Why are there still closed book examinations when in the real world we always have Google and YouTube?

[Mariyam]

On 12/22/2018 at 1:55 AM, Muloghonto said:

Because when i was lost in the middle of the Andes with a serious sun-burn and dehydrating fast, i didn't have google or facebook or youtube to tell me which direction to go and how long it will take, therefore, how i should pace myself.

 

Lost in the middle of the Andes? You have to complete the story.

[Mariyam]

On 12/22/2018 at 1:15 AM, SecondSlip said:

The answer to your question is simple.

A regular exam tests the extent of your knowledge. How well you know what you are supposed to know.

An open book exam tests how well you can zero in on what concept/ or a group of concepts to use and eventually apply it, for a real life like problem.

[Muloghonto]

6 minutes ago, Mariyam said:

Lost in the middle of the Andes? You have to complete the story.

went backpacking and hadn't done it in a long long time. Went on a hike on an ancient trail called El Camino Real in Colombia ( it apparently means the royal road)....what nobody told me, is that its not one trail...more like a special trail that meets and diverges with several trails along the way and if you don't know which is which, you end up going the wrong way at the trail intersection and getting lost. 

 

So what was supposed to be a 2 hour hike, ended up being way too long. My watch said 4 hours and i was still nowhere in sight of the town it was supposed to end in. And my spanish is limited to like 3-4 words. This is middle of nowhere in Andes, so its not like i have cell reception to use google translate. 

So i just kept walking hoping like hell i am gonna run into a local sooner or later before the sun sets. what felt like a whole day later (but was like another hour or so), i met a local and i basically said 'Buenos dias...donde <City name>?'

And she answered me in a torrent of words. The one thing that sucks for Indian tourists in South America, is that the locals automatically assume we are latino due to the way we look and not tourist....this i learnt from day1 travelling in Latin America...so i immediately said 'indio tourista'....(Indian tourist)...which is also unfortunately a hit or miss, because several latin american countries call their native pre-colombus tribes 'indiano'..

But luckily she got it. 

 

Lucky for me, i understand spanish numbers...so when i went como quando kilometero and she said ' siette..ocho?' i knew she meant '7 or 8'...

then i held out a piece of paper, pen and gestured for her to draw it out for me...she was like super confused, when i basically mimed out the whole 'i am walking...i come to intersection...i am lost ?!?'....so she did the whole 'AHA!' nod and drew a line  and she showed me left/right/go through at the intersections she thought would come up....

so i was like ' ok i hope she hasnt forgotten any and i hope i can make the 8 kms before it gets dark or i am gonna be jaguar food'. 

 

Lucky for me, it worked out :)

Edited December 23, 2018 by Muloghonto

[Mariyam]

On 12/22/2018 at 11:01 AM, Muloghonto said:

funny thing is, i didn't grow up with a calculator in high school. Then went to the west to study and everyone has a calculator. Now its great when you are trying to do 0.3234904/0.2237 and stuff like that....but my classmates were doing stuff like ( 17+33-11+4)*3 on the calc and its way slower than just doing it in your head....

You do this stuff mentally? 

[Muloghonto]

1 minute ago, Mariyam said:

You do this stuff mentally? 

um. yea. in like 1 second ? my mind literally reads that as 50...39...43...times 3...129. 

 

PS: I finished the story for you. its a bit more fleshed out now

Edited December 23, 2018 by Muloghonto

[Mariyam]

My bad. I thought the * indicates to the power of.

I thought you did 43 x 43 x 43 mentally.

 

[Muloghonto]

Just now, Mariyam said:

My bad. I thought the * indicates to the power of.

I thought you did 43 x 43 x 43 mentally.

 

Ok i am not ramanujan or gauss....

 

but yes, i can do stuff like 425*155 in my head, though in this case, calculator is way faster. ( you basically break it down into numbers you can multiply easily and then add. ie, you do 425*100 + 425*50 + 425*5)

Power of is indicated by ^ symbol :)

[MechEng]

1 hour ago, Mariyam said:

My bad. I thought the * indicates to the power of.

I thought you did 43 x 43 x 43 mentally.

 

Students preparing for CAT and other MBA exams need to learn to do that mentally.

[sourab10forever]

6 hours ago, MechEng said:

Students preparing for CAT and other MBA exams need to learn to do that mentally.

no exam can test 43*43*43 mentally. That's just stupid.

 

[Trichromatic]

16 hours ago, sourab10forever said:

no exam can test 43*43*43 mentally. That's just stupid.

  

When there are 4 close options then you have to do that mentally to identify correct one.

[MechEng]

On 12/23/2018 at 10:02 PM, sourab10forever said:

no exam can test 43*43*43 mentally. That's just stupid.

 

Indian MBA entrance exams do test that, and even though it seems pointless it is actually meant to test your decision making skills. Most MBA exams are about choosing the right set of questions in a given time, your efficiency and effectiveness is judged by that.

 

So if you cannot do 43*43*43 mentally, then it is better to leave that question in the exam. All about being efficient with right use of time.

Edited December 25, 2018 by MechEng

[Muloghonto]

On 12/23/2018 at 8:02 PM, sourab10forever said:

no exam can test 43*43*43 mentally. That's just stupid.

 

SATs in my day used to be like that. Its not testing your ability to do 43*43*43 mentally. its testing your ability to deduce the right answer without doing the whole calc. For eg, no matter what the numbers are, the last digits of any multiplication system will not carry over. So you can look at an extremely complex multiplicatio scenario and deduce the last digit. for eg. 43*43 will end with a 9. 

9*3 =27, so 43*43*43 will have an answer where the last digit is a 7. 

So you look down the answer list and find the number that ends in a 7 - and there will only be one in the multiple choice. 

Its not checking mental math, its more like checking logic & understanding skills. 

[sourab10forever]

49 minutes ago, Muloghonto said:

SATs in my day used to be like that. Its not testing your ability to do 43*43*43 mentally. its testing your ability to deduce the right answer without doing the whole calc. For eg, no matter what the numbers are, the last digits of any multiplication system will not carry over. So you can look at an extremely complex multiplicatio scenario and deduce the last digit. for eg. 43*43 will end with a 9. 

9*3 =27, so 43*43*43 will have an answer where the last digit is a 7. 

So you look down the answer list and find the number that ends in a 7 - and there will only be one in the multiple choice. 

Its not checking mental math, its more like checking logic & understanding skills. 

Yeah that makes sense.