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From: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics,comp.edu
Subject: Re: How to beat the high cost of text books!
Message-ID: <5067@pdn.UUCP>
Date: 7 Dec 88 17:40:08 GMT
References: <2219@cbnews.ATT.COM> <684@stech.UUCP> <17553@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1124@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1049@l.cc.purdue.edu> <14193@cisunx.UUCP>
Reply-To: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach)
Organization: Paradyne Corporation,   Largo FL
Lines: 27

In article <14193@cisunx.UUCP> jjc@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter) writes:
>In article <1049@l.cc.purdue.edu> cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>>memorized the various types of manipulations.  I suggest that the liberal
>>use of crib sheets be allowed in mathematics examinations.  A formula can
>>always be looked up in the real world; a definition can be looked up; a
>>theorem can be looked up; the understanding of what these mean cannot be
>
>I fully agree with this.  I could never understand why there was so
>much emphasis on memorizing formulas when it is the concepts and ways
>of applying the formulas that counts.  



        This was standard practice in the Calculus courses I took.  In fact,
the crib sheet was a preprinted, on both sides, card that could be purchased 
from the bookstore!  In fact, in many ways I would have preferred NOT to have
open book tests because they were HARDER.  Of course, you learned quite a bit
more about REAL problem solving that way.




-- 
George W. Leach					Paradyne Corporation
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