[RUME] On-line Placement tests

[David Wells]

At 01:32 PM 2/11/2006 -0500, wrsethi at aol.com wrote:

>   I concur with my colleagues of the fact that online placement tests
>cannot eliminate the possibility that the student will use a calculator
>or cheat if the test is administered off campus. At the same time
>though I am a firm believer that students cannot get their calculators
>to do algebra. If they could program their IT 83 to factor a
>polynomial, then chances are they have a level of sophisication whihc
>leads me to beleive that they probably could do it by hand if they had
>to.

This is true for a student with a TI-83, but not for one with a TI-89.

>At the same time, if the student chooses to cheat on a placement
>test, the only person who is going to be harmed is the student for they
>will be placed in a class that requires skills at a higher level than
>what they are really do - a perfect formula for failing the class.

Would that this were true!  In fact, a critical mass of underprepared 
students can affect the performance of an entire class.  If better students 
see even a significant minority of their classmates failing, they often 
conclude that the instructor is being unreasonable.

David M. Wells
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Penn State University - New Kensington