One of the professors here put together a quiz to give his Calc-I students on the first day of class. The intent was to find out not how well prepared the students were in terms of pre-calc material (the answer to that has been more than adequately established, to everyone's chagrin), but how well prepared they are on basic (mostly middle-school) algebra. The motivation for doing so is the increased pressure to improve the "success rate" of Calc-I, defined by the fraction of enrolling students that get a grade of C or higher, to at least 85%. A "successful teacher" is one who meets this criteria. Note that absolutely no effort is made to how well "successful students" of "successful teachers" fare in Calc-II or other courses compared to other students.
Here's the quiz.
1) Factor x^2 - x - 2 completely.
2) Same directions: x^4 - 16.
3) Multiply out: (x+4)^2.
4) Same directions: (X-1)(x+5).
5) Solve by any method: x^2 - 2x = -1.
6) Solve by any method: x(x-2)(x-3) = 0.
7) Simplify if possible. If not possible, write "not possible":
x+1
------
x+2
8) Simplify if possible. If not possible, write "not possible":
sqrt ( x^2 + y^2 )
9) What is cos(pi)?
10) What is sin(3pi/2)?
Note that on the quiz exponents were shown as exponents (not using the ^ operator), that sqrt() and pi used the standard symbols, and the fraction in #7 was printed as a fraction instead of the three line wannabe fraction used here.
The average score on this quiz was 50%.
Already this semester I have dealt with a junior comp sci major that literally did not know what an average was. He had to Google it (and still didn't grasp it). This was after having to Google what a millisecond was and having no idea what a gigahertz or megahertz was.
I worked with another junior that had to bring up the Windows calculator to find 12345 divided by 1000. Then had to use the Windows calculator again to find 12345 divided by 10000. Then again to find 12345 divided by 10. Then, you guessed it, again to divide by 100.
Here's the quiz.
1) Factor x^2 - x - 2 completely.
2) Same directions: x^4 - 16.
3) Multiply out: (x+4)^2.
4) Same directions: (X-1)(x+5).
5) Solve by any method: x^2 - 2x = -1.
6) Solve by any method: x(x-2)(x-3) = 0.
7) Simplify if possible. If not possible, write "not possible":
x+1
------
x+2
8) Simplify if possible. If not possible, write "not possible":
sqrt ( x^2 + y^2 )
9) What is cos(pi)?
10) What is sin(3pi/2)?
Note that on the quiz exponents were shown as exponents (not using the ^ operator), that sqrt() and pi used the standard symbols, and the fraction in #7 was printed as a fraction instead of the three line wannabe fraction used here.
The average score on this quiz was 50%.
Already this semester I have dealt with a junior comp sci major that literally did not know what an average was. He had to Google it (and still didn't grasp it). This was after having to Google what a millisecond was and having no idea what a gigahertz or megahertz was.
I worked with another junior that had to bring up the Windows calculator to find 12345 divided by 1000. Then had to use the Windows calculator again to find 12345 divided by 10000. Then again to find 12345 divided by 10. Then, you guessed it, again to divide by 100.