semantics and multiple choice questions

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Last edited by riverspark on 14 Apr 2011, 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

if you've made it as far as you've described ["junior/senior"] it would be a shame to ashcan it all now, just when you've gotten over the hump. and an 87 is a lot better than a 57, so one should avoid making mountains into molehills. avail yourself of all the counselling services your uni offers, and try above all to stick it out until you get that piece of paper in your hand, that is your ticket to the middle class. without it, you will end up more like me, i.e., poor and isolated. i can't stress it enough, STAY THE COURSE [pun intended ]

I learned a lot when I took a law class that basically boiled down to everything about law is about interpretation and precedence. How does that relate to your class? Well it may not be too late to get more points on your exam. A big problem with our educational system is that it is always looking for the one right answer; real life isn't so cut and dry. Often there are many right answers. First prepare. Go through the exam and every question that could be interpreted more than one way 'make a case' for the version you chose. That means write down a logical rebuttal for each including the possible ways it could be interpreted and even showing that you would have got the 'correct answer' had it been interpreted the way the instructor had intended.
I have done this more than a few times and almost always it results in a push up of EVERYONE'S grade when the teacher throws out the questions that were ambiguous or gives people credit who found an alternate answer that fit the same criteria.
One thing to remember - never get angry, never make demands, be 100% honest.
I've always used the "I'd like to meet with you with some concerns I have about the latest exam." "I understand how hard it can be to come up with questions for such things so this isn't a critique of you; only that the question wasn't clear enough to be absolutely sure what your intention was. I didn't understand what you were looking for and went another direction... would you be willing to talk about it?"

I like this. One asks in a real way. And (zen breath) instructor might say yes and might say no.

I've done this, too. Lately, I've been trying to be briefer, more matter-of-fact, more straightforward, almost casual. Just asking a question.

Also it can't hurt to talk a little about how you think a little differently than most people.
"It might just be how my brain is wired with Aspergers Syndrome and how I take things literally that others don't but...". I've always had great luck as long as I don't make it an attack and instead "I'd like your help with something if you don't mind". It took me awhile to 'get it' though.

I hate to be blunt (well, not really, but...) I think it would be insane to leave school just because you scored an 87 on the test. At my school, that is in the A range! Most people, particularly in the sciences, do not score in the A range. The averages in my science classes were Bs and Cs. I think you will be doing yourself a great disservice for dropping out of school which such a high score. I mean, I could understand if you were just barely scraping by, but A range?? What more can you ask for?

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Last edited by riverspark on 14 Apr 2011, 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Okay, well if you have other reasons then fine, but you did not continously go on about the other reasons, you went on about this one test grade. I don't read between the lines, so I assumed the thing that concerned you the most was the one you put the largest amount of emphasis on.

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Last edited by riverspark on 14 Apr 2011, 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well we were able to do it because we didn't quit when we were almost done. When I was finishing my music degree, there were times when I felt I should just abort, but that would mean I wasted three years of my life. Believe me, I had family members dying on me, I was struggling socially, and I had to deal with my alcoholic schizophrenic uncle who absolutely refuses to take medication. I'm not understanding why you are quitting because you have a hard life. I actually know a kid with AS who got cancer his senior year. He had no idea if he was going to live, yet he'd come to school with his bald head and pale-green face, and persevere. Life is a marathon sometimes.

Yeah, but this kid may have had family members backing him up and in his corner. And you may have also, or you may not have---and either way, congratulations on getting your degree and more power to you.

Now, I sometimes faced people who treated me like I was weird, or people who treated me like a mascot. And there's this very poisonous social dynamic, once some people shy away from you, other people do too out of self-protection because they don't want to get labeled. Paul Graham talks about this is his essay "Why Nerds are Unpopular." http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html (I agree with parts of this essay, question others. For one thing, I'm not entirely sure being actively persecuted is worse than being ostracized. I mean, can I have a third choice!)
And sometimes I was merely "tolerated," including by the so-called professors, and not treated as a creative person trying to contribute. So, I was often more lonely than if I had actually been by myself.



I generally do see where riverspark is coming from.

I dropped out of college twice, both in different ways. I got my bachelor's degree in psychology at age 28.

But I'm a good writer. I have learned to write, largely on my own.

Kind of how I feel about jobs.

It's bad enough that I am often excluded socially and romantically. This is people's personal choices (and some unhealthy group dynamics). Then when I'm treated unfairly at a job, when I am trying, am actually doing a better than average job, just doing well at different areas and thus 'not fitting it,' and the organization purports to value fairness as they typically state, yes, it does bother me.