Anybody else try this week's quiz yet? https://class.coursera.org/maththink-003/quiz/index?quiz_type=homework
I did it last night. I'm not sure how I did. I have always been much more comfortable giving tests than taking them. Thoughts on the test? (No, I am not asking for what you answered, just your thoughts).
I did it and turned it in late last week. The first MOOC I took, I perseverated over quiz answers. This time I'm just doing the quiz and sending it in. I didn't find this quiz particularly difficult, which means that I probably got most of the answers wrong. Dr. Devlin asks tricky questions. I'm not finding getting them right that important, though. Dr. Ronald Coase, an Economics Nobel laureate who died about a week ago at the age of 102, said he was not particularly surprised at having been proved wrong about some of his theories. According to him, "I've been wrong so often, I don't find it extraordinary at all." I like that approach.
ReplyDeleteI found it challenging, but scored better than I thought I would. Professor Devlin and his group succeeded in testing our knowledge of the concepts without repeating the assignment questions --- no pattern to follow. So overall I feel confident I understand the material going into the second week. I am going to try to complete the lectures and assignments earlier so I can have more time to work the problem sets --- I think I was lucky this one was short.
ReplyDeleteI didn't do as well as I would have liked. I was too tired when I took the quiz, and didn't realize that submitting the quiz meant I didn't have a chance to review the questions. I am sure I will do much better next time.
DeleteI dived in this morning when I found the course - lucky to see the problem set an hour before the deadline, and had time to put some thought into it. An older student here, too - my daughter is nearing six and I work at as technical of a job as I can get for the moment... always thought I'd do more academically.... When I was actually in college there was so much emphasis on calculation and testing that I never could ask and/or ponder the real questions behind the 'shape' of math and science that now come to my mind often...
ReplyDeleteSorry about this, but I need to test my ability to publish.
ReplyDeleteOK, it seems I can get it to take a comment. Tried a couple of times unsuccessfully.
ReplyDeleteI did fine. Missed only #5, and it's clear I did not use "mathematical thinking" on that one.
I have an acquaintance whose son is a PhD in physics. He just accepted a job in a physics department in their cosmology section, even though his specialty is string theory. I once tried to read one of his papers. I recognized a couple of simple English words in the paper, but none of the math! I'm a long way from knowing much about math.
Did not find the quiz particularly difficult. Being a programmer helped a lot with initial questions (much easier in binary) and with some "weird logic" ....
ReplyDeleteAnyone working on the shoelace problem ?
I did well because I had one of those aha moments when the meaning of the words and symbols kicked in, but thanks to working with others on the assignments beforehand (like this blog) provided the tipoff into understanding. Nancy Colbert (under my daughter' gmail account)
ReplyDeleteExcept for the two questions about Alice it was pretty straight forward. I found those two to be ambiguous. I guess I need to get more into the mindset of Mathematical Thinking as compared to deduction.
ReplyDeleteSame as Evan. After all the the discussion about the importance of being precise, I felt like we couldn't draw any conclusions at all. There was (I thought) every possibility that Alice was a giant squid.
ReplyDeleteI briefly changed my mind, and actually had the right answers, but then convinced myself that it was a trap, and went back to F for both. Oh well.
I got the Alice questions correct. As a business analyst, I have learned that adding "and" to a requirement makes it much more comples, and an "or" makes it much easier to test. ("Spot is a dog or a fish." If Spot is never a fish, this is much less complex).
ReplyDeleteFunny! Developers avoid ambiguity at all costs, which probably explains why I went the direction I did.
DeleteI missed the second Alice question. I've never studied logic or set theory and tried to use the meanings of the phrases to figure it out. I don't think the assignments or lectures prepared me for these questions. I did alright on the others. I feel frustrated not to have the correct answers to all of the problems and not to know what else I missed.
ReplyDeleteThe answers are posted on: https://class.coursera.org/maththink-003/lecture/index#./index under "Week 2 Tutorial." I didn't record my answers when I took the quiz (I didn't realize I was hitting the "Submit" button until after I did it...) so not sure I remember my answers to the other questions.
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