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The Red and Black • Friday, February 2, 1990 • 3
Computers less intimidating to users
as math dept, changes test methods
By DENISE PADILLA
Contributing Writer
Since the math department has
changed its ways, fewer freshman
are frustrated with its computer
testing procedures, Math 116 coor
dinator John GosBelin said.
A common complaint from stu
dents in the past was that the com
puters couldn’t give partial credit
tor math problems, he said.
Although the student may have
given a wrong answer the com
puter can’t recognize if a student
knew how to work the problem.
He said students were unhappy
with computer testing in Math 102,
college algebra, and Math 116, pre
calculus, since the implementation
of the system three years ago.
To be fairer to students, the
math department changed its
policy a year ago by allowing stu
dents to retake tests once, grading
only 10 of the 11 questions on each
test and selecting problems simi-
liar to ones in the textbook.
Gosselin said since the testing
procedure has changed, “the
number of complaints has drasti
cally reduced to almost nothing.”
Lenore Vaux, a junior telecom
munications major, said none of
the new policies were intact when
she took the classes as a freshman.
“We didn’t have retakes, and the
questions were so unfair,” she said.
‘The textbook was pointless and
served no purpose, because none of
the questions were even modeled
after it."
Tf the system was the way it is
now when I took the courses, I’m
sure I would have made better
grades," she said.
Robin Hewitt, a freshman his
tory major, said she took Math 116
in the fall and was grateful for the
chance to retake the tests.
“I used my retake every time. I
don’t know how I would have done
in the class without it," she said.
“I know some people just had a
phobia about the computers, but in
general I felt the computer tests
were very fair," she saia.
Gosselin said there’s a needless
problem with being intimidated by
the computer.
“It’s very user-friendly," he said,
“and there are less than 10 special
keys they need to know."
Gosselin said before the new
procedure was implemented, many
students resorted to depending on
printouts of old tests available at
kinko’s to find questions that
would be similiar to those on the
tests.
‘This was a problem for tea
chers,” he said, “because students
CORRECTION
An article In Thursday's edition of The Red and Black contained
incorrect Information. The time-management seminar scheduled
in Room 119 of Clark Howell Hall will be held Thursday from
3:30 to 5 p.m.
It is the policy of The Red and Black to correct errors of fact
that appear in its news columns. Corrections usually appear
on Page 2.
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With computer testing,
students are graded
equally and the entire
syllabus is covered.
were not attending class and they
relied on memorizing the actual
problems on the printouts and
didn’t concentrate on under
standing the math.”
Having the questions modeled
more closely afler those in the text
book “has brought a lot more re
spect to the classroom,” he said.
In order to have a uniform
grading system, the department
chose computer testing many years
ago over tne hand written form.
“In my opinion, before computer
testing there was a lot of grade in
flating," he said. “Students could
put pressure on the instructors to
grade easier.”
With computer testing, students
are graded equally and the entire
syllabus is always covered, he said.
“I really can’t see one disadvan
tage to using the computers," he
said.
Although students seem to be
happier with the new computer
testing system, Richard Bouldin,
math department head, said the
system can improve. The depart
ment has received a grant to create
six computer classrooms, therefore
enabling instructors to demon
strate computer test-taking.
“Once the equipment gets here,
instructors will be able to actually
take a test to show students how to
do it,” he said.
Bouldin said the department
plans to begin using the new equip
ment spring quarter and it will in
clude both Math 102 and Math
116.
No suspect yet in
homeless slaying
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Atlanta police
have not found a suspect, a mo
tive or a relative in their first in
vestigation of a slaying of a
homeless person this year.
But they have not ruled out the
possibility that James “Pops”
Wright was killed in the parking
garage that had become his home
by another homeless person,
many of whom live in and around
the garage, said Sgt. H.L. Bolton.
Blood-splotched cardboard,
empty liquor bottles and a gro
cery cart with bread crusts inside
marked the scene of Wright’s
death after he was found early
Wednesday, stabbed and
slumped against a waist-high ga
rage wall.
Police said Thursday they have
not found any relatives of the 55-
year-old — not even a daughter
he had indicated lived in an At
lanta public housing project.
Investigator Steve Walden of
the homicide squad said police
questioned a homeless man who
also lived in the garage and de
termined that the man was not a
suspect.
“1 think what happened here is
that he had been drinking and he
had an argument,” Walden said.
On the garage’s cement floor
Wednesday lay empty gin bottles
and a vodka bottle near a blood-
marred sheet of cardboard
Wright apparently had used as a
blanket.
Nearby was a shopping cart
that, area employees recalled,
Wright had pushed around the
city. Inside the cart were several
large bread crusts in plastic bags
he had salvaged from a nearby
bakery. A knife also was found at
the scene.
Miller’s lottery initiative gets the final shaft
Bill killed in Ga. House, 143-24
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — The Georgia
House of Representatives adminis
tered last rites Thursday to Lt.
Gov. Zell Miller’s lottery initiative,
which was mortally wounded in
committee earlier in the week.
The final act came on a 143-24
vote that upheld the House In
dustry Committee’s Tuesday vote
to kill the bill.
Lottery backers had exercised a
seldom-used rule to appeal the
committee’s decision to the full
House. However, the odds were
against them because, on the few
occasions the rule has been em
ployed in recent years, the House
nas consistently upheld the deci-
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Miller, who has made legalizing
state-run lotteries an issue in his
campaign for the Democratic gu
bernatorial nomination, offered no
immediate comment.
But Sen. Harrill Dawkins, D-
Conyers, who had sponsored the
measure for Miller, said, “I’m not
surprised. The House has never
voted to override a committee. I
didn’t expect them to do that this
time.”
Miller has vowed to continue
pushing for a lottery if he is elected
governor.
Rep. John White, D-Albany, who
offered the motion that led to
Thursday’s vote, characterized the
result as "a final denial of the right
of the people to vote on the ques
tion — that’s what it says to me.”
If approved by the Legislature,
the proposed constitutional
amendment would have required
vote ratification in November.
But House Majority Leader
Miller vowed to keep
pushing for a lottery if
he is elected governor.
Larry Walker, D-Perry, said the
vote had nothing to do with the
merits of lotteries and turned, in
stead, on whether House members
wished to support the committee
system.
‘This was strictly a vote to sup
port the committee system,” he
said.
The question was whether to
overrule the House Industry Com
mittee, which voted 11-6 Tuesday
to give the measure a "do not pass”
recommendation.
White contended that by giving
the measure a “do not pass” recom
mendation, instead of taking sev
eral other steps within its power,
the committee intended to give
supporters a window of opportu
nity for appealing to the full
House.
That was denied by the com
mittee chairman, Rep. Roy H
“Sonny" Watson, D-Wamer Ro
bins.
But after the House rendered its
verdict, Speaker Tom Murphy, D-
Bremen, quipped that if a window
had been opened, it was “now to
tally closed and locked ”
Murphy is personally opposed to
lotteries and supports one of
Miller’s rivals, Rep. Lauren
“Bubba" McDonald, D-Commerce,
in the gubernatorial contest.
The two gubernatorial candi
dates from the House split their
votes. Rep. Johnny Isakson, R-
Marietta, voted to overrule the
committee, while McDonald voted
to support the committee’s deci
sion.
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