In the earlier post I had said that I administered the first Long Exam for my Business Mathematics (BUSMATH) students. The topic covered pretty basic and almost common-sense topics such as computing for one's Payroll, applying Discounts to products, and making use of Markup to establish product selling prices. I had figured my discussion of the topics in the past two weeks proved sufficient and stable enough to merit the students to learn and glean something about the topics and formulate good applications for them in the mathematical problems they'll be facing in the quiz.
Lo and behold, I was gravely mistaken.
It is my custom in class to roam around whenever a long exam is going on - I was a student once and I have the wise insight that an instructor who remains at the teacher's desk throughout a quiz is likely to escape several students who would want to cheat through the exam to pass - heck students even do it in plain sight of the instructor!
Not in my class. I've got more tricks up their sleeve than what they could possibly handle. But nothing, I SAY nothing, could ever prepare me for what lay ahead before me.
As I started correcting their papers in the sanctuary of my work area (where my ex-co-workers also stay in), suffice to say I was losing a drop of Sanity for each paper I corrected. I highlight below some of the questions and answers that I have to put up with in this exam that I honest-to-goodness do not even know how it came to being. Note that the wordings of the questions had been tweaked but in essence still delivers the same insanity I had tried to endure.
The Mind-Blowing Exam
Question: A particular appliance has a list price of 32,000 and had a 15% discount. What was the selling price of this appliance?
Insane Answers I got: 35,000; 60,000; 210,000
I honestly could NOT believe how discounting items could be done in such manner. By its definition alone, discounting even in practical day-to-day shopping means that a particular item receives a percentage slash on its original price, meant for customers to buy those products at lower prices. I couldn't believe my eyes seeing how the discounted price of an item could be worth MORE than its original undiscounted price.
Question: An employee makes a weekly salary of 5,000.00. Compute for this employee's annual salary.
Insane Answers I got: 50.00; 90.00
Again, I honestly admit I was spent on this question - quite a LOT of my students answered in this fashion, and although I admit I did not teach this topic myself - a previous instructor having taught this before I took over the class - I still could not fathom how even an average student could not have found it stupid that an employee would make an annual salary that does not barely even reach 100 pesos.
I do not know whether it is due to the fact that they were too loyal to the listed formulas that they did not use their imaginations to derive from said formulas or if they do not know the definition of annual at all.
Question: A business was given a bill of 150,000 with conditions regarding its payment. The business paid 30,000, 20,000, and 15,000 over the span of the payment period. Given certain discounts applied to such, how much is still due for payment?
Insane Answers I got: 600,000.00; 4,000,000.00
This takes the cake; It's the ultimate WTF moment for me. Even common sense dictates that after you pay for something you owe, it should be followed that whatever it is you owe is LESSER than what you already owe. Even if interest were to be factored in this scene, the answers I got were about 400% to 2000+% of the original debt due, so HOW... HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!
Even my co-workers, who were listening to me moan and yell in frustration as I checked each paper, could not help but wonder as to the interesting trains of thought my students seem to be riding on during the exams. Myself, I am insulted as their instructor since it appears as if they have not learned anything from my classes at all. Looking at their average results, I could say the passing rate is barely 25-30% if the passing mark is put at 70%.
I do not know where, what, or how I went wrong with this - I did the same strategies of teaching the topics as I did with my previous Business Mathematics class and never endured the same degree of insanity from their exam answers. Heck, the previous class I had took on a 2-year annuity computation and did it excellently! I wonder about this one when they reach that part of the discussion already.
I am still undergoing a thought process as to how I could possibly inculcate the lesson and the future ones into them and my most likely conclusion as of the moment is to try and review or repeat the discussions I've had with these topics using their quiz as basis for the mistakes they might have accidentally or deliberately committed.
I sincerely hope it's the former.
Lo and behold, I was gravely mistaken.
It is my custom in class to roam around whenever a long exam is going on - I was a student once and I have the wise insight that an instructor who remains at the teacher's desk throughout a quiz is likely to escape several students who would want to cheat through the exam to pass - heck students even do it in plain sight of the instructor!
Not in my class. I've got more tricks up their sleeve than what they could possibly handle. But nothing, I SAY nothing, could ever prepare me for what lay ahead before me.
As I started correcting their papers in the sanctuary of my work area (where my ex-co-workers also stay in), suffice to say I was losing a drop of Sanity for each paper I corrected. I highlight below some of the questions and answers that I have to put up with in this exam that I honest-to-goodness do not even know how it came to being. Note that the wordings of the questions had been tweaked but in essence still delivers the same insanity I had tried to endure.
The Mind-Blowing Exam
Question: A particular appliance has a list price of 32,000 and had a 15% discount. What was the selling price of this appliance?
Insane Answers I got: 35,000; 60,000; 210,000
I honestly could NOT believe how discounting items could be done in such manner. By its definition alone, discounting even in practical day-to-day shopping means that a particular item receives a percentage slash on its original price, meant for customers to buy those products at lower prices. I couldn't believe my eyes seeing how the discounted price of an item could be worth MORE than its original undiscounted price.
Question: An employee makes a weekly salary of 5,000.00. Compute for this employee's annual salary.
Insane Answers I got: 50.00; 90.00
Again, I honestly admit I was spent on this question - quite a LOT of my students answered in this fashion, and although I admit I did not teach this topic myself - a previous instructor having taught this before I took over the class - I still could not fathom how even an average student could not have found it stupid that an employee would make an annual salary that does not barely even reach 100 pesos.
I do not know whether it is due to the fact that they were too loyal to the listed formulas that they did not use their imaginations to derive from said formulas or if they do not know the definition of annual at all.
Question: A business was given a bill of 150,000 with conditions regarding its payment. The business paid 30,000, 20,000, and 15,000 over the span of the payment period. Given certain discounts applied to such, how much is still due for payment?
Insane Answers I got: 600,000.00; 4,000,000.00
This takes the cake; It's the ultimate WTF moment for me. Even common sense dictates that after you pay for something you owe, it should be followed that whatever it is you owe is LESSER than what you already owe. Even if interest were to be factored in this scene, the answers I got were about 400% to 2000+% of the original debt due, so HOW... HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!
Even my co-workers, who were listening to me moan and yell in frustration as I checked each paper, could not help but wonder as to the interesting trains of thought my students seem to be riding on during the exams. Myself, I am insulted as their instructor since it appears as if they have not learned anything from my classes at all. Looking at their average results, I could say the passing rate is barely 25-30% if the passing mark is put at 70%.
I do not know where, what, or how I went wrong with this - I did the same strategies of teaching the topics as I did with my previous Business Mathematics class and never endured the same degree of insanity from their exam answers. Heck, the previous class I had took on a 2-year annuity computation and did it excellently! I wonder about this one when they reach that part of the discussion already.
I am still undergoing a thought process as to how I could possibly inculcate the lesson and the future ones into them and my most likely conclusion as of the moment is to try and review or repeat the discussions I've had with these topics using their quiz as basis for the mistakes they might have accidentally or deliberately committed.
I sincerely hope it's the former.
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