Comments on: Regents Recap — June 2012: Erroneous Questions

By: MrHonner

MrHonner — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 12:11:49 +0000

There is is a system in place; it’s just not transparent, and there doesn’t appear to be any accountability for these errors.

These serious mistakes happen year after year, and at most an official will respond that “typos” occasionally occur. These aren’t incidental errors; these errors indicate a serious deficiency in understanding both mathematics and assessment.

The larger point is that these exams are now used to evaluate teachers and schools as well as students. If the tests themselves aren’t good, how can they be effective evaluations?

By: Ravi

Ravi — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:36:52 +0000

I trained as an engineer and one of my colleagues always said you should never blame the person doing the calculations on a project if they turn out to be wrong. You should always blame the person who checked the calculations.

The assumption there is that someone actually checks them. Likewise Sam is spot on – this could quite easily be resolved by getting 20 random maths teachers to do the paper and provide feedback. Mistakes happen yes – but there is no excuse for not having a system in place to catch them.

One of the things I love about maths is the rigour and discipline – these sorts of errors in these tests undermine the whole discipline of maths.

By: MrHonner

MrHonner — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 02:41:45 +0000

Yes. A common error for these exam writers is identifying two functions (or expressions) as equivalent even though they have different domains. There were several examples in 2011 (like this: http://mrhonner.com/2011/08/11/are-these-tests-any-good-part-1/); it’s a regular occurrence.

Some people may think it’s nit-picky, but I think failure to understand domain creates lots of problems for students all over mathematics.

By: bombastic

bombastic — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 02:34:53 +0000

#30 is also incorrect. A little nit-picky, but cos(x)(sec(x) – cos(x)) is not the same as sin^2(x).

By: MrHonner

MrHonner — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:19:14 +0000

I can't figure it out, either. A typo here or there is one thing, but the complex conjugate question (or this trapezoid question, or this inverse function question) demonstrate significant shortcomings in mathematical understanding on the part of the exam writers and editors. More people should be embarrassed, and outraged, by it.

By: Sam Shah

Sam Shah — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 03:37:53 +0000

Those are pretty egregious. How is this a statewide test and this keeps happening year after year? Give it to 20 math teachers and have them take it and give you feedback. Incorporate feedback. Done.

I am probably missing something here as to why making this test error- and ambiguity-free is so hard. For the life of me, though, I can’t figure out what!