Exameanation

Pun or spelling mistake? Take your guess.

Why can't I do good (I mean really good) on examinations?

Take the latest example, Algorithm Analysis and Development. See, I'm on top of my game here. I don't mean to brag (OK, just a little bit), but I can deliver a 2.7 out of 3.0 worthy presentation without the aid of fancy transparencies or a PowerPoint or PDF, just all-talk and some scribbling on the whiteboard (Rapid rotation Algorithm for Raster Grafics). I can submit a 95% worthy program-and-paper assignment (Tiling problem. Neat stuff). Then why can't I scrape more than a just barely pass grade on the exam? And by just barely pass I mean It becomes a pass grade when put next to the dazzling other work, but is an otherwise high fail grade on its own.

See, what did me in here was the multiple choice part. Half of the global marks were on multiple choice questions, and most of them carry this little trick I dread. Suppose option A) is clearly wrong and B) is clearly right, C) could be right and D says "Both B) and C)". Now, this is a tiny nightmare for me. I could say B), because I know it's right, and I won't say C), even if it might be right, but if it is, then only D) is the right answer. And that, my friends, sucks.

Pax vobiscum atque vale.

ArabianShark isn't terribly worried about this one, though. He's made the grade, even if one assignment has grade pending. But he's confident that it will wield a nice contribution to the already sufficient grade. It's a recursive backtracking algorithm to find out how a knight chess piece may start at a given position on a variable size chess board and step in eache square exactly once. Neat stuff too.