Otago HSFY chat - archive

[aaa24]

Yeah its pretty weird, they went into many decimal places haha. How'd you go cathay?
For me, it appears i lost a whole mark some were which is kind of disappointing, but whatever its only 5%.

 

[Cathay]

How'd you go cathay?

4.44 - a lot of my friends got 4.43, lol...

 

[aaa24]

Haha i got 4.41..., weird huh.
You have to say though, that test was really stupid. Didnt really prove anything or test your 'breadth' of knowledge as they like to keep saying.

 

[Cathay]

You have to say though, that test was really stupid. Didnt really prove anything or test your 'breadth' of knowledge as they like to keep saying.

Agreed. It was more of an excuse to make us do "homework", tbh... (Oh, and a conspiracy to crash Blackboard, repeatedly.)

 

[aaa24]

Haha, yeah they give us 1 extra day to do the test, but take more than 1 week to mark it.

 

[Cathay]

Haha, yeah they give us 1 extra day to do the test, but take more than 1 week to mark it.

Well to be fair, it was designed so that it's all electronically marked and the results get released on the 1st of April, but apparently the people who weren't able to do it due to blackboard outages (who resulted in an extra day being given) also convinced the CELS staff that their marks should be increased because some technical difficulties resulted in them losing marks or whatever, so the CELS staff had to give all of them reconsideration on a case-by-case basis...

Also, I think towards the end of last week they figured that releasing GLM marks (which aren't ideal) right before the mid-semester test was probably not helpful...

Well I guess now's a good time to quote Morpheus: "What happened happened and couldn't have happened any other way."

 

[greenglacier]

Hmmm, wonder how they calculated the score for the GLM - I got 0.01 (out of 5) above some of my friends, lol...

I'm pretty sure the way they do it is:

Simple MCQ - 1 mark if correct, 0 marks if not
Fill-in-the-blanks/option boxes - the 1 mark is divided by the number of boxes, and that proportion awarded for each box correct (e.g. 0.67 for 2/3 correct)
Select as many options as you like - say there were 6 options, and 3 of them were correct. You would get 0.33 (1/3) awarded for each of the correct options you selected, and 0.33 deducted for each of the incorrect options you selected

Marks for each question are rounded to 2 decimal places, then added up.

 

[frootloop]

Yeah I got 4.49, was the most ambiguously worded test I've ever sat, so I have no idea how I managed to even pass it lol. As for physics, I'm just hoping the questions in the mid semester test are easier than the ones in the textbook....

 

[Cathay]

How'd everyone go in physics?

I personally found it quite an enjoyable test, strangely enough...

 

[aaa24]

Yeah, I found it pretty easy, ended up finishing the test in like 20 minutes then just constantly checking over.

Funnily enough, i think i stuffed up the PCC question but the rest was pretty elementary material, that teaches me not to look over lectures ever again.

Howd you go?

 

[Cathay]

Yeah, I found it pretty easy, ended up finishing the test in like 20 minutes then just constantly checking over.

Same here, thought it was pretty short and easy and finished around the 20-minute mark. Went back through working backwards (from my answer to try get the information given in the question) and corrected myself on one occasion. Then went through a third time, doing formal working with formulae and what not on paper.

Interestingly enough I didn't even glance at my personal study sheet until the third go, and even then I only used it a couple of times (which kind of supports my attitude all along that it only needs to contain forgettable factual information and things we can't do - I've heard of people who pretty much crammed the textbook in there).

I overlooked the PCC as well, but thankfully I procrastinated on typing the notes for that one (I usually do it right after the lecture) until a couple of days ago so it was still fresh in my mind, or I thought it was - haven't checked my answers (after the test) yet... Hopefully I don't end up finding more mistakes when I do...

 

[aaa24]

Yeah, im completely against the whole, text book style cheat sheets. Personally the only stuff i had on mine is a few extra equations that i derived before hand which provide short cuts, and like you said factual info that i couldn't be bothered memorizing. Apart from that, 1 mistake shouldn't be that big of a deal, and worst comes to worst i just have to really push my self for the exam to improve.

But then again, if you have an A+ ish average coupled with a pretty good umat, you should be sweet anyway, so there is no point stressing over a 1-2 percentiles lost.

 

[kaixian0011]

I personally find textbook style cheat sheets dumb.
You ain't going to read the whole tiny text, and sides, do you even know where is it?

Im just bumped about that I used the wrong constant, R. for the mass of water in the room.
I knew I had the right formula yet the answer doesn't pop out. Physics seriously need different symbols for different constants.

It was also partly I didn't do any practice questions =S Otherwise I would have known what constant to use -_- -disappointed in self-

 

[aaa24]

Ouch, that would suck man, but honestly. Like i said just before, look at the bright side - its better to make that mistake now rather than in the end of the year.
I can guarantee that wont happen to you again .

 

[Cathay]

You ain't going to read the whole tiny text, and sides, do you even know where is it?

Exactly - even with a fairly minimal cheat sheet I decided to use different shades of grey in the background for different topics within a module, and had a separate column for each module, so that I can easily find the topic I'm after in the heat of an exam.

 

[aaa24]

I basically wrote up my cheat sheet as we went along and used it extensively when i practiced questions. In that way, i already had a feel for were equations and notes are.

 

[frootloop]

Don't rip on the text-book style cheat sheets, mine is an artwork although, to be fair, I hardly used it, luckily they didn't ask too much by way of sneaky questions, so it didn't go too bad (crosses fingers)

 

[Cathay]

-_____- I see CELS is doing a social experiment where today's lecture is a pre-recorded clip, and Monday's lecture is non-existant (in real life, that is - it's a podcast-only lecture), to determine how they can best deliver lectures....

I actually didn't mind the pre-recorded clip tbh - other than the lack of on-the-spot humour or audience interaction it'd be the same as a video-linked lecture, but podcast-only lectures? Lectures (along with labs) are the things that drive me out of bed in the morning...

 

[frootloop]

Why are they bothering? It takes the same amount of time to record a lecture as it would to just stand there and deliver it. And how are you supposed to ask a lecturer something after the lecture if, well, theres no lecturer... ? My guess is that they're just lazy, and will use the same pre-recorded lectures for a few years xD

 

[Cathay]

Well pre-recorded lectures would eliminate any discrepancies between streams - so that all streams are getting THE exact same lecture (I mean I've heard chem lecturers say in the afternoon session, "I should've explained it like this at the 8am lecture", which is a little concerning to hear - when the lecturer explains something better in one session, it starts chewing away at the fairness of it all)...

Another good reason is so that the lecturer gives the lecture once for the camera, and once only - currently they have to give the same lecture again in the afternoon. But yes, reusing old lecture video would be another motivation.

I believe Tony said/implied that the lecturer will still be physically present at the theatres (rotating between StDav and Quad) to answer any questions? (The podcast-only lectures, though, takes this away - also taking away the need for technicians, invigilators, and even eliminates the need to occupy a lecture theatre, at which point the only difference between on-campus learning and distance learning is the labs, the library, and the ability to visit a lecturer in person)