Sean Kelly: > and the grades derived from a combination of homework and actual > problem-solving quizzes and exams.<
In my university (biology, computer science) most grades come from: - How well you do practical tests and exercises done in laboratory (usually programming exercises in computer science, and written documents in biology labs), even in math classes. - One, two or even three written tests along the way along each of the 1 semester courses, where you have to explain and write down things, write code on paper, etc. (surely not multi-choice quizzes). - And finally nearly all courses have one final oral examination (sometimes even two, because the lab assistant may ask some questions too), that is usually the harder thing, each student has to discuss with one or two teachers for 20-40 minutes (once I have seen a 70 minutes long oral examination for a botany-related course). Usually oral examination is the things that has more effect on the final result of the exam. So cheating isn't much useful, you just make the teacher trust you even less. And teachers tell to each other what students are more likely to try to cheat. Only 5-7 of the first classes are filled with 50-200 students, all the following courses are filled with 10-40 students. Bye, bearophile
