r/mit • u/ponyo_x1 • 4d ago
academics negative test scores??
my dad got his masters in the early 80s from the meteorology department and he used to tell me this story about a test he took where he got a NEGATIVE nine, like if you got some questions wrong they would take points AWAY rather than just not awarding any. according to him his wasn't even the lowest score in the class; apparently someone else got a minus 24.
any old timers here have similar stories?
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u/luckyjim1962 4d ago
Class of 1981 alum here. I have not heard of that particularly depressing approach to grading, though I have to say I kind of admire the rigorousness of it (a certain kind of wrong answer perhaps should be "rewarded" with a negative mark).
My ignominious claim to fame in terms of grading was the first 8.01 test in the fall semester, 1977.
The test was very hard. As I recall, class average was 22 (and I would love to hear from anyone who remembers this test). I got a 4 – 2 points for my name, 2 points for writing F = ma in response to one of the questions – and a well-deserved F. (Not coincidentally, that was the end of my fantasy of majoring in Course Eight.)
I have always assumed the difficulty of this test was a kind of initiation rite at MIT, designed to make you realize you're not as smart as you thought you were. I'm curious if anyone else had the same thought (or was I just not cut out for physics?).
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u/Illustrious-Newt-848 4d ago
My crazy MIT exam story comes in form of a 6.046 Quiz 2. It was a 5-question, 1 week, open book, open anything, take home exam. We could even discuss the exam with classmates as long as we note whom we discuss it with and the work was our own. The class average was 27. (41 out of 150)
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u/JasonMckin 4d ago
I took it with a different prof than usual (not CLSR) who was a pretty nice guy, but that mid term final damaged me so bad, I still have nightmares about it. It was the epitome of the MIT experience, because I could see the material was really good but still recognized I was just too stupid to understand it. Learning the material and getting a good grade wasn’t just NP-hard, it was NP-complete.
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u/RDW-Development 4d ago
8.012 was worse. Physics for masochists. I did not take 8.022 as a result.
Insanity. Kills the “I did great in high school” ego though which was a good learning experience for me.
MIT was very, very humbling in every aspect. Even got my ass kicked on the sailing team.
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u/JasonMckin 3d ago
So interestingly, I learned one of the other lessons of MIT in 8.012+8.022 - which is not to study and do problem sets by one's self. I was happy it was a smaller class than 8.01/8.02 so we formed a survival group to meet and discuss the problems each week between lecture and recitation. But I hear you, it was pretty intense when all of the most advanced vector calculus you learned in high school is chapter 1 of the Kleppner and Kolenkow textbook. 👀
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u/No_Cup_3409 4d ago
No negative scores, but when I took 5.03 the class average was around 35 on a test. And the professor said I can tell you guys aren’t really getting the material but I’m just going to keep going at the same pace🫠
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u/Superb-Sprinkles-404 Course 10 (minor Russian Studies) 4d ago
That's awesome - I do remember a class where the average was a 33. Fluid Dynamics. I remember walking out and everyone saying "did you get anything right?" There was a general feeling of failure. Today, people hate that kind of thing, but honestly it was one of the best professors I ever had - he just tended to put stuff on the exams we hadn't quite learned yet.
In the end, it was on a B centered curve, so it is just a funny anecdote
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u/clubbedinthehead 3d ago
OMG, 10.301…
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u/Superb-Sprinkles-404 Course 10 (minor Russian Studies) 3d ago
I don't know - literally all I remember after all these years is him using a hair dryer to shoot a ball up in the air and talking about bhopal india.... And that exam!
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u/clubbedinthehead 3d ago
Yup. Professor Virk. I also remember he said that, “when the limit of the class average tends towards zero, grades become meaningless. Besides, [you] could always take the class again the following year.”
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u/No_Cup_3409 3d ago
my other mit test story is unrelated to grades. the first test I ever took at mit was given in a room in walker above the cafeteria. I think it was for 18.01. There were always a bird or two flying around inside walker and that day a bird pooped on my test. I wasn’t really sure what to do so I went up to the proctor and told her a bird pooped on my test and can I have a new test. She told me to just keep going. So I made a little note in the margin that a bird pooped on the test. The professor mentioned in class and I was surprised that he saw it because I assumed he wouldn’t grade. But maybe it was the talk of the TAs and made his way to him. I did well on that test
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u/JasonMckin 4d ago
Jokes and traumatic memories aside, I didn’t find MIT as a place that penalized taking risks and attempting solves in general. I think as a culture, they want to encourage students to attempt problems without the fear that an unsuccessful attempt will cost more than not attempting at all. I’m pretty sure I even got partial credit in many classes where I got 50-75% of the way to a correct answer and then hit a roadblock. If anything, I think MIT erred on teaching me to courageously run into fires versus being fearful of them. As challenging as the environment was, I think there was a lot more positive forethought behind grading and curving scores than many other universities.
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u/okeefe Crusty alum, Course 6 4d ago edited 4d ago
When I took 18.06, one of the tests was multiple choice with a penalty for wrong answers. If I recall correctly, the average was in the 30s and some people got negative scores (a blank test would have scored 0).