NYCPHP Meetup

[tedd]

At 2:28 PM -0400 4/14/08, André Pitanga wrote:
>First candidate finished his exam:
>
>Answer to 7) a= 0.5, b=1
>
>I'm not kidding...
>
>ps. I'm not hating.  I'm sharing this with the 
>community because I think it's valuable info.

André:

I'm not saying that he shouldn't answered the 
question as you intended, but let's stop and 
examine this incident -- your question was:

7) a and b are variables.

    a = 10
    b = 20
    a = b

    The new values of a and b are, respectively:

And his answer was:

    a= 0.5, b=1

Now, if you were looking at these relationships 
as ratios, such as a:10, b:20, then what would be 
the ratio of a:b ? His answer 0.5:1 would have 
been correct.

I suspect that you confused the issue by using 
the word "respectively". After all, that word 
really didn't add anything to the question except 
to add a bit of doubt as to what the question 
actually meant. Using the word "respectively 
means with respect to each other and thus one 
could interpret that as a ratio question. As 
such, his answer would have been correct.

If you had been testing for grammar, then he 
could have corrected that for you for bonus 
points.

I've seen a lot of trick questions in my day and 
that word would have raised a red flag for me. Of 
course, I would have still answered the question 
the way you wanted -- but I would have never let 
on that your question showed more about you than 
me.

If it had turned out to be a trick question, then 
I could have defended my answer well enough. But, 
I have found myself in positions before where the 
people who wrote the test knew absolutely nothing 
about the subject and in those cases no one wins 
except the dumbest -- try taking a civil service 
exam sometime and you'll understand.

That's the problem with writing test -- not only 
do you have to know what you are asking; but how 
specific and clear the question is; what should 
the answer be (acceptable range); and most 
importantly why you are asking it. What value 
does answering your question your way bring to 
the table? After all, you might be wrong.

I applied for a position with a company and after 
reviewing my resume they required me to take a 
math fraction test. I asked them if they had 
noticed my education (MSc) on my resume which 
required math skills far exceeding fractions 
(i.e., vector calculus, matrix theory, digital 
processing).  They replied "Yes, but we still 
want you to take the test." I declined and we 
parted company. So, what purpose did that test 
serve?

In short, test generally suck as a measure of 
anything more than common ignorance.

Cheers,

tedd

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