct in everyone having an opinion, I highly doubt that your "unnatural" score of 27/30 permits you to deny any other student's ability to comment freely here, within reason. No one has outright cursed out the professors, hence everyone's posts here are valid. In addition, I just want to say I agree with the one student who said we're tired of just simply being a number.
Professor, in my opinion, a final exam question (with a graph that was not readily clarified in lecture) does not suffice as a thorough explanation.
It was unfair because "guessing" played a big role in some student's grades, and when guessing can skew the curve... there is a problem. This usually happens when the questions are so difficult that students don't even know where to begin.
my TA recommended I stuff every clicker question and homework problem on my cheat sheet (a favor, not a right, that the profs generously extended. I cud rele have used a cheat sheet on the mcats but the AAMC did not see fit to extend that generosity). Of course, stuffing it onto the sheet was half the work. Actually understanding it was the other half. I'm glad I did. Where else would you start, if not from the problems actually given in class and presented in the homework? Theres quite a large difference in glaring at problems for 5 minutes then saying "OH OK I GET IT NAO," and actually working it out yourself. Don't delude yourself in thinking rote memorization is the way to go in a math/physics class. You must work out the problems when you study instead of looking at the explanation. This is almost certainly true of any class actually. How many of us can honestly say we worked out every clicker/hw question? Oh I just love the comments where people question the professors ability to teach after the final. Were you sleeping the entire semester? If you didn't want to face the professors during their office hours, you still had the power to anonymously post here in this blog. Whats the point in demanding they do a better job after the fact, other then to simply vent your own ineptitude? One particularly fine example of just how smart the average test taker at this final was can be seen here: "Vito said... the Kalpha Kbeta question or the one with the x-ray graph." Ah yes, let's call out the professor. Let's attempt to make him look bad instead of gleaning important information about how teachers usually make up tests (from the notes and hws). Alas, it's truly terrible that the professor called your bluff, Vito (did you really think he wouldn't?). Better luck next time. You have 29 questions to go. Actually, my mistake. The avg test taker got an 11. However, in another exemplary display of wisdom, "Vito said... 8/30 w00t." A bit below avg. hmmm...understandable.
oh, and i was looking at the final exam review topic on the blog. " Professor Stephens said... Our statement is that an excellent way to prepare for the final exam is to review all clicker and homework problems. It would be overinterpreting for students to think that the ONLY material you need to know was the subject of clicker or homework problems. When clicker questions were dropped from lectures, it was usually because of time constraints, not because either of your instructors thought they weren't interesting, educational, or important. So I would say that an unanswered clicker question is just about as important as one that was answered. If there are ones you are specifically interested in, please post them and we'll reply with the solutions.
December 13, 2010 1:46 PM"
it doesn't get any more helpful then that, unless ofcourse u were hoping to secretly steal a copy of the answerkey beforehand.
For the record, there are 2 Vitos. I (Vito Arena) have not commented on this blog at all in this thread and only make this clarification because several people have thought it was me and it caused some problems for me. PS whatever opinions people have, there is a mature and constructive way to voice them. -Vito arena
Doesnt matter, he can tell which vito it was unless both of you did equally miserable on your finals. And by miserably I mean in a normal class, however in this class you would have only done "a bit below average"
this was a fun read, i took phy 122 with stephens before. y'all just weren't prepared and studied hard enough, that's all. You actually have to know your stuff..... lol, bunch of n00bs.
64 comments:
Email from a student: "I am confused about Q9, Form 2, regarding the RLC circuit. Hopefully someone will be able to aid me. Thank you in advance."
First, note that this problem involves exactly the same concepts and calculations you did on several of the homework problems in chapter 21, and is virtually identical to example 21.4-21.5. Following the steps in 21.4, X_L = 565 Ohm, X_C = 354 Ohm, so the impedance Z = 234 Ohm. I_rms = V_rms/Z = 0.0427 Amp. Power in the resistor is I^2*R=0.18 Watt.
HOW MANY PAGES OF NOTES?
UTILITY OF MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAMS?
In the afternoon before the exam, I was bombarded with requests to change the policy of bringing one page of notes to the exam. The following message is typical:
"I am a student in your Physics 122 lecture. I was emailing you about a concern that I have about the final tomorrow. I have been studying for weeks now and have been trying to put my one sheet of equations together and ready for the final. I understand we're only allowed 1 sheet for this exam, but I feel that it is not enough to have all the equations and formulas from Midterm 1, 2 and things for the final all on this. I also learned that in the past Physics 122 classes, students were allowed 3 sheets of paper to bring into the test as it was sufficient enough for them to use for the final exam. I also learned that some of my fellow classmates who are taking Physics 121, are allowed to bring 3 sheets of paper for their final exam. I understand Physics 121 is another course and taught by another Professor, but the point I am trying to make is that it is much harder to study for this exam or as well take the exam only having 1 sheet of equations. I was hoping if you could consider the possibility of letting us have 3 sheets of paper to write our equations to use for the final exam. I can speak for many students of our class that we would be deeply grateful and use this advantage greatly to excel on this final exam. Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you soon."
I answered all such queries with the reminder that in the Physics 121 class that you took before this one, you were not invited to bring any notes into the exam. And in any event, could anybody seriously expect to change a policy that's been announced for several weeks just a few hours before the exam. I think that most students had been reviewing somewhat longer, and had already organized their notes onto a single page.
Continued in part II
UTILITY OF MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAMS, PART II
My answer prompted the following response.
"We weren't allowed any sheets, but the style of the exam was different. It was a written exam in which we received partial credit on the work we wrote for each exam question. This format of the test is multiple-choice exam. It's either you receive full credit or no credit. With the limited time we have for the exam, the work we put out for each question we may not finish on time. Thus we would not receive for it. The time constraint is difficult for us on this exam. However last year's exam, even though we were still pressured with time constraint, the fact that we had partial credit gave a greater advantage to everyone even if there was no equation sheets in front of us. The fact that we are only allowed one sheet for this exam, in which we have to condense an entire semester worth of equations and notes on a multiple choice exam creates a greater difficulty in performing well on the exam."
I believe instead that a multiple choice format guides you towards correct answers. If you work a problem and do not come up with one of the offered choices, you know that you have made an error and you have the opportunity to correct it, which is information not available in an exam where you write out full answers.
Also, consider the issue of covering the entire material of the course. If there are, say, five problems on a conventional exam, that cannot cover the fifteen chapters of a course like this. If such an exam skipped, say, geometrical optics, you get no partial (or full!) credit for what you have learned about that topic. If there is a question on a topic that you did not study as well, say relativity, 20% of your exam grade is at risk.
If you look at the broad distributions of grades from the midterm exams, you'll see that the exams in this course have not been "all or nothing" grades.
In general, I think we can all agree that people with higher scores on the exams were better informed, better prepared, and demonstrated that they knew more of the material than people with lower scores.
If you are near graduation and interested in medical school, one of the next important exams you'll see is the MCAT. So you can't complain that multiple choice exams are a uniquely unfair component of
your physics course.
that final was cruel...
that's the problem with this school. Every class is a "med school weed-out" class. I'm much rather peruse that and just get taught. I don't think that the "people with higher scores on the exams were better informed, better prepared, and demonstrated that they knew more of the material than people with lower scores." I just think that those individuals just "understand" physics, much like students just "understand" organic chemistry, while the rest suffer through trying to learn something all on their own because their professors lack the proper methods of "TEACHING"
Dear Professor Stephens,
In regards to your first post, thank you for answering my question. I had calculated X L and X C correctly, as well as impedance. However, I fell for a trap and calculated Irms as Vrms / R (of the resistor). I had caluclated the power according to the equation P = I rms V rms cos theta (I actually don't know what greek letter is used), were theta =inverse tan of (X L - X C) / R.
I understand my error now, and I believe I understand my other errors as well. Thank you again.
Science courses are difficult, and they're what you make of it. I was a teaching assistant for a course, general chemistry, and it was only when I had to teach the material did I realize how difficult it was to teach new/foreign concepts to people who did not know them. It made me realize that there's not enough time in the day/week to step through the process of teaching difficult material to students (especially such a large number of them). Professors do their best, but you have to work at it yourself a lot. How can people expect to understand difficult topics such as electricity, magnetism, optics, and modern physics with only 3 hours of instruction a week? You have to work at it. That's why we have the book and weekly HW problems to keep us on track.
Most people are probably complaining about the final because it was harder than they expected. If this was a course such as Biochemistry, or Cell Biology, people would've probably said "Wow that final was hard" but they wouldn't go so far as to call it unfair, because they know the class is hard. It appears that many people didn't expect Physics to be another difficult course, but it is.
Could we all please be mature and not attack the professor (especially behind "Anonymous" posts?). We had a number of resources available to us: the physics help room, review sessions, the course blog, physics warm up/end of chapter problems, and the HW. If you did poorly but you did not avail any of these opportunities, then who is there really to blame except yourself? It's easy to blame the professor, but difficult to admit your own faults and shortcomings. If you don't do well on the MCAT (or DAT) or in graduate school, who will you blame then?
While it may not be said, I am quite sure there are people who work together on the HW, or rely on others who know how to do the HW (or tutoring services)/lab quizzes to get the answers and boost their course grade. While that may help you in the short run, in the long run it won't because you won't know how to do problems yourself. It takes longer, but doing all the HW and the lab quizzes for yourself is what helps you in the end and is what helps you do well on tests. Seeing solutions done by others, or watching/going to review sessions doesn't help you learn much, if at all.
I believe that the Practice Final was challenging and indicative of the real final. Maybe if you had gone to the review session without working through the final, you would have seen all the solutions and thought "Wow, seems easy" or "Seems doable." But working through that actual final was time consuming and difficult, in my opinion, but it was helpful.
Thanks "Concerned Student"
But I think that final was unfair, and while I appreciate your lengthy, if not redundant statement, I do feel as though many of these students have a right to say such things. Its the internet dude, wake up.
I was also a TA, for human anatomy. A science course, if you will. Yes, it was hard instructing the students, and yes it was what they made of it, but the wonder of it all was that the students were taught by the professors and lab instructors.
Of course it's not easy teaching a lecture course and giving out a final exam that can fairly evaluate 200-300 students. But if Professor Hemmick could do it, why not our Professors?
Not everyone is planning on taking the MCATs. Some people just need this class for their major. So, isn't it kind of unfair for a professor to assume that the whole class is going to use this class as a practice for the MCATs?
Can you please post an answer key with the worked solutions? I did much worse than I thought I did and I would just like to know what specifically I did wrong. Thank you so much.
Well, I did absolutely atrocious.
Concerned Student,
You've made an insightful post, but speaking of anonymity, why did you choose to also remain anonymous? Just out of curiosity, how did you perform on the final exam?
yea concerned student, I agree with John.
Professor,
When will the final grades be posted?
Professor,
I was wondering the same as someone wrote above, may you please post a copy of the final with the worked solutions?
I left the final feeling confident, but my grade shows otherwise. So I would just like to know what I did wrong.
Thank you. Have a great holiday season!
My previous message about errors from the opscan center was incorrect. I misunderstood how to read some of the info they provided, and the grades were much lower than we expected. Scores are in Blackboard now. I'll post more info, including solutions as soon as I can, but in the meantime, I can tell you that the average was about 11 out of 30.
By the way, I really do believe in the validity of multiple choice exams to assess students' degree of mastery of the subject, even though I do not care to respond to all of the posted complaints in detail. One specific charge I would like to answer: We did not assume that this course serves only as a preparation for the MCAT, and we certainly did not teach it as such. Nor do we teach a "med school weed out" course. Professor Koch and I are both much too interested in physics to engage in such a task.
Oh. My. God. I did absolutely horrible. I walked into this final with a B/B+ and am probably getting a C in the course now. :-(
wow according to blackboard, I got a 11/30. To be specific with the amount of time I've spent studying, a week and few days total... =*(
I looked over mostly the lecture notes(heavily on the new material after 2nd exam)/practice final/Webassign hw
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Adding something about midterm 2. For the practice midterm review, unfortunately because of Echo recording problems, it only recorded up to question 13/14 out of total of 20 questions.
For the real midterm 2, I received a 12/20 score. Mainly the questions I got wrong was because I couldn't see the explanation for the remaining problems. I approached Professor Stephens and he said, "Oh well, not much we can do about that now".
Thanks.
I mean, I'm sure out of few hundred students, I can't be the only student that did poorly because they couldn't see the video.
I attended the review session, but at the end I couldn't understand minor parts, thus needed the video to go back and try to comprehend, which failed.
Anonymous,
The SAME EXACT THING happened to me for exam 2 (I got the same grade as you too!). I was unable to attend the review session because I had to work, and I missed the optics questions on the exam because Prof. Koch's explanations were cut out of the ECHO. Obviously I'm not asking for the professor to do anything about it, but still, it's nothing short of frustrating. ::sigh::
Regardless of it is a "weed-out" class or not, the fact that so many students got less than half of the questions correct says something about the teaching, the final, and the course itself. That's pretty ridiculous, considering that so many students are more than capable and have put in the time and effort. What a horrible experience, to put in that much work and end up doing poorly, as was the case for so many students.
You honestly believe that a 36% as an average on a final is OK??? That's not a good statistic. That either means that you had a really dumb class, or the final was way harder than it should have been. Call me crazy, but I find it hard to believe that there were that many stupid students.
yea... I think we as students should "shape up" and study at least 22 hours a day 6 days a week instead of what we are doing. Obviously we are really stupid and we don't know anything. Who said we were supposed to be taught?? The syllabus did not mention such a thing so let us not kid ourselves.
Oh my god!I got a 12/30! above average! YES! I GUESSED MY WHOLE WAY THROUGH!!! apparently that is the technique for taking this final! Highly recommended! I didn't know anything! Thank God!
Professors,
I hope you take into consideration how hard the majority of the students worked this semester and realize that this final was not a fair assessment of what we know.
I walked into the final with a 95 average and still failed the exam, even after countless hours/days of studying...that should tell you something...
I spent one day studying for the final and I got a 12/30, pretty good compared to others who studied for days and weeks. I'm glad I didn't waste time studying for an impossible final. However, I do regret taking this course because I learned absolutely nothing and I will not recommend these professors to anyone.
WOW. The average for the final was 11/30? SOMEONE SHOULD BE ASHAMED.
"and the grades were much lower than we expected." well I wonder why?!
UGHH
7/30 thats how we roll
As we stated from the beginning, the letter grades are determined by the curve of the class performance. So half of the class has earned some flavor of A or B.
I just want to thank both Profs. Stephens and Koch for being so helpful throughout the semester. And especially for holding review sessions during the weekend. I'm pretty sure that's not a job requirement. I just wish more people would be appreciative of their efforts and not take their anger and frustration out on them.
Thank you very much Profssor Stephens and Professor Koch for this semester. I also didn't do well on the final exam but I know you two professors enoughly showed us enthusiasm. Thank you. I think I am between boarder of the grades. Good luck to everyone !
8/30 w00t!
I got you beat Vito, 7/30!!!!
11/30 is the average...Statistically speaking guessing would've resulted in 6/30. NOT BAD CLASS! Professors...Thank you for continuing with keeping me and many others entertained. There are enough opinions on this blog for you to be led to the correct answer:
This student is:
a) Gibberish
b) Gibberish that could be correct
c) gibberish that could be correct
d) This would be put in here to trick you
e) Gibberish that could be correct
Strategy for the final: Narrow it down to the three that are closest to each other. You have just increased your chances of guessing to 3/5. If you did that for most of the questions and then guessed on the remaining ones... You should've been guaranteed an 11/30. But at least you were led to the correct answer ;)
It looks like that is the strategy adopted by a lot of the class. Which is why those of us who studied for the final got higher than the average.
"I just want to thank both Profs. Stephens and Koch for being so helpful throughout the semester. And especially for holding review sessions during the weekend."
Yes I am very thankful for review sessions that gave me a completely incorrect idea of what would be on the exam. So helpful, especially when I couldn't make it because I'm a commuter and then the echo is cut off before al the questions are explained. If the aim of these reviews was to assist the student and prepare them for the real exam, then CLEARLY this failed. If anything, it threw students off.
I chose to stay anonymous because I was afraid of backlash. I didn't want people to discount my opinions. I supposed I'll just be honest, so people don't get the wrong idea about who "Concerned student" is. It's me, Muntazim Mukit. Did I do well on the final? Yes, I did quite well (some may say very well), scoring 27/30.
It's unfortunate to hear that the average was so low :(. This fact means that the final was too difficult (or unfair in some way), probably.
It's a free country, everyone is entitled to express their opinions. Perhaps it is especially hard for me to disrespect professors or teachers because of the way I was raised/my culture. I was born here, but my parents brought me up to be pretty respectful with elders, parents, professors, etc. So that may explain the way I feel or my explanations/behaviors. Even if I were upset with a professor, I'd probably explain my frustration to my professor directly, instead of posting sarcastic, anonymous comments (or even sarcastic, non-anonymous comments).
While I felt the final was definitely very challenging,I would like to thank both professors for all they have done this semester. Overall I had an enjoyable time in the class and I felt I learned a lot about physics. I believe that people should voice their opinions and concerns however they should do so in a respectful manner.
It's not that the students don't have respect for the Professors (I think both did a good job of teaching) it's just after being in Stony Brook for such a long time, it becomes extremely tiresome when you are simply a number and there is nothing you can do about an exam that evaluates you unfairly. And at the end of the day, one obtains a letter on their transcript which only shows the results of your performance but not the time and effort the student put into the class. I did't do as well as I wanted to in this class but I gave my heart and soul and studied. But are the professors going to listen to my story. Most likely not, because understandably, there are about 300 students. Maybe that's the punishment for us going to a state school.
218 students in this class. And we certainly do respect your efforts. I think I made that fairly clear in my closing remarks on the last lecture of the class, as well as the efforts that both Professor Koch and I made to present the material in an interesting manner throughout the semester.
The use of grades to assess student performance is not restricted to large state schools. And course grades are quite specifically intended to assess student performance. I'm not sure how to measure time and effort that people put into a class, nor what one would do with that information. The option to take a class P/NC is available to anybody who wants to learn what they can from the course without being graded.
"Are the professors going to listen to my story?" How many times did you come to the help room during the scheduled times that Professor Koch or I was there? It is indeed a shame that I don't know everyone in the class by name and face - I hope you fare better in that regard in the upper division classes in your major.
Again, the claim that the exam evaluated you unfairly! Undoubtedly it was hard, but how was that unfair in a course graded on the class curve? Everybody took the same exam. It was based on course material that you had already seen, and were frequently advised would be on the exam. If you take the time to look, you will see that every single question on the final exam was closely adapted from either a clicker question or a homework problem. Every single question.
That's the problem. If the exam questions were truly modeled after the clicker and homework questions, the average would not have been a 33%.
Pick a question.
the Kalpha Kbeta question or the one with the x-ray graph.
The Kalpha-Kbeta question comes from question #8 of the chapter 28 homework assignment.
Determining the accelerating voltage of an x-ray tube from the spectrum was the second clicker question on November 23rd.
By the way, the average score on the final exam was 39%, not 33%.
Mr. Mukit,
While you are correct in everyone having an opinion, I highly doubt that your "unnatural" score of 27/30 permits you to deny any other student's ability to comment freely here, within reason. No one has outright cursed out the professors, hence everyone's posts here are valid. In addition, I just want to say I agree with the one student who said we're tired of just simply being a number.
Professor, in my opinion, a final exam question (with a graph that was not readily clarified in lecture) does not suffice as a thorough explanation.
It was unfair because "guessing" played a big role in some student's grades, and when guessing can skew the curve... there is a problem. This usually happens when the questions are so difficult that students don't even know where to begin.
A graph that was not clarified in lecture? Please have a look at the Echo360 recordings of Nov 21 from 1 hr 16 minutes, and Nov 23 from 11 min 45 sec.
my TA recommended I stuff every clicker question and homework problem on my cheat sheet (a favor, not a right, that the profs generously extended. I cud rele have used a cheat sheet on the mcats but the AAMC did not see fit to extend that generosity). Of course, stuffing it onto the sheet was half the work. Actually understanding it was the other half. I'm glad I did. Where else would you start, if not from the problems actually given in class and presented in the homework? Theres quite a large difference in glaring at problems for 5 minutes then saying "OH OK I GET IT NAO," and actually working it out yourself.
Don't delude yourself in thinking rote memorization is the way to go in a math/physics class. You must work out the problems when you study instead of looking at the explanation. This is almost certainly true of any class actually. How many of us can honestly say we worked out every clicker/hw question?
Oh I just love the comments where people question the professors ability to teach after the final. Were you sleeping the entire semester? If you didn't want to face the professors during their office hours, you still had the power to anonymously post here in this blog. Whats the point in demanding they do a better job after the fact, other then to simply vent your own ineptitude?
One particularly fine example of just how smart the average test taker at this final was can be seen here:
"Vito said...
the Kalpha Kbeta question or the one with the x-ray graph."
Ah yes, let's call out the professor. Let's attempt to make him look bad instead of gleaning important information about how teachers usually make up tests (from the notes and hws). Alas, it's truly terrible that the professor called your bluff, Vito (did you really think he wouldn't?). Better luck next time. You have 29 questions to go. Actually, my mistake. The avg test taker got an 11. However, in another exemplary display of wisdom, "Vito said...
8/30 w00t." A bit below avg. hmmm...understandable.
oh, and i was looking at the final exam review topic on the blog.
" Professor Stephens said...
Our statement is that an excellent way to prepare for the final exam is to review all clicker and homework problems. It would be overinterpreting for students to think that the ONLY material you need to know was the subject of clicker or homework problems. When clicker questions were dropped from lectures, it was usually because of time constraints, not because either of your instructors thought they weren't interesting, educational, or important. So I would say that an unanswered clicker question is just about as important as one that was answered. If there are ones you are specifically interested in, please post them and we'll reply with the solutions.
December 13, 2010 1:46 PM"
it doesn't get any more helpful then that, unless ofcourse u were hoping to secretly steal a copy of the answerkey beforehand.
To the anonymous above, I think that was a little rude of you, to call out on an individual, write their name out and poke fun at them.
i used their own comments, their own words. they poked fun at themselves. i just made it painfully clear what their comments implied.
Also, "I do feel as though many of these students have a right to say such things. Its the internet dude, wake up."
He had it coming.
Wow, Professor Stephens is from MIT! Impressive, I can only dream of going to a graduate school as prestigious as MIT.
And Professor Koch is from Yale! Phy 122, my lowest grade, is going to prevent me from going places. =(
I knew I should've taken this course a year ago...
For the record, there are 2 Vitos. I (Vito Arena) have not commented on this blog at all in this thread and only make this clarification because several people have thought it was me and it caused some problems for me.
PS whatever opinions people have, there is a mature and constructive way to voice them.
-Vito arena
Doesnt matter, he can tell which vito it was unless both of you did equally miserable on your finals. And by miserably I mean in a normal class, however in this class you would have only done "a bit below average"
such a low final average...
this was a fun read, i took phy 122 with stephens before. y'all just weren't prepared and studied hard enough, that's all. You actually have to know your stuff..... lol, bunch of n00bs.
Awesome post, glad I'm outta school tho! :)
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