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Studying for an engineering dynamics final, the old "when in doubt, pick C" saying popped into my head, so I decided make a frequency plot of answers for the 4
by nhebb 16y ago
Studying for an engineering dynamics final, the old "when in doubt, pick C" saying popped into my head, so I decided make a frequency plot of answers for the 4 quizzes we had that term. The prof had B as the correct answer ~50% of the time. At the end of the 2 hour final I had only finished 13 of the 20 problems, so I quickly marked B for the 7 remaining. I got the 2nd highest grade in the class, bumping my grade from a B to an A.
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My last year of college I was low on funds, so at the beginning of each term I would go to the school library and see if they stocked any of the textbooks. I could usually find 1 or 2. I'd check them out and keep them the whole term, paying only a $5 late fee - vs. the $100 textbook cost. (In case you think this is inethical, based on the past checkout records, nobody ever checked these books out)
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Hack I wish I'd thought of: A college buddy spent the first day of summer vacation going into all the bars in downtown Portland and getting info about their happy hours. He had every day of the week mapped out and got dinner and a beer for $1/night.
- listic 16y agoDoes every bar have happy hours? I thought it's rare thing for bars to have.
- hansef 16y agoIn Portland, yes, nearly every bar. Although you probably can't pull off a beer and dinner for $1 anymore most places.
- bmelton 16y agoMost bars do. The markup on alcohol is absurd. As an individual, I can buy a keg of a very good beer for a cost of approximately 38 cents a pint. That same beer at a bar costs more like 4 or 5 bucks. Cutting the margin down still covers costs considerably, but happy hours are a 'loss leader' to get you in to a bar that would otherwise be less occupied, and perhaps as a signal for those driving by looking for a 'happening' bar, which is usually done toward the end of happy hour. There might also be motivation to get you somewhat drunk so that you'll stay after happy hour and not realize that you're paying full price for beers.
- fragmede 16y agoDepends on where you are (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_hour#Backlash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_hour#Backlash) Happy hour has been illegal in Massachusetts since 1984.
- ctdonath 16y agoMy chemistry prof would tell of a student who needed to get just one question right on the multiple-choice final to pass the course. He walked in, picked 'C' for all questions, and walked out. No correct answers were 'C'.
- gjm11 16y agoAnd this, boys and girls, is why we have randomized algorithms.
- Eliezer 16y agoAre you under the impression that a random key fits a random lock?
- jrp 16y agoIf I only need to get one question right it doesn't take many questions before (3/4)^n is smaller than the chance the professor, for whatever reason, avoided C.
- sesqu 16y agoI disagree. I'd put that probability at 0 after n=7. In fact, according to the recent reddit thread, some test designers are encouraged to enforce equal proportions of each option. While stupid, it lowers the threshold to n=3 or so.
- gjm11 16y agoNo, of course not. I am, however, under the impression that if what you want to do (as here) is to minimize the probability that you get completely shafted by having had the test-setter choose answers complementary to yours, you should choose yours in a way that makes that probability low. Random choices are a very effective way of achieving that. [EDITED to add: not because "a random key fits a random lock" but rather the reverse: with non-negligible probability[1] the test-setter is not choosing at random but in some relatively low-Kolmogorov-complexity way, and you want to keep away from those parts of the outcome space.] Of course, having a really good model of the test-setter's decision process would be even better, but if you had that you'd just use it to ace the test. [1] I initially missed out the word "probability". I edited it in. Sorry.
- araneae 16y agoWhat kind of college did you go to? In the two I went to, the late fees were something like several dollars a day, and you couldn't graduate unless it was paid off. (At best you could negotiate to pay the retail cost of the book.) Additionally, both colleges would put any textbook that was for a class on "reserve" so you could only have access to it for several hours at a time, and students DEFINITELY used it. I don't believe that no other student in the class wanted your textbook.
- eli 16y agoThere's an ancient Excel spreadsheet that lists and categorizes every happy hour here in DC. It gets emailed around like crazy at the start of every intern season.
- bmelton 16y agoIf you ever run into a copy of it, I'd love to get hands on it. barry.melton@google's mail service.com
- eli 16y agoI'll see what I can do... but it was kinda outdated when I first saw it in 2004. Though since it was an Excel file anyone could edit, I wouldn't be surprised if it kept evolving and branching new version.
- koenigdavidmj 16y agoMy university, for a while, had a mailing list to which everyone forwarded events that happened to serve food. If you worked it right, and were a sufficiently desperate postgrad, you could eat for free for most of the quarter.
- hamilcarbarca 16y agoTo anyone living in the Philly area, enjoy. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rLdNJ2i7qtM_KyzyrJ2eu5Q&gid=0 http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rLdNJ2i7qtM_KyzyrJ2eu...
- pavel_lishin 16y ago> "when in doubt, pick C" I spent like five minutes trying to figure out what a programming language had to do with engineering dynamics.