Interspersed comments, below: At 11:11 AM 7/4/03 -0400, William Thurston wrote:
I thought I'd add a little more raw material from the exam. I'd attach the PDF version if it were allowed, but instead I'll just type in a couple more questions:
14. If the expression 3 - 4^2 + 6/2 is evaluated, what would be done last? (1) subtracting, (2) squaring, (3) adding, (4) dividing
I guess it's easy for us to guess what they want --- but it seems silly, and also it assumes you disregard the commutative rule for addition. It's significant for compilers to analyze computations and do them in efficient, rather than most obvious orders.
I agree that this is treacherous, especially because they don't use parentheses. There have been computer languages in which right-to-left has been guaranteed, instead of the classroom left-to-right. I would have been happier if they had left out subtracting, as there is an additional ambiguity about a-b vs. a+(-b).
20. How many different five-member teams can be made from a group of eight students, if each student has an equal chance of being chosen? (1) 40 (2) 56 (3) 336 (4) 6720
I think the correct answer is not among these choices: 1 It's very poorly phrased, being neither colloquial English or typical mathematical/combinatorial English.
I agree that there is a reading that would give the choice "1", but since that choice is not available, you have to assume that that interpretation is not intended.
21. The student scores on Mrs. Frederick's mathematics test are shown on the stem and leaf plot below: 4 | 3 6 | 0 5 5 7 9 7 | 2 5 6 8 9 9 9 9 | 0 1 2 5 9
Find the median of these scores.
--this is a new one for me. I'm clueless, even seeing the key, which I'm not printing.
Ditto. It would be interesting to see how many Fields medal winners would be able to understand this one.