I propose a class for either late highschool or early college

[gremcint]

How to follow instructions.

It will be heavily based on completing certain activities in a certain order in a certain way. You're grades will be based on how accurately you complete the required tasks and how quickly.

The final exam will be a computer program that just walks you through telling you what to put where in the form. If you get less than 80% you have to do it again.

for example one question would be: press ok to continue.
another would be: put 5 in the third textbox.


I think a surprising number of people would fail this course.

[HYHYBT]

So long as it's not the kind that cheats by putting instructions near the end to ignore everything before them.

Or something like the "Idiot Test" game where the point is to trick you into hitting the wrong thing even though you know better.

[crashhelmet]

So long as it's not the kind that cheats by putting instructions near the end to ignore everything before them.

Or something like the "Idiot Test" game where the point is to trick you into hitting the wrong thing even though you know better.

I had a math teacher give a test like that at the very beginning of the year once. The directions at the top of the test said to look over every question before beginning to answer them. The very last question looked like a word problem and said to answer each problem with the number 12, if memory serves me right.

She wanted to weed out those who follow directions and those who don't.

[Nyoibo]

So long as it's not the kind that cheats by putting instructions near the end to ignore everything before them.

That's not cheating, that's reading comprehension, those tests are usually started with "read the entire test before you start"

[HYHYBT]

It's cheating if it is impossible to follow all the instructions given. And it is if the last one tells you to ignore the ones before it.

[Andara Bledin]

It's cheating if it is impossible to follow all the instructions given. And it is if the last one tells you to ignore the ones before it.

It's not impossible if the instruction at the top says to read the entire page first and the instruction at the bottom says to do something else specific such as not answering any of the questions.

It's a lesson to impatient people that they shouldn't jump ahead without understanding what the task actually is.

[HYHYBT]

Of course it's impossible.

Directions: blah blah blah and read the whole page before beginning.

1. Do this.

2. Do that.

3. Do not do steps 1 and 2.

How, in that simplified but not at all unrepresentative otherwise example is it possible to follow *all* of the instructions?

[Andara Bledin]

I've never seen one of those that had an instruction at the bottom to not do the first instruction.

They may be out there, but every one I've seen has been quite specifically about following the first instruction (Read through everything first) and then following the last instruction (don't answer any problems, only answer certain problems, only put a certain answer, etc).

It's worth noting that problems aren't instructions.

[siead_lietrathua]

Of course it's impossible.

Directions: blah blah blah and read the whole page before beginning.

1. Do this.

2. Do that.

3. Do not do steps 1 and 2.

How, in that simplified but not at all unrepresentative otherwise example is it possible to follow *all* of the instructions?

it's not impossible, and you put why in your own post. if you read the whole page before starting, then you know that you only follow step three. wheras if you just start at task #1 without reading the whole page, you're gonna fail. it's an easy, and simple, test. after all, not all tests are about following ALL directions. they are about following the RIGHT directions.

i had a quiz like this in highschool. first instruction was to get a red pen. last instruction was to answer all the questions in blue pen.

[Rageaholic]

So long as it's not the kind that cheats by putting instructions near the end to ignore everything before them.

Or something like the "Idiot Test" game where the point is to trick you into hitting the wrong thing even though you know better.

In elementary school, I had a substitute teacher do that. Read everything first then only do the first two things on the list. I thought it was funny and clever, but then again, we weren't graded or punished based on the results.

[HYHYBT]

In elementary school, I had a substitute teacher do that. Read everything first then only do the first two things on the list. I thought it was funny and clever, but then again, we weren't graded or punished based on the results.

Which was the only reason I mentioned it in the first place. As a way to make a point, it's fine. It's just that it doesn't belong on a real test.

(And perhaps the reason I'm touchy about it is that, the only time I was given such a test, while it did include "read everything before you begin" somewhere in the paragraph of printed instructions, the exercise was deliberately presented to us, not as the exercise in nitpicking the directions it really was, but as a graded test of getting through as many pretty complicated questions as possible in the few minutes we were allowed. That's cheating in essence, no matter how much you want to say it isn't in the technical sense.)

[Rageaholic]

Which was the only reason I mentioned it in the first place. As a way to make a point, it's fine. It's just that it doesn't belong on a real test.

(And perhaps the reason I'm touchy about it is that, the only time I was given such a test, while it did include "read everything before you begin" somewhere in the paragraph of printed instructions, the exercise was deliberately presented to us, not as the exercise in nitpicking the directions it really was, but as a graded test of getting through as many pretty complicated questions as possible in the few minutes we were allowed. That's cheating in essence, no matter how much you want to say it isn't in the technical sense.)

Yeah, if you were graded on it, that's a pretty dick move by the teachers.

[Andara Bledin]

If it was graded, maybe. It depends on the weight.

If it was just presented as being graded but not actually a part of the grade, then I don't see the problem. It's a valuable lesson that everyone who fails it (which includes me the first time I encountered it) needs to learn.

[Mytical]

I was the only person in my class to pass that test. The last instruction was "Ignore all other instructions, sign your name on the top and sit quietly" So I signed my name and sat quietly. While everybody else was moving pencils from one side to another, stood up, held their hand up, etc.

[HYHYBT]

If it was graded, maybe. It depends on the weight.

If it was just presented as being graded but not actually a part of the grade, then I don't see the problem. It's a valuable lesson that everyone who fails it (which includes me the first time I encountered it) needs to learn.

The LYING ABOUT WHAT WAS BEING TESTED is fine on what planet?