Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those involved in the field of teaching mathematics. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Sometimes, when preparing some calculus exams I try to have a "funny question" such as:
So my questions are:
I think there's room for differences of opinion on this, and the answer might depend on the ages of the students or who the specific students are. When I was a student I enjoyed questions like this, but I'll explain why I don't include "funny" questions now that I'm the one making exams.
It comes down to cost and benefit. I think the actual benefits are between small and non-existent. I could imagine some theoretical benefits---maybe lighthearted questions help stressed students relax and do better on the exam; maybe they make the course more fun for some students, which might motivate them to work more or to continue to take math courses. But I don't think either of these things really happen in practice.
On the other hand, I think there are real costs. Whenever I think about doing something funny on the exam, I start to worry about students who are really confused, or taking the exam in a second language, who might have trouble realizing that the question isn't intended seriously, and lose time trying to figure out what they're supposed to do with it.
No, I think this is a really silly idea. Let's assume that students are trying to get a 100% score. What is the correct answer to "I love mathematics - true/false"?
Is the "I" there the teacher? The student? If it is the student what is demonstrably the correct answer? How can the teacher marking the exam possibly know if the student loves mathematics or not? (The student might hate it, but be doing it because it is a course prerequisite).
Since there is no answer that can be shown to be correct, then the student has to guess "what am I supposed to say here?". Whatever answer they guess, if they are wrong, they won't get a top mark for the paper.
Now you might say "I'll accept any answer and mark it correct". But the student will have wasted time on the question, trying to work out what it means, and therefore having less time to spend on genuine questions.
Some students might try to read the question as a riddle or puzzle. For example, "I" = 9, "L" = 12, "O" = 15 and so on, and then try to work out what that means mathematically.
As an example of why this can fail, see this article about a VCE (year 12) exam held in Australia in 2012. A history exam paper inadvertently had a giant robot on the artwork Storming the Winter Palace by Nikolai Kochergin.
Students complained that they wasted time trying to work out the significance of the robot, for example:
I went through a thought process something like this, 'What's that thing? It's definitely a robot. But it's on my history exam, so it's not a robot. But it can't be anything else. LOOK AT THOSE GUNS!' I stared at the image long and hard. It was extremely off-putting because you just don't expect there to be a mistake on your exam, especially one like that.'
Don't do it. It might be a fun game to you, but for the students this is an off-putting, time-wasting exercise that could well cause them to do more badly on the exam than they might otherwise have, and then subsequently complain.
In the case of the Australian exam the assessment authority had to apologise afterwards for any impact that the image might have had on students completing the exam. And in their case it wasn't even intentional!
Indeed, the authority had to adjust the scores for 130 students over the confusion about the robot.
Dave L Renfro said:
I sometimes had students answer my 1+1=−−− question (see my answer) with things like 10(in base 2),
Yes, I didn't want to bring that up, but see Quotations by Bertrand Russell:
"But," you might say, "none of this shakes my belief that 2 and 2 are 4." You are quite right, except in marginal cases -- and it is only in marginal cases that you are doubtful whether a certain animal is a dog or a certain length is less than a meter. Two must be two of something, and the proposition "2 and 2 are 4" is useless unless it can be applied. Two dogs and two dogs are certainly four dogs, but cases arise in which you are doubtful whether two of them are dogs. "Well, at any rate there are four animals," you may say. But there are microorganisms concerning which it is doubtful whether they are animals or plants. "Well, then living organisms," you say. But there are things of which it is doubtful whether they are living organisms or not. You will be driven into saying: "Two entities and two entities are four entities." When you have told me what you mean by "entity," we will resume the argument.
Thus, even a "simple" question about what is "1+1" could have arguably difficult answers.
Another issue is, by making joke questions you are treating the exam as a joke. That is, it is trivializing the experience. Some students may have studied long and hard, and have expectations from their parents that they do well. To have jokes introduced into the exam appears to say that the examination is being trivialized.
This question is out of the domain of the subject. Asking a question about a state of mind ("do you like something?") is more appropriate in, say, psychology. It isn't a calculus question and is therefore inappropriate. For example, if you asked "How do you boil a hard-boiled egg?" people may well object that this is not a relevant question in a calculus exam, even if they knew how to boil eggs.
Adding in questions that (assuming the reader can tell are a joke) alters the effective score in the exam. Let's say your joke questions are worth 5%. That means that:
Having joke questions, which are intended for everyone to get right unconditionally, could penalize a student who, because of time constraints, does not reach that question. They may say afterwards "if only I had known there was a 'free' 5% from answering questions 19 and 20 I would have answered them first".
You might respond "but I'll give everyone full marks for my joke questions even if they don't answer them" now makes the questions seem even sillier. An exam question that is always marked correct? Even if you don't answer it? What is the point of having it?
Not a good idea in my opinion.
I am on the Autism spectrum and as such I am a very very literal person and I am often derailed by trying to understand a poorly-defined question. Neurotypical people can look at a poorly defined question and naturally understand that some of the interpretations are absurd and most will naturally understand the meaning. I have to analyse each interpretation in turn before I can discount some.
Let's look at your two questions:
T/F I love mathematics
I don't know who 'I' refers to in this context. Does it mean me or does it mean the question setter? Trying to work this out could cause me some stress and effect the rest of the paper. I think that this refers to me, the question answerer but because I cannot be sure I will keep coming back to this question just to be sure. Most people will automatically understand to whom 'I' refers.
T/F Calculus 2 is easier than Calculus 1, ...
This is highly subjective, the definition of easy is unclear and even to me the term 'easy' is not clear. easy lectures, easy tutorials, simulation work easy. How to I aggregate the different parts and scale the different levels of 'easy into a single result. If I found lectures in one easier to follow and the tutorial work in the other easier I could be stuck trying to decide which was easier overall.
While it may be fun to put in jokes please be aware that it can cause a lot of stress and worry to some, often the quiet people who would not indicate that they are having problems.
I think it's fine in moderation, but keep in mind that what you think is funny might not be funny to one or two of your students, so you'll want to tread very carefully when doing this.
Occasionally I've written tests in which, after several attempts at making reasonable point-value assignments to the problems, I couldn't quite get the total to be $100$ points --- I'd get it to add to something like $98$ or $99$ points, but not $100.$ For example, there might be one $25$ point problem and three $15$ point problems and two $10$ point problems and three $3$ point problems, and I didn't want to increase any of these by $1$ point.
The way I handled this was to include an extra problem at the end, something like $1+1= {}_{---}$ that was worth $1$ or $2$ points to get the total to be $100.$ Yes, I know I could just compute a percent by calculating their point total divided by $98$ (or by $99),$ but when you have $50$ or more tests, it's well worth a little extra up-front time getting the total to be $100$ so that you don't have to grab your calculator and write something like $72/98 = 73$ (circling the $73)$ for each of the $50$ or more tests. Of course, whenever I did this, I told them as I was handing out the tests to not overlook the last problem if they're short on time at the end, and the instructions for the last problem would say something like "Freebie problem to get points to add to $100$".
I strongly recommend you never use these kinds of questions, for the same reasons others have brought up. I once asked "what was your favorite topic from this class?" on a final exam, and gave full points for any reasonable answer. Unfortunately many students gave non-answers like "thanks this class was fun" and "have a good summer", and other students used significant exam time writing thoughtful answers. This was a bad question, and the ones you suggest strike me as more confusing and less useful.
If you're looking to add more cheer to an exam, here are some ideas.
For all of these, be aware of how your individual students may respond to them in a high-stress situation. I would not recommend these ideas for every group of students. Err on the side of caution, and avoid potential distractions.
This is a really interesting question, and I've been on both sides of this. Here's where I'm at with it now.
On Funny Questions
I think they're lighthearted great ways to relieve stress. I also find it fun to add an interesting (bonus) question at the end. For example, there was an exam on March 15, so a question on the Ides of March was asked.
The Other Point
However, I would strive to make sure that the bonus / funny questions have NO IMPACT on performance. The test / the problems should be weighted that the grade comes from the math, not the extraneous. It should not be possible to go from an A to B or vice versa from these types of questions.
Sure, a 94 to a 95 is fine, but you should not go from a 69 to a 70 or whatever the cut off is.
The Bottom Line
They're great and fun, imho, so long as they don't severely impact the grade.
No. Let them concentrate on the exam. Humor should be relegated to the victory party afterwards. Or the consoling sorrows party. Funny questions is too cute and distracting while in exam. It's not even that it will disturb their exam. But that the humor will fall dead.
I've read the answers and realize it is inappropriate to put a question such as this on an exam, because some students may not "get it" and may stress about it instead of focusing on the exam.
However, as an elementary school teacher, I sometimes made individualized makeup tests or additional work as needed. Since these were individualized and I knew my students well, I think there were times when it might have been appropriate.
Bottom line - this idea is not for a group, but if you make something up for an individual student who will appreciate it, definitely put it in. If in doubt though leave it out!
If you do put in a question like this, I suggest that you put above it:
you can skip this question without penalty since it is just for fun
You can also put the above on a general test if you explain this direction the day before and remind the students of it during the test. That way kids who are disinterested and/or confused by it will skip it.
Some examples of cute questions:
Personally, I don't think that funny questions are such a good idea for the reasons already mentioned (such as: confusing students, skewing marks, etc.). Now, if your goal is to simply integrate some elements of humor into your math exam, one possibility could be to put funny pictures/"memes" at the end of the paper for students to enjoy once they have finished. One of my chemistry teachers always used to put picture jokes at the end of the exam relating to chemistry (obviously not the content), and there were never any problems. Another one of my teachers liked to put quotes at the end of the exam instead.
Both were examples which didn't adversely affect the student's performance by giving them another question to think about, but instead provided something that might serve to "lighten up" the student's mood.
Of course, so to eliminate any confusion, they would always put these things after an "end of exam" text line.
I'm coming at this question from a slightly different angle. It's possible you've specified "exam" but have meant something more akin to an in class "quiz" or "pop quiz" in common vernacular.
The word exam has the formal connotation in that the result has real bearing on a grade or GPA. If this is not the case, and the situation is less formal such as an in class quiz, then using humour in a quiz would be more forgivable, perhaps even bolstering your reputation as a teacher and educator with regards to your relationship with your students. I've been a student of a teacher with this mindset and it did allow the students to feel closer to the teacher, considering him as the "cool teacher" if you will.
As others have stated, if this is a formal exam or has any bearing on grade, humourous questions should be avoided.
First, I see that you wrote "funny question" like that, in quotes. You really mean a question that's unrelated to the exam problems. (If only for the fact that the questions were not humorous.)
I've seen teachers use this to help relate to their students, to know them better. Sometimes on a personal level e.g. "What are your plans for weekend / what do you do in your spare time? or as it relates to the class, e.g. "What part of this past chapter did you struggle with or find confusing?"
If the question, answered truthfully, will help you teach the class or help build your relationship, you'll find value in doing so. Make it the last question, and clear that if left blank, no points lost. You don't want such a question to add any anxiety to the testing process.
