I hate CS graders

[Safeway]

I give up. I was engineering, not computer science. I am speaking from a few years of actual coding, not book experience. No clue what they wanted you to say exactly.

 

[StormRider]

I can't figure out what you said wrong about "This". It's basically a special pointer that an object can use to refer to itself.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
In the fields of science and eng your knowledge about a subject is extreamly important. If you are missing any understanding in the subject later on you will have trouble. You will probably get away with that kind of answer in the liberal arts field but not in CS.

Again, might I point out that I do perfectly on assignments. I would assume that perfectly done assignments/projects trump quiz taking abilities, no?

 

[imported_yovonbishop]

Eh, I had a terrible CS teacher when I started college. It was an entry level class, so she would write out an assignment, complete with variable names and all. The problem is that she'd refer to the same variable by three different names throughout her notes - so when you went to write the program you weren't sure which one she wanted you to use. I'd use one, she'd knock points off and tell me I was supposed to call it something else.

She also gave us a program she wanted us to get done in a day with terrible directions. Nobody could get it to work and emailed her - so she posted something on the class message boards saying she didn't get to test it before she assigned it and didn't realize it wouldn't work. But did she give us credit or substitute in a different assignment? No.

She did stuff like that all semester until the students started to turn on her in the discussion forums (it was online), questioning her methods. She deleted all of the posts (even helpful ones), and didn't respond. How professional.

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
In the fields of science and eng your knowledge about a subject is extreamly important. If you are missing any understanding in the subject later on you will have trouble. You will probably get away with that kind of answer in the liberal arts field but not in CS.

Again, might I point out that I do perfectly on assignments. I would assume that perfectly done assignments/projects trump quiz taking abilities, no?

Are you still basically getting A's on your tests and quizzes? Or are you one of those perfectionists that needs to get 100's.

My sense is that you know what you are talking about and if you are still doing well on your tests and quizzes, then I wouldn't worry too much about it. The important thing is that you understand the material and my feeling is that you do.

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: Cogman
btw, here is one that I missed one point on, I know the reason now, but lets see what you gurus think.

What is this? (in reference to the keyword used in c++ objects, this comment was not present on the test)

My answer "A pointer to the object currently being used".

Missed one point, can any of you guess why?

What was the exact question? A keyword is a predefined identifier. They can not be defined as program variables, or pointers. They can *be* pointers, but you cant define a pointer that has the same name as a keyword.

That was the exact question (minus the stuff in parenthesis).

Was this specific keyword a pointer? If it was, just stating that its a pointer is not answering the question completely.

BTW, this is going to be moved to programming shortly.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: StormRider
I can't figure out what you said wrong about "This". It's basically a special pointer that an object can use to refer it itself.

Heres what I missed. "Your answer included two of the three key points. You omitted that this is available only in the class."

I don't know, it just seems dumb to have to say that a part of an object is only available in an object, but I guess redundancy must be part of programming.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: StormRider

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
In the fields of science and eng your knowledge about a subject is extreamly important. If you are missing any understanding in the subject later on you will have trouble. You will probably get away with that kind of answer in the liberal arts field but not in CS.

Again, might I point out that I do perfectly on assignments. I would assume that perfectly done assignments/projects trump quiz taking abilities, no?

Are you still basically getting A's on your tests and quizzes? Or are you one of those perfectionists that needs to get 100's.

My sense is that you know what you are talking about and if you are still doing well on your tests and quizzes, then I wouldn't worry too much about it. The important thing is that you understand the material and my feeling is that you do.

In this class, assignments are worth more then tests and quizzes. I'm still getting an A in the class, but my quiz scores are low. That is what annoys me.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: Cogman
btw, here is one that I missed one point on, I know the reason now, but lets see what you gurus think.

What is this? (in reference to the keyword used in c++ objects, this comment was not present on the test)

My answer "A pointer to the object currently being used".

Missed one point, can any of you guess why?

What was the exact question? A keyword is a predefined identifier. They can not be defined as program variables, or pointers. They can *be* pointers, but you cant define a pointer that has the same name as a keyword.

That was the exact question (minus the stuff in parenthesis).

Was this specific keyword a pointer? If it was, just stating that its a pointer is not answering the question completely.

BTW, this is going to be moved to programming shortly.

this is the keyword.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
In the fields of science and eng your knowledge about a subject is extreamly important. If you are missing any understanding in the subject later on you will have trouble. You will probably get away with that kind of answer in the liberal arts field but not in CS.

Again, might I point out that I do perfectly on assignments. I would assume that perfectly done assignments/projects trump quiz taking abilities, no?

In all fairness for all students and in general the professor shouldn't look at student's previous assignements and quizes to gauge how well they should do on future assignements and quizes. Every assignment should be graded on a case by case basis with a seperation in thinking while grading each.

However, this dosen't happen. Most professors will know their bad students and be critcal of their assignements and know their good students and turn the other way or grade very quickly as not to pick up their mistakes.....

 

[FoBoT]

i thought constructor and destructor were the good/evil robot in transformers

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: mugs

The question asks what they ARE, not what they (typically) DO. The OP answered the question properly; if the intention was to ask what they DO, the question was worded incorrectly.

In programming, things ARE what they do. There are no functions whose job is just to sit around and exist. Everything has a purpose, unlike real life.

 

[rezinn]

You probably need to write an answer that indicates you know what you are talking about. I could have come up with that answer and I don't know how to do any programming.

 

[frostedflakes]

OP, would you like some cheese with your whine?

Seriously, though, if you have a problem with the grading you should probably take it up with the head TA or professor. Why are you BAWWWing on ATOT about it?

 

[Venix]

Constructors/destructors in C++ do not allocate and free memory for the object, so the suggestions that you should have said that are incorrect. Allocation and construction are two separate steps; see placement new or STL allocators for examples.

A constructor is basically a function that is called when an object is created, but it has some other unique properties that the grader was probably expecting you to explain. Only providing the minimum, technically correct answer to questions will not get you very far in a CS program.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
OP, would you like some cheese with your whine?

Seriously, though, if you have a problem with the grading you should probably take it up with the head TA or professor. Why are you BAWWWing on ATOT about it?

Most professors won't change the grade. There is a philosophy about how students are graded etc.... I think in my University around 1% of the students who complain about their grade in a our University to the Provost or the Dean get a judgment in their favor. Most of the time they side with the teacher for ovbious reasons. You have to understand it's like 10,0000 against 4 people. Someone will complain and it won't be a few people. It's not a customer service industry where every customer must be satisfied.


Teachers will also play evil games with students. When I was taking Artificial Intel twoards my end of the CS semester we had this Chinese professor that was just horrible. Everybody hated him. Well there was this student that I knew that made straight A's in all his courses. He was making a C,D in that class. He sent an email to all of the students in the class trying to get them to sign a petition to get the professor fired or something. Well one of the professor's students forwarded the email to him. He gave the student an F. Now as far as why you recieved that grade you don't know because it's a Black Box system at the upper level classes. But he did something that would make a professor give a student a D when he was making a 69.9% Or maybe overlook a couple of right questions on a final exam.....

Student: Can I see my final exam. Why did I do that poor?
Professor: Sorry they were all destroyed. See you next semester (grin grin)

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: mugs

The question asks what they ARE, not what they (typically) DO. The OP answered the question properly; if the intention was to ask what they DO, the question was worded incorrectly.

In programming, things ARE what they do. There are no functions whose job is just to sit around and exist. Everything has a purpose, unlike real life.

What something is and what it does are different questions, and that applies to programming as much as anything else. If I asked you what a constant is, you would tell me that it is an identifier that represents an unchanging value. You would not tell me that you use a constant to hold the value of pi.

The OP answered what the question asked; the grader expected something that the question did not ask for. The professor should be more clear with his questions. If the professor were writing requirements in the real world, he'd learn pretty quickly that you get what you ask for, not what you meant to ask for.

Furthermore, what they DO is execute arbitrary code. If I want to make my destructor print the text of the Pirates of Penzance to STDOUT, I can do that. What people in this thread have been saying is what they are typically used for.

The professor meant to ask not what they ARE, and not what they DO, but what they are typically used for. Poorly written question. OP loses partial credit for calling them functions instead of methods.



I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
i thought constructor and destructor were the good/evil robot in transformers

Constructicons were Decepticons.

 

[Venix]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: mugs

The question asks what they ARE, not what they (typically) DO. The OP answered the question properly; if the intention was to ask what they DO, the question was worded incorrectly.

In programming, things ARE what they do. There are no functions whose job is just to sit around and exist. Everything has a purpose, unlike real life.

What something is and what it does are different questions, and that applies to programming as much as anything else. If I asked you what a constant is, you would tell me that it is an identifier that represents an unchanging value. You would not tell me that you use a constant to hold the value of pi.

The OP answered what the question asked; the grader expected something that the question did not ask for. The professor should be more clear with his questions. If the professor were writing requirements in the real world, he'd learn pretty quickly that you get what you ask for, not what you meant to ask for.

Furthermore, what they DO is execute arbitrary code. If I want to make my destructor print the text of the Pirates of Penzance to STDOUT, I can do that. What people in this thread have been saying is what they are typically used for.

The professor meant to ask not what they ARE, and not what they DO, but what they are typically used for. Poorly written question. OP loses partial credit for calling them functions instead of methods.



I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical

The question specifically mentions C++, so "function" is fine. Even the C++ Standard calls them "member functions".

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Venix

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: mugs

The question asks what they ARE, not what they (typically) DO. The OP answered the question properly; if the intention was to ask what they DO, the question was worded incorrectly.

In programming, things ARE what they do. There are no functions whose job is just to sit around and exist. Everything has a purpose, unlike real life.

What something is and what it does are different questions, and that applies to programming as much as anything else. If I asked you what a constant is, you would tell me that it is an identifier that represents an unchanging value. You would not tell me that you use a constant to hold the value of pi.

The OP answered what the question asked; the grader expected something that the question did not ask for. The professor should be more clear with his questions. If the professor were writing requirements in the real world, he'd learn pretty quickly that you get what you ask for, not what you meant to ask for.

Furthermore, what they DO is execute arbitrary code. If I want to make my destructor print the text of the Pirates of Penzance to STDOUT, I can do that. What people in this thread have been saying is what they are typically used for.

The professor meant to ask not what they ARE, and not what they DO, but what they are typically used for. Poorly written question. OP loses partial credit for calling them functions instead of methods.



I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical

The question specifically mentions C++, so "function" is fine. Even the C++ Standard calls them "member functions".

Ah, yeah it's been nearly 10 years since I've done C++.

 

[IEC]

I guess I'd qualify as a "Nazi" then, since when I was a CS grader for an intro Java class I would have counted off if you wrote such a short answer that is incomplete.

 

[torpid]

If the professor wanted the 3 key attributes of a constructor/destructor why didn't (s)he ask that? Asking what something is and then grading down because you didn't include the x number of arbitrarily decided-upon key elements is dumb. So is only offering a tiny amount of space for an answer.

That said, if there was enough space to specify all those things, I would think common sense would dictate that you do that.

Despite rumors to the contrary, in programming, the goal is not to get the program to work by typing as few characters as humanly possible. The goal is to make the program work and make the code easily understood when read. So you are only hurting yourself by being terse in your answers.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

All of the replies here are why I refer to most CS classes teaching methods as learning the secret handshake. In essence, you are to infer the correct approach from the negative feedback. There is no incentive for TA's let alone profs to clarify their perspective on programming because, there are too many students waiting in the wings to replace you. In short, they don't give a damn if you make it or not. Try Engineering instead.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
All of the replies here are why I refer to most CS classes teaching methods as learning the secret handshake. In essence, you are to infer the correct approach from the negative feedback. There is no incentive for TA's let alone profs to clarify their perspective on programming because, there are too many students waiting in the wings to replace you. In short, they don't give a damn if you make it or not. Try Engineering instead.

Im actually in the Computer Engineering program, but these are required classes.

One thing Ill say about the comment that "Programming isn't about writing as few charactors as possible". Several times in this class, this professor has said "I'm lazy so Ill write as little and as simple a solution as possible" Provided he does want readability, but he is very clear on making things as short as possible.

Really, it was just initial annoyance, now that I have had time to cool down about it, Im fine with the grade (after all, I'm still getting an A in the class). Anyways, I'll just have to do better at understanding the teacher for the next quiz. BTW for any interested, I'd be happy to provide some coding examples from past assignments to somewhat prove my compitance. If not, thats fine as well. As well, I would be happy to recieve any critique for the experts here.

Thanks for the responces, They've helped me realize that I need to just suck it up and hope for the best

 

[Apathetic]

I would have given you full credit. If the professor wanted additional information, he should have written the question differently.

Dave