OT: Interesting AI example.
- Thread starter LionJim
- Start date
I was talking with one of my former colleagues and he told me that the homework that gets turned in he invariably grades 100% (because the students are using AI). And then on exams they can’t do the simplest problems.
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its worse in HS. Kids get passed without having basic knowledge of anything. We are basically getting rid of exams and making everything groupwork and we all know how the percentage breakdown goes for that; one kid does 90+% another kid does 10% and the rest do nothing.
Algebra example from last week: Exponential functions, item goes from 100 molecules to 90 to 81 to 72.9 etc.
A) is this growth or decay
B) What is the rate of growth/decay
Teacher made a paper where each kid answered 3 or 4 scenarios similar to the above then they get in groups, compare and turn in one paper for a group grade. 50% could not answer part A correctly, 75%+ could not do part B but the whole class got 100% for the assessment.
I got a 25% on my first exam at Maryland, grad school. Algebraic topology. I got my *** kicked every damn day for eleven years.
Last year at PSU, my daughter was one of four instructors for the Dynamics class, as her PI was out on pregnancy leave. Certainly, there were very bright kids, but the lower half were not so good. The PIs noted a big drop off in calculus skills after the run on Zoom classes with the pandemic.
Is that Emech 12? I had a really good middle eastern lady professor when I took that back in 96. Cant remember her name but taught well and was able to really communicate with everyone, not the typical prof for sure.
People are still blaming everything on Covid/online learning but its been 4 years, no reason for it to still be this bad unless school systems allowed their teachers to do nothing during that time (I have definitely seen that though)
My first exam at PSU was Calculus. I think it was Math 161? Got a 27. I studied a whole 2 hours the night before, which was more than I had ever studied for any test in High School. Rude awakening.
I’m a bio guy so I don’t know the number , but it’s a second year class you have to pass to advance to third yr. The consensus last year among the ME profs was many of these undergrads do not have the foundational skills to succeed in this major . I’ll see if I can find out the class .
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On the bright side, MATHS. 
is one of those subjects in school that people will never need to use.
is one of those subjects in school that people will never need to use.
Taught 212 and was a TA with an occasional lecture for 211 statics, strength of materials 213, and combined version 210.
Not sure I understand ... at which level is he teaching? Why's he grading homework a 100%? Why don't they get basic things correct on exams? Is the stuff they turn in for homework wrong and he's giving them a 100% any way? Or is the exam not indicative of what they're learning during the semester? Seems to be a teaching problem.
In today's WSJ, China's homemade AI wowing Silcon Valley. DeepSeek is getting great performance out of "inferior chips" and drastically less investment dollars.
They’re getting the homework answers through AI.
Same problem at any level, really. For kicks I’m working through the problem sets of a classic book on ring theory that are incredibly challenging. On a whim I googled and found three separate sites that provided the proofs to these problem sets. We are taught to do every problem in whatever book we’re working with. The temptation to look up your answers would be tremendous, I imagine. But doing this doesn’t help you pass your qualifying exams.
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had a class "Statistical methods of data Analysis " at CMU as under grad. Class got crushed on first exam, class average was 27. Teacher who was a famous statistician was flummoxed about it. Could not understand how we could do so badly. So he is like "we are going to work each problem on board". he would put up basic information and then be like "see this has to be the answer, its obvious, its so intuitive, can't you see it". Moaning through out room
Mine as well (Summer 81), but I think it was Math 110 or 120 or so. It was easier than my HS Calc class actually. I managed a B somehow when my HS teacher just showed mercy on me and shuffled me through.
Had a fishing guide once from Cent Mich and he was CMU this and CMU that the whole day.........
How's the learning environment there? Cooperative or competitive/cutthroat? Older son is a computer science guy, and his equally nerdy buddy has CMU at the top of his wish list, but they don't have a baseball team, so it's a maybe for us right now (that could change).
There seems to be a disconnect there. As someone who absolutely LOATHED homework (and voiced this displeasure by "taking a stand against the man" and often just taking a zero, or jotting down gibberish to show them that they aren't the boss of me), and thrived academically once it was no longer really a thing, I have my biases ... but it seems there's an issue there with students feeling the need just to complete homework for homework's sake (and the grade), rather than fostering homework as a learning tool. Haven't seen that with my boys yet - they're still plugging along with their homework and scoring accordingly on their exams, but I'll have to revisit that with them (at which point they'll just roll their eyes at me).
well I was undergrad in late 1970's and early 80's and PhD in later 1980's. It was very competitive then, very demanding, very rigorous. There was practical aspect and had these very big high credit lab classes that took up enormous time to be successful.
Yeah, I get your point.
My friend was talking about homework at basic skills level, like the problem I solved with AI, nothing near the level of sophistication your sons encounter. In computer science nowadays, AI is a big thing, how best to incorporate it is a big thing. I’ll try to find a recent New Yorker article on this.
Rigor isn't an issue - older son is very serious in his studies. He likes to be pushed ... takes all the hardest classes, tries to learn more than the class teaches him, etc.
But I'm talking more about an environment where folks are treated as bright enough and students and staff are secure enough with themselves, that they work together (maybe even between disciplines) in order to push forward projects and research, not where everyone is scrambling to prove that they got the A'iest A that ever did A, and that means they're better than you, and won't have to fall on their sword as a disgrace to their family.
There are top performing institutions where kids are stressed out and want to jump off a building half the time, and there are top performing institutions that are more laid back and cooperative.
And my son is, as of now, interested in studying AI ... he took a Stanford virtual course on it last summer and now he's hooked. But we'll see if he changes his mind now that Deep Seek is killing his investments.
China says while you were focused on TikTok, take a look at this.
Nvidia shares fall 12% as Chinese AI startup DeepSeek triggers panic
Nvidia shares fall 12% as Chinese AI startup DeepSeek triggers panic
Not really, the kid that knows what they’re doing just tells the other four that their answers are right because the other four generally don’t even care.
Back in the mid 90s I remember that you could take Emech 11 and Emech 13 or you could take the combined course which was Emech 210. i’m pretty sure I still have the strength of materials book at home on my parents farm because my dad used it for welding.
I originally signed up for the 210 class until a weekend when the professor called one of the girls asking a question stupid and an idiot. He was an absolute jerk so I asked my advisor if I could take the two separate classes instead.