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Howlers (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229099/Revealed-The-student-howlers-dumbed-exams-pupils.html)
Usual scandal mongering by the daily fail, but some of the answers are genius!
Love in particular the answer given to 'What is a fibula'. ;)
;D
They're frickin' superb :D
Kids are supposed to remember the number of feet in a mile? Never had to learn that at school, only did metric measurement system.
Googled it, and it's an interesting answer.
Steve is driving his car. He is traveling at 60 feet/second and the speed limit is 40mph. Is Steve speeding?
1 mile = 5280 feet
60*60 = 3600 feet per minute. 3600 * 60 = 216,000 feet per hour.
216,000 / 5280 = 40.909090909 mph. So yes, he is speeding but by .9 mph. Under British law they allow a leniency of up to 10% IIRC.. so whilst he might , just, be speeding he wouldn't be considered as such in the eyes of the law.
Usually IME unless the point of the exam is to test your knowledge of such things, they'll usually have conversion ratios and stuff like that on the paper.
SidewinderINC
19-11-2009, 18:26
I got a forwarded email today with plenty of these. I think my favourite one has to be "what is a vibration?"
semi-pro waster
19-11-2009, 19:20
I'm not entirely convinced of the veracity of some of them, nor that the correct interpretation of them is that the exams were too much for the students - some of the answers are borderline genius, if I had the wit I'd have answered a few papers like that when I didn't care about the result.
My favourite has to be:
Q: "How does Romeo's character develop throughout the play?"
A: "It doesn't, it's just self, self, self, all the way through."
How to dismiss Shakespeare in one line. ;D
Psymonkee
19-11-2009, 19:30
Kids are supposed to remember the number of feet in a mile? Never had to learn that at school, only did metric measurement system.
Googled it, and it's an interesting answer.
Steve is driving his car. He is traveling at 60 feet/second and the speed limit is 40mph. Is Steve speeding?
1 mile = 5280 feet
60*60 = 3600 feet per minute. 3600 * 60 = 216,000 feet per hour.
216,000 / 5280 = 40.909090909 mph. So yes, he is speeding but by .9 mph. Under British law they allow a leniency of up to 10% IIRC.. so whilst he might , just, be speeding he wouldn't be considered as such in the eyes of the law.
My own interpretation of this is much better than maths :p
Steve is driving his car and he is travelling at 60 feet/sec. Never said his car was so I assume he has already crashed and is currently flying through the windscreen :D
Much better answer :)
Princess Griff
19-11-2009, 19:52
I absolutely love this!!! I just nearly weed myself laughing at them!!!
Del Lardo
19-11-2009, 20:24
I thought they showed superb lateral thinking. Far more useful in the real world than memorised facts.
SidewinderINC
19-11-2009, 23:34
I thought they showed superb lateral thinking. Far more useful in the real world than memorised facts.
Sometimes why the people that have the highest grades from school are ultimately useless in the real world.
I know several people that are so clever it's unreal. They can reel off fact after fact and tell you anything you want to know. Put them into a real situation where they have to think for themselves, or even a situation that requires common sense and they struggle.
Sometimes why the people that have the highest grades from school are ultimately useless in the real world.
That was the biggest ongoing complaint from the teachers where I worked. They were so frustrated that they had to spend so much time cramming fact after fact into kids heads rather than teaching them basics like critical thinking.
Treefrog
20-11-2009, 04:56
ROFLMFAO @ putting big dames in the Mississippi ;D
That's fantastic. I especially liked "expand 2(x+y)"!
It reminded me of my gcse mock exams. In the graphic design exam one question required the drawing of an elipse. A friend of mine couldn't remember how they were drawn so instead drew an isometric Christmas present - with coloured wrapping paper!!
I'm not entirely convinced of the veracity of some of them, nor that the correct interpretation of them is that the exams were too much for the students - some of the answers are borderline genius, if I had the wit I'd have answered a few papers like that when I didn't care about the result.
My favourite has to be:
Q: "How does Romeo's character develop throughout the play?"
A: "It doesn't, it's just self, self, self, all the way through."
How to dismiss Shakespeare in one line. ;D
Was talking to my sister about these last night and it was this one she picked up on. As an English teacher she told me that Shakespeare questions haven't been in Key Stage 3 for a while now and that technically the answer is correct.
Imo, it doesn't show that people can't even answer dumbed down questions as most of them look either fake or just have spelling errors.
Usual crap from the DM if you ask me.
I read some of those in a joke book when I was about 8.
Daily Fail.
Well it's not the daily fail really, they are excerpts from a newly published book... Says so right there in the article!
Wasn't the story I was posting for - which is why I said the story was scandal mongering in the OP so there's nothing new about saying that the surrounding story might not be true! Also says 'worst ever' not 'worst of last 5 years'. Still think some of the answers are brilliant :D
That's fantastic. I especially liked "expand 2(x+y)"
Either that answer isn't very unique or there is some fabrication occuring:
http://static.flickr.com/80/220846761_5f1938fce9_m.jpg
I read some of those in a joke book when I was about 8. Daily Fail.
I think the 'expanding equation' one was originally shown in the legendary Emails of Old™ depicted in tablets of stone along with a silent film of 'Star Wars Kid' and a lithograph of an owl expressing the words "Oh Really?" :p
Still, older than the internet or not - all these children deserve praise for risking their qualifications for the amusement of others on t'interwebs :D
There are only about 4 or 5 different styles of handwriting too, so I suspect some have been rewritten, perhaps due to copyright preventing them using the original images? There are a few there that have been around before but in a different style.
Either that answer isn't very unique or there is some fabrication occuring:
[IMG]http://static.flickr.com/80/220846761_5f1938fce9_m.jpg[IMG]
haha, in every instance it wont ever fail to amuse me ;D
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