Exam Advanced Quantum Mechanics
has been held on 19-01-2010. Today, 29-01-2010, I finished checking the results. What can I say?
This year I have had an attentive audience which has been motivating and provided strong feedback: we did have questions and discussions, I believe that we could do more together than in years past. I can see this in examination results that concern multiple choice questions and primarly check the material of the lectures. The average was significantly better than in years past. One score stopped short of absolute, there were no catastrophic scores with less then 50% points. This part of examination was awarding for me.
However, the first part, the "problem", appeared to be catastrophically difficult. I could not appreciate it in advance. I received very good reports from and about the problem-solving sessions. The problem was a modification of 2008 exam, and I dared to complicate it slightly in the end retaining first two points simple. Year 2008 was decisively not bright. Yet that time everybody could do the first two points. This year almost nobody could do them properly. Because of accumulation effect, it did not make much sense to go futher, although many did attempt. Obviously, my assertion of the effectiveness of problem-solving sessions and general readiness of students was faulty. I am frustrated. Since this is my fault, I did everything to minimize the negative impact of a way-too-difficult problem on actual marks.
However, the average result is slightly below than last year. Fortunately, as mentioned, we did not have "bad" cases of exceptionally low score.
