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Comment by HarryHirsch | Hacker News Reader

I never understood why things are mandatory in education.

Perhaps it's to combat entrenched prejudice. Back then we would make jokes about "Physics for Women", i.e. the non-calculus kind for non-majors. Everyone who would joke like that would know that physics is for anyone, just look around the lecture hall where 25 % of the audience are female, but talking like this he would pretend to be a Neanderthaler from an era thankfully past.

Forward to the present, where in Britain they make physics more "accessible" by watering the subject down. That doesn't help groups that are traditionally excluded, they need to be included, forceful if necessary.

Same thing holds true for the Arts.

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> by watering the subject down

<RANT>

I think it's a false premise that the subject is hard in the first place. Why is it hard ? Because you have to get the "right answer" on your test/homework. Ok, but why do you have to get the "right answer" ? Why do I get zero points for a problem when I put 0.33 and the answer was 0.145 ? That is utterly ridiculous. Why are we using logical AND on all a problems steps ? Oh, you made one mistake, no points for you!

And before someone brings up "partial credit", That's myth that meant "pity points", not "9/10 points, minus one because you f-ed up your algebra or minus sign". You should be tested on the process of solving a problem, not whether you got 0.33 as your final answer. In the real world, even if you do exactly what the book says(!) you won't get 0.33. Your measuring apparatus wont be calibrated, there will be noise, other sampling errors, defects in materials, etc. If you start the test out with this bullshit premise that IF( ANSWER == 0.33 ) THEN grade='a'; then you're not testing them on physics, you're testing them on how detail oriented they are and how well they can concentrate without making a mistake (like the Japanese show "Unbeatable Banzuki"). If that's your class, then call the class "Following Detailed Processes I" or "Doing N steps without ever making a mistake II", dont call it "physics". You should be able to get an A without ever getting the "right answer", so long as you demonstrate that you know the concepts and what the equations represent and how to apply them. Not contorting yourself to do the work of a machine, like a sadistic hazing ritual.

Edit:

And I almost forgot about the fun little thing they do in college where the course covers topics {A,B,C}, yet they test you {A, B^-1, and C-d}, you know, just a little bit different* material or problem formats than what they lectured about. Just different enough that they dont resemble any of the quiz or homework problems. If you want to test me on Ax^2+bx+c, then test me on Ax^2+bx+c, not on problems I've never seen before.

</RANT>

When I went to uni (physics) an exam had four/five questions that would take about 40 minutes each, and the "final answer" was worth about 5/10% of the question. So it really was about the process.

Let's chalk it up to the human nature where any number of rules for others are not enough in ones opinion :)

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