5 ms·

When my father was in university (60's) he asked what size of paper they (students) need to deliver an engineering draft project on. Professor told "Any, you m

When my father was in university (60's) he asked what size of paper they (students) need to deliver an engineering draft project on. Professor told "Any, you may even use a postal stamp". My father cut a paper of a size of a postal stamp and under spy glass draw perfect engineering architecture student assignment. Professor unemotionally examined the work. Well deserved top mark followed.

Mathnerd314 7y ago
In today's schools you can get a failing grade for margins 0.1 inches off. Professors who reward creativity seem to be getting rarer.
- learc83 7y ago
  From what my mom told about college in her day, her professors were much worse about those kinds of rules than mine were.
- Pmop 7y ago
  I had this kind of professor. We'd say that he was the human version of diff.
- rimliu 7y ago
  Having margins right should have no effect on your creativity. Attention to details is a nice skill to have, especially on areas where mistakes can cost human lives.
  - lupire 7y ago
    Essay margins don't kill people, people with bad word processing software kill people. Details can be attended to without being nonsense specifications.
- cyberferret 7y ago
  When I was in flying school, we had a fiendishly difficult navigation examination with a known curmudgeon of a CFI (Chief Flying Instructor). Almost everyone in the class failed. One student got 68% and myself and another got 99.9% I was amazed as I am not often such a high scoring student, so I cheekily asked where I had lost the 0.1%? The CFI told me that I had copied one number down incorrectly from the question sheet onto the first line of my (4 page) working sheet. I had got the "right" answer at the end though, by following all steps of the spherical trigonometry through to the end. Instead of marking me as a 'fail' for getting the wrong copybook answer, he still deemed it correct because I had followed all the correct formulae and logical steps, using the derived results in the next sections. He deducted 0.1% for the brain fart that transposed one starting value. I didn't find out why the other guy lost 0.1%, but I was amazed at his integrity to mark the work and knowledge and not just see the final value different from the desired outcome and simply marking it wrong. It would have taken him some time and effort to validate my results from my wrong initial values.
  - lupire 7y ago
    1. That's usual for math tests run by non--corporate-robots. 2. IMO, copying numbers correctly is a critical skill for pilots, and you should have lost substantial marks and retaken later with a proper checklist for validating your work.
    - Const-me 7y ago
      2 - that professor was teaching navigation. I don't think it's a part of their job to judge students on unrelated matter.
      - FabHK 7y ago
        Which professor or class do you think should teach to copy data from the authoritative source correctly, if not all of them?
  - jkmcf 7y ago
    Funny, I did the same thing at Uni and was accused of cheating. Never wanted to smack an old man before.

Mathnerd314 7y ago

In today's schools you can get a failing grade for margins 0.1 inches off. Professors who reward creativity seem to be getting rarer.

learc83 7y ago
From what my mom told about college in her day, her professors were much worse about those kinds of rules than mine were.
Pmop 7y ago
I had this kind of professor. We'd say that he was the human version of diff.
rimliu 7y ago
Having margins right should have no effect on your creativity. Attention to details is a nice skill to have, especially on areas where mistakes can cost human lives.
- lupire 7y ago
  Essay margins don't kill people, people with bad word processing software kill people. Details can be attended to without being nonsense specifications.
cyberferret 7y ago
When I was in flying school, we had a fiendishly difficult navigation examination with a known curmudgeon of a CFI (Chief Flying Instructor). Almost everyone in the class failed. One student got 68% and myself and another got 99.9% I was amazed as I am not often such a high scoring student, so I cheekily asked where I had lost the 0.1%? The CFI told me that I had copied one number down incorrectly from the question sheet onto the first line of my (4 page) working sheet. I had got the "right" answer at the end though, by following all steps of the spherical trigonometry through to the end. Instead of marking me as a 'fail' for getting the wrong copybook answer, he still deemed it correct because I had followed all the correct formulae and logical steps, using the derived results in the next sections. He deducted 0.1% for the brain fart that transposed one starting value. I didn't find out why the other guy lost 0.1%, but I was amazed at his integrity to mark the work and knowledge and not just see the final value different from the desired outcome and simply marking it wrong. It would have taken him some time and effort to validate my results from my wrong initial values.
- lupire 7y ago
  1. That's usual for math tests run by non--corporate-robots. 2. IMO, copying numbers correctly is a critical skill for pilots, and you should have lost substantial marks and retaken later with a proper checklist for validating your work.
  - Const-me 7y ago
    2 - that professor was teaching navigation. I don't think it's a part of their job to judge students on unrelated matter.
    - FabHK 7y ago
      Which professor or class do you think should teach to copy data from the authoritative source correctly, if not all of them?
- jkmcf 7y ago
  Funny, I did the same thing at Uni and was accused of cheating. Never wanted to smack an old man before.