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Letter from Boston

An Unusual Midterm

By MASAKO YAMADA


型破りな中間テスト

雅子さんは大学院で物理学を勉強していますが、その科目の一つに、コンピューターシミュレーションがあります。講義はすべて、コンピューターを使って行なわれます。そして先日、雅子さんはこのクラスで行なわれた、風変わりな中間テストを受けました。

Part of the art of computer simulation lies in deciding what is an essential part of a complex real-life system, and what can be approximated or omitted. This is one of the things we're learning in my computer simulation class. Another important problem-solving skill involves knowing how to code problems in such a way that they can be solved.

My classroom might come as a surprise to you, as each student sits at a personal workstation. Our professor has put all of his lecture notes as well as sample code online, and we can read the notes while he gives the lecture. We can also experiment with the code. This system can be abused by some one occasionally sees students playing games or surfing the Web in class but the professor prefers that we understand the content instead of furiously copying notes or spending an inordinate amount of time memorizing complicated facts.

The midterm we just had in this class reflected well the intentions of the professor. Students were required to solve three multistep problems in an hour. Two of these problems were theoretical problems about two different algorithms. The other was a practical problem in which students were required to create, on the spot, a short program that accomplished a certain number of tasks. Students were allowed to consult their classroom notes as well as any files they had in their computer accounts. Although it might seem meaningless to be able to consult outside cheat sheets for an exam, this sort of exam can be quite challenging regardless of whether such information is available.

An hour is not a very long time when one is faced with three problems and one is trying to write a piece of code under pressure. Spelling errors and typos contribute greatly to the total number of mistakes. Even if the underlying idea is correct, if a piece code is written sloppily, it often will not run at all. Instead, the computer spits out a lot of messages that point out the errors in syntax and logic. These messages give clues as to where to begin fixing the program. However, even if the program runs successfully, there is no guarantee that it will give results that are appropriate to the original problem. For instance, one can simulate water to try to find out how water behaves, but if one makes too many approximations, the results that are derived from the working program may not reflect the characteristics of real water at all.

I decided to start working on the program before tackling the theoretical problems. I understood how to solve the problem, but I did get a bit nervous while coding the solution. I became flushed, and didn't have sufficient time to answer all of the theoretical questions. I barely had enough time to finish the program. I sent it to the professor via computer without even testing to see if it ran, much less produced the correct figures. It was only after I handed it in that I was able to test it — and, wonder of wonders, it did what it was supposed to!

If you accidentally forget even one quotation mark in the program, it usually will not run at all. However, the professor reads deep into the code to see exactly why the program doesn't work. If he sees that it's because there are simple typographical errors, he doesn't take many points off. Even for the theoretical section of the midterm — which also was presented to the students in a computer file — I noticed that he valued overall thinking and the student's plan of attack as much as the details that actually implemented them.

After he graded the midterms, my professor sent personal e-mail messages telling us our scores. I had done better than I had thought. In a certain sense, I know I was lucky: My program worked, miraculously, and I was able to write down just enough to show some evidence of understanding the theoretical problems.

I was intrigued by and grateful for this nontraditional exam. I think it teaches flexible thinking and action and I think these traits are important, even in such rigorous fields as physics.


Shukan ST: March 20, 1998

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