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I had a professor that intentionally baked hard (for the course takers anyway) mathematics into some problems, that were technically solvable during an exam, bu

I had a professor that intentionally baked hard (for the course takers anyway) mathematics into some problems, that were technically solvable during an exam, but that required very good level (they typically included rare/obscure identities). The point was that solving precisely was always a “trap”. His pet peeve was that engineering wasn’t about finding a precise answer at some point, but about finding good enough answers fast. I liked that this forced you to stay alert during the problems for simplifications and to understand what you were doing, instead of just droning out method A for solving problem type B.

cinntaile 5y ago
If the course is not a mathematical course that requires this knowledge then adding obscure identities is focusing on the wrong thing entirely. Some people will simply not see these identities because they might never have used them. Irrelevant for the course but relevant for the grade, that's not a good combo imo.
- mlyle 5y ago
  I read the parent's comment differently from your reading. I read the parent's comment to say that there was stuff that was barely possible for the best students to solve precisely in the time given, but that there were obviously-acceptable approximations thereof. And that either was a path to full credit. The professor's goal was to get the students to realize when to use approximations.
  - cinntaile 5y ago
    It seems like I misread the original comment indeed.
- xondono 5y ago
  The point was to realize precisely that some problems might have analytical solutions, but they would take too long. If you’re solving problems on pen and paper nowadays, you’re most likely looking for an approximate answer anyway. Maybe I should add that, as long as the answer was within a specified margin (say 5%), the answer was considered correct. If you saw that your calculations started to become way too complex, you had already missed something.

cinntaile 5y ago

If the course is not a mathematical course that requires this knowledge then adding obscure identities is focusing on the wrong thing entirely. Some people will simply not see these identities because they might never have used them. Irrelevant for the course but relevant for the grade, that's not a good combo imo.

mlyle 5y ago
I read the parent's comment differently from your reading. I read the parent's comment to say that there was stuff that was barely possible for the best students to solve precisely in the time given, but that there were obviously-acceptable approximations thereof. And that either was a path to full credit. The professor's goal was to get the students to realize when to use approximations.
- cinntaile 5y ago
  It seems like I misread the original comment indeed.
xondono 5y ago
The point was to realize precisely that some problems might have analytical solutions, but they would take too long. If you’re solving problems on pen and paper nowadays, you’re most likely looking for an approximate answer anyway. Maybe I should add that, as long as the answer was within a specified margin (say 5%), the answer was considered correct. If you saw that your calculations started to become way too complex, you had already missed something.