Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Yesterday was the finals of my Computer Circuit Fundamentals class.

It had to be a written exam because there weren't enough computers around to accommodate the entire class, besides, having a programming exam would mean the students have to spend around thirty minutes in front of the computer each, so that I would only have a handful of students taking the exam at any one time.

That is one of the disadvantages, as it would take either half a day or a whole day to finish one exam. Besides, from my experience (yes, I've done this at least once before), there have to be several sets of questions prepared that the students have to draw randomly not repeating, so that those who are finished cannot possibly give any clue to those who are taking the test later. My problem then was that unfortunately, the good programmers drew the relatively difficult programs to make, and the underachievers drew the relatively easy ones.

In other words, everyone found the exam difficult. That was one of the major factors why I never repeated the experience, even up to now.

For my COMCIFUN class, I gave them three possible assembly programs to make, one of which dealt with straight calculation (and conversion), one with string manipulation, and a third one for a two-dimensional array, albeit one that is only three by three in size.

They were only supposed to pick any two to write in their notebook. I allowed the computers in the lab to be open, but no use of keyboards or compilers, so they could only look at the ASCII table (which they definitely needed but we could not print out and photocopy) or their previous programs or notes. No hogging of the computer though, so if someone else needs to look something up, the guy already there has to give it up at least until his or her classmate is finished.

One thing I did not foresee is that some of the students called some of the preexisting procedures in some of the sample programs I gave so they don't have to streamline it and write it in their test booklet, even though I allowed removing error handling code.

Session 1449 must learn to think not on a computer. Class dismissed.