R. Clayton (rclayton@monmouth.edu)
(no date)
If you think that the Nyhoff textbook for this course isn't good and if you
allow us to use C++ reference books of our own in its stead, why do you put
questions on our tests that cannot be properly answered without having read
the Nyhoff book?
In general, because it's important that you get into the habit of reading the
text for a course, and it seems sensible to me to put questions on the test to
emphasize that importance. The book provides a complete description of the
everything that will be covered in the course. I can't conceive of how we
could possibly cover everything that needs to be covered in class (which is not
the same thing as saying it can't be done; it's just that I'm not clever enough
to figure out how to do it); the book remains as the definitive statement of
what you need to know.
Second, if you look at them, the book questions, like most of the questions on
my tests, tend to be conceptual enough that they can be answered without
reference to Nyhoff, assuming you've read widely enough from other sources.
For example, on the first test, most texts will tell you that the three basic
control structures for algorithms are sequence, iteration and choice. There
are two advantages to tying the question to a particular book: it establishes a
common vocabulary, and it cuts down on the other sources you have to deal with.
Finally, when I use questions that are specific to the text, they are often
stated in the negative, such as "Nyhoff writes X, but how can that be true
given Y?" I use these questions to not only to illustrate important points
(often made in class), but also to support critical thinking about the text
and its contents.
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